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I have a form with a few buttons. I want create a button which will execute all the buttons one after the other, after each function of the buttons has completed. Also, I would like to change the colour of the buttons to show which button is being executed. How do I do this?

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  • @tksy Please use the tag ms-access, not access. Thank you. Commented Nov 10, 2009 at 11:38

4 Answers 4

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It's good programming practice to not put code inside the event of an object - such as the click event. Instead the code should be put into their own methods which are called by the click event. Then when you need to run a whole bunch of them, you don't need to call the click event of each button, but instead run each of the methods that the click events call directly. 

Private Sub DoSomething()

  'Code to do something

End Sub

Private Sub DoSomethingElse()

  'Code to do something else

End Sub

Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs)

  DoSomething

End Sub

Private Sub Button2_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs)

  DoSomethingElse

End Sub

Private Sub Button3_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs)

  DoSomething
  DoSomethingElse

End Sub

This also makes for much more testable code... not that code is particularly testable inside of a Microsoft Office application. But that's a commonly used industry best practice.

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+1 for separating the code out. This is a much better approach.
I would not make it a categorical, though -- don't take the code out of the event until the point at which you need to call it from two places, as in your case.
@David: I'd argue against that - it is my opinion that logic shouldn't be handled inside event handlers, that's just a path I don't go down any more. It causes more problems than it solves - unit testing (which may not be relevant in this particular example) rapidly becomes a PITA. Chaining of events is misleading because unless you really mean that the Button1.Click event causes Button2 to be clicked, then you shouldn't be calling the Button2.Click event - it's misleading and semantically incorrect. What you mean is that the Button3.Click event calls the same logic as Button2.Click.
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All you have to do is call the Click event of the buttons inside the Click event of the one single button.

Also command buttons in Access don't have a BackColor property, the work around would be to use third party tools or You can use a picture and use that as the command button's 'picture' property.

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6 Comments

but will it execute after each function gets over in order
Yes, it will execute in order. For example if you called Command2_Click followed by Command3_Click , the code in Command2_Click will get executed first and when the control returns back to the calling function it will then call Command3_Click
This is a common bad practice. Best practices for a number of reasons are to split the code out from the events themselves so they can be called from other areas of the code. An event on one object shouldn't raise an event on another object.
You shouldn't call events from other events, this is a bad practice and shouldn't be promoted.
@David: I don't think it's gibberish at all. Calling an event from another event is (in most cases) semantically incorrect. Button1.Click wouldn't (usually) cause Button2 to be clicked, rather it would cause the same logic to be processed had the Button2.Click event occurred. Your code should be structured as you really mean it to be structured. If clicking Button1 really causes Button2 to be clicked, then okay, chaining the events is okay, but unless you really mean that, don't do it. It is important that code is semantically correct for readability and future maintainability.
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Private Sub myUltraGroupingButton_Click()
    Call cmdButton1_Click()
    Call cmdButton2_Click()
    Call cmdButton3_Click()
    Call cmdButton4_Click()
End Sub

If you want to automate this and if it's a Form, you would need to iterate over Form.Controls. If it's a worksheet, I think you would need to use Worksheet1.ListObjects

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i should iterate it in order for the command to excecute after each one has finished or?
@Atomcreations, please either say what version of Access allows you to change the back colour for command buttons, or change your code to show forecolor :)
This is a common bad practice. Best practices for a number of reasons are to split the code out from the events themselves so they can be called from other areas of the code. An event on one object shouldn't raise an event on another object.
Calling events from other events is a bad practice and should be avoided.
I don't think it's that bad a practice, though I don't do it in my own code (my reason is that I've found that I have trouble remembering the exact syntax for calling the events). There is not real difference in terms of execution between a sub that is fired by an event and a standalone sub -- it's just a subroutine in either case, and there's nothing special about a sub defined as the default action for an event. You're not calling the EVENT, but the code subroutine set to run when that event occurs.
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I also got a way to change the color. though i am not changing the color of the button i am able to change at least the color of the caption on teh button using forecolor option.

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If you also want to change the background colour, you could use the tips described at bytes.com/topic/access/answers/…

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