Controlling Subform from Main Form

[SteveF]

OK, normally I'm the one answering questions here. This time, however, I've got a question.

I'm working on a project to create a history of events for one of our clients. It's a many-to-many situation; each event has many people associated with it, and each person might be associated with more than one event. The project has been set up so that as events are added to the project, it checks to see if there are repeat people. If so, then the person and that event are only added to the cross-reference table; that person is not added to the Person table a second time.

Since there's always room for variation in people's names (and how the data files that contain those names are structured), I have a manual-review form and subform built to check the new names against the existing data. This works, but could be improved. It's slow and mouse-intensive to select a specific existing record as a match for the new data.

I'm thinking that things would run more smoothly if the mouse could be taken out of the processing loop, and only the keyboard used. Not a problem with only one form, but more complex with a form/subform.

So, is there an easy way to control record navigation on a subform from the main form? Can I code a button on the main form to move to the next record on the subform? How about reading a unique value from the current record on the subform so that the match between the new person and the history data can be handled?

TIA,
Steve

[June7]

Don't know if you want to call it easy, but yes, can control navigation of subform from main form. I use event of a combobox where users select a unique ID (a lab sample number) and VBA code finds the corresponding record in the subform.

Private Sub tbxLabNum_BeforeUpdate(Cancel As Integer)
Dim rs As DAO.Recordset
Me.Requery
Set rs = Me.ctrSampleList.Form.RecordsetClone
rs.FindFirst "LabNum='" & Me.tbxLABNUM & "'"
If rs.NoMatch = True Then
    MsgBox "Invalid Lab Number", , "EntryError"
    Cancel = True
    Me.tbxLABNUM.SelStart = 6
Else
    Me.ctrSampleList.Form.Bookmark = rs.Bookmark
End If
rs.Close
End Sub

I have coded custom Previous and Next buttons but not referencing subform. Is the subform in Datasheet view? Use Continuous or Single view and these buttons could be in header of the subform. Grabbing a value from current record of subform is simple: Me.subformcontainername!fieldname.

[SteveF]

OK, this does help. What I'm really after is to have some navigation buttons on the main form (First, Last, Next, Previous) that act on the subform. The subform is in Continuous Forms view; there's too much data being presented to the user for it all to fit on one line and I don't care for Datasheet View anyway.

Navigation buttons that work on their own form (i.e. main form buttons that navigate main form records) are a piece of cake, obviously -- there are even Wizards that will build them:

DoCmd.GoToRecord , , acNext

I want to change that so the action takes place on the subform.

Steve

[June7]

It expect it can be done (never have) but why not use the Form Header section of the subform to hold the buttons that control that form's navigation?

[boblarson]

Steve:

To do navigation on the subform you can use:

Me.SubformControlNameHere.Form.Recordset.MoveNext

[SteveF]

Thanks, Bob -- that will do it.