Data entry forms

[Thomasso]

Hello everybody,



I am creating a company database and I am in the phase of creating forms. What I want is to have read only forms for orders, customers, etc. I already have those.

Here are some examples:







This is the orders overview form. Each order has a button to display a corresponding Order details form. The second button in the header says "Create a new order" in English.















This is the order details form with a subform of individual units. Read only as well, the button at top says "Edit order"


The thing is that I don't want to allow users to accidentaly modify data. If they want to modify them, they need to press a respective button. A form would open in a dialog mode with options "Cancel" and "Save and close".

Add a new order button will open a form in add mode, all fields blank, edit order will display the same form but with the record opened and allowed for editing.

What is the best way to approach this? Use VBA or macros? It is my first database so I haven't created data entry forms before.

Specific questions I have:

1. How do I create a form in add new record mode?
2. How do I force that same form to open at a specified record? (When "edit order" button is pressed)
3. How do you recommend to approach editing individual units? Is it possible to have a subform in the data entry form where I can add/modify units?
4. If it is a data entry form, it should be connected to a table, not a query, correct?
5. I tried to play with the options a bit. I tried to take a form and change DATA ENTRY in the property sheet to YES. I still cannot edit the data. Why is that?

Thank you very much,
Tomas

[ranman256]

1. docmd.OpenForm "myForm",,,,acFormAdd

2. docmd.OpenForm "myForm", ,,"[id]=" & me.ID,acFormEdit

3. yes, subform can edit records to. me.subform.form.allowedits = true

4. query or table. I like query better. I can control more things.

5. the form may be set to locked = true
the query behind it may not allow it,

[Thomasso]

Thank you but this unfortunately doesn't work for me.

I created this data entry form:



And attached this code to a button:



However, the form opens filled with a first order record and can't be edited. Data entry is set to yes. What am I doing wrong?

Thank you,
Tomas

[Thomasso]

I just read somewhere that some queries won't allow for data to be modified. How can I identify such a query and how to fix it?

Thank you,
Tomas

[NTC]

A non-updateable query is a standard situation when there is not a clear & certain join between table records. For instance if one table is an aggregate query, or if the join is not on key fields and returns multiple records on both sides of the join. Often designers run into this when the query is joining multiple tables and can be difficult to anticipate. To experiment - eliminate tables 1-by-1 from your query until it becomes update-able.

But the way around this is instead to rely on main form / sub form designs - and not attempt to bring together all the information into a query and 1 form alone.

[aytee111]

Yes, that's right. When a query has outer joins or too many tables or other not straightforward expressions then it can't be updated. Test it by running the query and trying to change something or add a new record. Having a table as a record source on a form it the best and surest method, you can use a subform to show the data you want to be updated.

[Thomasso]

Got it, thank you guys :-)