What is a Framework and Why Would Access Developers Use One? With John Colby

Please join us for our Monthly Chapter Presentation July 4, 2024, at 6:30PM Pacific (UTC -8)

Check out WorldTimebuddy to determine start time for your location.

This is the long-anticipated re-schedule of John’s presentation.

This presentation takes our discussion of classes and subclasses to the next level: a Framework or Library. Join John and bring your questions and ideas.

Classes store all of the code and data about an object in one place. We usually store classes in the Front End accdb we develop it in.

But what happens when we need to re-use a class in several project FEs? We can do that with a library. However, normally classes cannot be seen outside the container in which they reside without specifically and intentionally exposing them.

In this presentation, John will discuss how to do exactly that

Exporting a class
Setting two properties in that class
Re-importing the modified class into a library container.

John will demonstrate building a couple of classes in a FE and using them in that accdb. Having done that he will insert the class into the library without going through these exposure steps and demonstrate what happens. Finally, he will then expose the classes and demonstrate using them from another container (an FE).

The three example classes in the demonstration are:

clsTimer
clsSysVars (plural, John’s syntax for a supervisor class) and
clsSysVar (singular).

The demonstration will use the timer class to create multiple instances of a class, which John will use to time an inner and outer loop.

Next, John will demonstrate loading a table of records into clsSysVar instances, one for each record, storing them in a collection in clsSysVars (supervisor). This basically ‘caches’ the table into memory to speed up getting at them over a network.

Finally, he will demonstrate reading the SysVars by name through clsSysVars.

In his work, John has used SysVars for three main purposes, though you will find more as you become more familiar with them.

SysVars come from three tables.

One sets up the framework.
Another contains typical information about the FE, from version number to company address, phone number etc.
Finally the third stores info about the specific FE which can guide the FE code as forms load etc.

The demonstration will include loading a table of default SysVars values out of the library for setting up a framework. Next, John will demonstrate loading the same table from the FE such that any records changed in the front end will override those records read from the library. In other words, this procedure starts with a ‘default’ setup for the framework, which can then be overridden some (or all) of the records in the FE to tailor the framework for a specific application.

Access Pacific holds FREE Q&A webinars the First Thursday of every month, from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm Pacific.

AUG Access Pacific Calendar .ics file

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