A simple calendar question... please

[ChrisTheAncient]

I have successfully used the calendar system in an Access XP database design and am (so far) pleased with the results.

Now my daft question...

I used an ActiveX control to call this up - and registered it.

If I pass the database that includes this ActiveX calendar to another user - one that has not previously registered this control, will it still work? Or will they have to go through a registration process? Will it need a macro?

If I later send this database as a run-time database (I have Office Developer so that I can do that), will the inclusion of this calendar cause any problems?

TIA

Chris

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OK, I'm stoopid. But I'm good at it!
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[Davidbase]

Hey Chris,

I ran into a similar problem quite some time ago with an ActiveX control. As I remember, I was able to use this control on my machine - in any application - and when I sent it to another user, they couldn't as the control wasn't registered on their machine.

A little bit of poking in Microsoft's KB indicates the same. Since registering the control is effectively creating a registry pointer to the control on your machine, it would stand to reason that if another machine didn't have a pointer to the control (or didn't have the .ocx on the machine), that it wouldn't be able to use it. I believe you can download the Calendar control from MS at no charge (Wow! Thanks Microsoft! ;-) and install it via a routine.

I haven't done much digging on this and I haven't encountered it very much in my own projects, so if someone else could provide some more feedback regarding it, I'd appreciate that too!

Take care,

David Badurina

http://www.davidbase.com

David Badurina
Davidbase Custom Database Design
Check out the Free AppTrix E-Zine

http://www.davidbase.com/apptrix.html

 

[Eupher]

Chris,
Yes, that's the catch with ActiveX controls. They must be installed and registered on every machine that will use the DB. It can be automated with an install routine, but I don't have Developer Edition, so I've never done that. Many ActiveX controls are included as part of a default install of Access (Calendar Control 10.0 with Access XP, for instance) - but you may run into version and/or licensing issues when dealing with different versions of Access.

Ken S.

 

[ChrisTheAncient]

Hi David

Thanks for the reply.

I was getting a bit worried that this might be the answer!

I shall have to keep watching and seeing if anyone comes with an idea that might 'register' it on another machine automatically.

Hmmm...

Chris

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OK, I'm stoopid. But I'm good at it!
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[Davidbase]

Hiya Chris,

If it were only that easy ...

I recently created a VB app that has to do that very thing - find a .dll on a machine and register it if it's not registered already. My first attempt at this was a very dirty work-around that actually worked quite well.

Basically, I had to distribute the file with the .dll and I used a small install program to handle the registration.

The install app took a peek into the registry to determine where the SYSTEM folder was located. When I found it, I had to determine if the file existed or not. If it didn't, I'd then copy the file to it's proper location and register it through a simple shell of Regsvr32 - with a hidden window, of course. It took a half-second to run and the user had no idea what was going on.

Again - perhaps not the most efficient way to go about it, but it did work to do it dynamically. I never received a single complaint of it not working properly, or the app failing nor have I had any complaints of other programs mal-functioning on those PCs. I had to do a ton of testing and I'd suggest you test just as much.

If these are users that you are supporting in an office, you can have them try to find the file on their machine, if they can't then just write up a .bat file that they can launch to register it and then get into the program. Really, it depends on how much you trust those users.

If this is something available for download online and people in other countries or across the U.S. will be using your app, then you want to lock it down and make it as absolutely automated as possible. I always felt better allowing my users to jump through a hoop or two if it would save time - but only if they were a couple of doors away. I don't like to let that leash get too long. ;-)

Take it easy!

David Badurina
Davidbase Custom Database Design
Check out the Free AppTrix E-Zine

http://www.davidbase.com/apptrix.html

 

[ChrisTheAncient]

Hi again

Sorry for the delay - Der Boss needed me to so something urgent for her!

In between times I've been trying to find out all I can. Looks gloomy, doesn't it?

I can see where to go, but I don't think my abilities are up to how to go there. Unfortunately, this is not within an office situation for me, the final application skeleton will go out to other users for their own data purposes. So testing would not be too easy. Add to that the different skeletons that may go out (A97, A2002 or runtime) and my potential problems multiply rapidly.

By searching dilgently in this forum, I did find a thread where someon designed a basic calendar without using the ocx one. I may (if I've got time) try it, otherwise it looks like a simple date picking routine will have to do.

What a pity that a free ocx control that is so useful needs such a convoluted method of registration. Sigh...

Chris

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OK, I'm stoopid. But I'm good at it!
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