ACC: Using Visual Basic to Hide a Link to an External Table

• Microsoft Access versions 7.0, 97

SUMMARY

Moderate: Requires basic macro, coding, and interoperability skills.

This article shows you how you can use Visual Basic for Applications to link an external table but to hide the link on your local computer. You do this by creating a new table, creating the link to the external table, and then setting the hidden attribute of the newly created table to True.

MORE INFORMATION

Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language being demonstrated and the tools used to create and debug procedures. Microsoft support professionals can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific needs. If you have limited programming experience, you may want to contact a Microsoft Certified Solution Provider or the Microsoft fee-based consulting line at (800) 936-5200. For more information about Microsoft Certified Solution Providers, please see the following page on the World Wide Web:

http://www.microsoft.com/mcsp/

http://www.microsoft.com/support/supportnet/overview/overview.asp

Creating, Linking, and Hiding the Table

1. Start Microsoft Access and open the sample database Northwind.mdb.



2. Create a module and type the following line in the Declarations section if it is not already there:




Option Explicit 

3. Type the following procedure:




      Function MakeHiddenAttachedTable(strDatabaseName As String, _
               strTableName As String, strAttachedTableName As String)

         Dim db As Database
         Dim td As TableDef

         Set db = CurrentDb
         Set td = db.CreateTableDef(strAttachedTableName)

         td.Connect = ";Database=" & strDatabaseName
         td.SourceTableName = strTableName
         db.TableDefs.Append td
         td.Attributes = dbHiddenObject

         Set td = Nothing
         Set db = Nothing

      End Function 

4. To test this function, type the following line in the Debug window, and then press ENTER:

   
   ?MakeHiddenAttachedTable ("Solutions", "Examples", "New Table") 

   A new hidden table named New Table that links the Examples table in the Solutions database is created.

Delete the New Table Table

1. Start Microsoft Access and open the sample database Northwind.mdb.



2. Create a module and type the following line in the Declarations section if it is not already there:




Option Explicit 

3. Type the following procedure:




      Function DeleteHiddenAttachedTable(strAttachedTableName As String)

         Dim db As Database
         Set db = CurrentDb

         db.TableDefs.Delete strAttachedTableName

      End Function 

4. To test this function, type the following line in the Debug window, and then press ENTER:

   
   ?DeleteHiddenAttachedTable("New Table") 

   The new hidden table, New Table, is deleted.

Additional query words: inf link attach attached

Keywords : kbdta AccCon TblHowto KbVBA
Version : WINDOWS:7.0,97
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbhowto