Hi,

I have a field to store the path and name of a file, and I want to design a form (access 2000) to browse for the file, How can I do this? Maybe I should use an Activex component, but I do not know which, how to configure and use it? Do you have form examples?

Thanks,
Salvador Hernandez

Hello Salvador,

No ActiveX controls necessary. You can just use the Windows Open File dialog with an API call. The following will load the full path and file name of a file into a textbox for you.

Just place a textbox and command button on your form and place the following in the command buttons OnClick event:

**Code********

Private Sub cmdFindFile_Click()
    On Error GoTo Errorhandler
    Me.txtFile = OpenFile(Me.txtFile)
    Exit Sub
Errorhandler:
    MsgBox "Error: " & Err.Description & " (" & Err.Number & ")"

End Sub

**End Code********

Then place the API call in a standard module, along with a little utility function to handle null characters...

**Code********

Option Compare Database
Option Explicit

Type FileSelInfo
    hwndOwner As Long
    strApp As String * 255
    strTitle As String * 255
    strButton As String * 255
    strFile As String * 4096
    strDir As String * 255
    strFilter As String * 255
    lngIndex As Long
    lngView As Long
    lngFlags As Long
End Type

Declare Function GetFileInfo Lib "msaccess.exe" Alias "#56" (FSI As FileSelInfo, ByVal fOpen As Integer) As Long

Function OpenFile(Optional strFile As Variant = Null, Optional strFilter As String = "All Files (*.*)", Optional strDir As String = "", Optional strTitle As String = "", Optional strButton As String = "")
'Use to choose a file to open
Dim FSI As FileSelInfo

    On Error GoTo Errorhandler
    With FSI
        .lngFlags = 0
        .strFilter = RTrim(strFilter) & vbNullChar
        .lngIndex = CInt("0")
        If Not IsNull(strFile) Then
            .strFile = RTrim(strFile) & vbNullChar
        End If
        .strTitle = RTrim(strTitle) & vbNullChar
        .strButton = RTrim(strButton) & vbNullChar
        .strDir = RTrim(strDir) & vbNullChar
    End With

    If GetFileInfo(FSI, True) = 0 Then OpenFile = TrimNull(FSI.strFile)
    GoTo Done

Errorhandler:
    MsgBox "Error: " & Err.Description & " (" & Err.Number & ")"
Done:
End Function

Private Function TrimNull(str As String) As String
Dim i As Integer
    TrimNull = str
    i = InStr(str, vbNullChar)
    If i > 0 Then TrimNull = Left(str, i - 1)
    TrimNull = (RTrim(TrimNull))
End Function

**Code********

HTH,

Bob

Found this code very useful to open existing files. Could someone please post the corresponding save file code.

Thanks,

Rihallix

Hi Rihallix,

What version of Access are you using? If its 2K2 or 2K3, you can simplify all this by using the FileDialog property of the Application object:

From the Help file:

' Display the Save As dialog box.

Dim dlgSaveAs As FileDialog

Set dlgSaveAs = Application.FileDialog( _
    FileDialogType:=msoFileDialogSaveAs)

dlgSaveAs.Show

' Display the Open dialog box and allow a user to select multiple files to open.

Dim dlgOpen As FileDialog

Set dlgOpen = Application.FileDialog( _
    FileDialogType:=msoFileDialogOpen)

With dlgOpen
    .AllowMultiSelect = True
    .Show
End With

If you need the API call let me know.

HTH,

Bob

Check out the following sample db assembled by Candace Trip for API calls to invoke three of the Windows Common Dialogs: color, open file, and save. The sample is at the bottom of the "Access 2000/2002" section of the page and is called "Windows Common Dialogs."

http://www.candace-tripp.com/_pages/..._downloads.asp

Or if you have a copy of the Access 2x Developer's Handbook, Ken Getz has but together a cool Common Dialog class module that encapsulates API calls for invoking the file open/save, color and font dialogs.

HTH,

Bob