use form from one mdb in another mdb

  • Thread starter Thread starter mary r
  • Start date Start date
M

mary r

I'm working in Access 2003, supporting a legacy system (don't ask how old)
while developing a unified SQL-based replacement. That means any
functionality added to the legacy system will be short-lived, only existing
to help production till the replacement is done, 12-18mos. The users and
owners do want some enhanced functionality in the short term anyway.

I have a form, call it form1, in mdb1 (developed by me) for users to add
specific items to a table in mdb2 (developed by someone who's gone). The
add/edit form in mdb2, call it form2, is very familiar to the users and has
been in production for a while, so I'd prefer to use it rather than try to
replicate what it does.

As far as I can see, there are 3 possibilities: 1. use shell command to open
mdb2 and open form2 when user clicks the command button on form1, though that
leaves open questions about closing form2 and/or returning focus to form1
after saving the new record in form2; 2. embed form2 as OLE object in form1,
which I think would give me more control over events after the record is
saved; or 3. copy form2 and all its dependent objects into mdb1.

Can anyone shed some light on this? I have no experience working w/OLE
objects and very little experience w/shell commands. It might be simplest to
do #3, especially since this is not a long-term solution and the whole shmear
will be redesigned from the bottom up. Is that a reasonable approach? If
not, why not?

Thanks in advance for any insight!

-mary
 
<SNIP>
have a form, call it form1, in mdb1 (developed by me) for users to add
specific items to a table in mdb2 (developed by someone who's gone).
The
add/edit form in mdb2, call it form2, is very familiar to the users
and has
been in production for a while, so I'd prefer to use it rather than
try to
replicate what it does.
</SNIP>

Why not just link to the second MDB, and import form2? Then you could
set form2's recordsource to the linked table. No magic required.
 
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