Using VBA, can I format data so a web server will regard the data as a struct?

S

Sisyphus

I've been an Access developer for five years now, but I am woefully
ignorant when it comes to processes and technologies outside of
Access/VBA. If what follows is clumsily worded, and if I misuse
terminology, please be patient...

We have an access database that tracks client information and we want
the database to open a session on a website, transfer data to that
website, and receive in return a url that will allow us to open a web
page as far along into the session as the provided data will carry us.

The programmers behind this website have set up five methods that I
need to trigger. The first method returns a website sessionID. I wrote
the following code to return that sessionID.

Set DOMDocument = Client.Execute(server path here, web page here,
"getsessionID" method here).

This worked. I return the sessionID. The next line of code fails. That
code:

Set DOMDocument = Client.Execute(server path here, web page here,
"passHouseholdInfo" method here, sessionID value here, household
data here).

The household data is supposed to be a "struct" data type. Online
I've found the term "struct" used in a generic sense - as a
variable made up of other data types - and in a language specific
sense - as a specific data type in other programming languages.

My problem: I can't find a way in VBA to format our household data so
that the method on the server regards it as a struct. I tried packaging
the data as a string that matched exactly the formatting of a struct
(using a sample struct that the web programmers sent me). That didn't
work. It didn't work when I packaged the data in an array, nor when I
packaged it inside of a user defined type. In each instance I received
this error:

Exception: (13, 'data must be type struct')

I asked the web programmer if he could code something on his end that
would receive the data in one of the above formats and translate it
into a struct before feeding it into his method, and he said that that
would be very difficult to do. So, the ball is back in my court.

My questions:
1. Using VBA, is there any way I can package my household data so that
the server regards it as a struct?
2. If not, is there an easier way, or perhaps a more common way, that
VBA programmers pass data to websites and receive information in
return?

Thanks in advance,

Tom
 
B

Brendan Reynolds

If you're at liberty to do so, can you post the example of the struct that
the developer of the component provided? I can't promise that this will
enable me to help you, but it might - or perhaps seeing the example might
enable someone else to help you.
 
B

Brendan Reynolds

BTW: Also any explanation or description that the component developer
provided?
 
S

Sisyphus

Hi Brandan. Thanks for responding.

I think we've figured a way around this. The web developer set up the
methods on his end to anticipate an array of values rather than a
'struct' of values, and this seems to be working: I've loaded the data
into an array and passed it into the method, and the method now
recognizes the values and responds appropriately. So, problem solved, I
hope.

Thanks again Brandan for taking a look at my post...

Tom
 

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