Informed Delete consent

[Tony Toews [MVP]]

and have queries
with a "tbl" prefix (because, despite the documentation, someone else
maintaining this app in the future is bound to screw up).

With all due respect I completely disagree with giving object names
prefixes such as tbl, qry, frm, rpt, etc.

Tony's Object Naming Conventions
http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/tonysobjectnamingconventions.htm

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
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Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/

 

[Tony Toews [MVP]]

That's good, because this approach has another downside that I didn't
see mentioned. Any comboboxes that are based on a surrogate key
recordset where deactivated records have been omitted will simply
appear as blank, even though have are loaded with a key underneath.
This will be very disconcerting to the user.

Comboboxes need to be able to show inactive records. A classic case
is the Salesperson for an Order. "Biff" doesn't work here anymore,
but he was the Salesperson for some historical Orders. In our shop,
we use this technique:

For comboboxes that could include inactive records, we use a recordset
to sort the inactive ones to the bottom, and concatenate an asterisk
before them. So the combobox test shows:

*Biff

And the dropdown list shows:

Armen
Betty
Charlie
*Aaron
*Biff
*Cathy

Now that's an interesting idea.

I too put the inactive records at the bottom of the combo box. I
added another column which is either empty or "Inactive". I've also
been known to put in some code in the BeforeUpdate event warning the
user that the value they've chosen is inactive.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/

 

[Armen Stein]

I too put the inactive records at the bottom of the combo box. I
added another column which is either empty or "Inactive". I've also
been known to put in some code in the BeforeUpdate event warning the
user that the value they've chosen is inactive.

But if you use the * prefix, then the user won't accidently choose
them by typing. In your scenario, an inactive record could be chosen
by typing even if it's at the bottom of the list.

C'mon Tony, you know you want to switch to our way. <s>

Armen Stein
Microsoft Access MVP
www.JStreetTech.com

 

[Tony Toews [MVP]]

But if you use the * prefix, then the user won't accidently choose
them by typing. In your scenario, an inactive record could be chosen
by typing even if it's at the bottom of the list.

Correct. Which is why I warn them that the entry is inactive.

C'mon Tony, you know you want to switch to our way. <s>

Gotta think about that one a bit and consult a few people whose
opinion I value. <smile> My concern is that I occasionally have
users using my system who have only recently seen a computer. Indeed
it's possible, hard to believe but possible, that the computer running
my app may be the first PC they've ever used.

Putting the * in front of the combo box data value is not intuitive.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/