Building Access Apps with User Definable Fields

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Bob Alston - 12 Jan 2006 16:04 GMT

Anyone have experience in building Access apps with user definable
fields? (Not the kind of fields where you just let the user define the
label for a pre set number of predefined fields.) I recently saw an app
that uses an MDB database and allows the user to define totally new
fields. The app maintains a table of the data fields. When a new field
is added, it is actually added to the table in the MDB.

He uses multi-column form into which he places the fields, using
predefined formats. His app is not Access so I can't just decipher how
he does it. However, I would be more interested in a way to dynamically
add new fields to specific that they be displayed at specific locations
on the form.

Would appreciate any information you may have from experience doing such.

Bob

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Benny Andersen - 12 Jan 2006 17:21 GMT

> Anyone have experience in building Access apps with user definable
> fields? (Not the kind of fields where you just let the user define the
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
>
> Bob

It can be done, and it is not normally not worth the effert in access. What
you have seen was a smart design feature, and Access have that: Design
mode. The database engine of relation databases is optimized to deal data
manipulations more effective than data definitions.
An attemp to design to invoke ddl sql features (create, drop, alter) as
part of normal use, can be an offer to think twice about the design of
tables and relations.

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Regards
Benny Andersen

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