[AccessD] Drill-Down in Access

Arthur,

If I was trying to do this, I would try to set up a generic form with a sub
form set to display continuous records.  The main form would display the
parent record and the sub form would display the child records.  When I
wanted to do a drilldown from the sub form, I would, in code, change the
recordset/table behind both forms so that the child table record would now
be displayed in the main form, and the grandchild records would be displayed
in the sub form.  Like you said, if there are more than one child tables,
the user will need to choose which one to view.

This does only give you a two level display, but perhaps a field in the main
form could provide a description of the parent record if the child record
has the main form and the grandchild records have the sub form.

I'd turn .Echo off and then back on to minimize the screen flashing.

I think you've got an interesting user display issue here.  Let us know what
you end up doing!

Thanks!
Dan Waters

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Arthur Fuller
Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 2004 10:49 AM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Subject: [AccessD] Drill-Down in Access

Is there a way to provide true drill-down in Access? By that I mean
something like shape you get when you create a simple two-table app with
a parent and a child, declare the relationship and then open the parent
table. You get the automatic (and beautiful, I might add) "outline"
presentation -- expand a parent and you can view all its children.

This works beautifully, and gives me almost exactly what I want. I can
add a third table, GrandChild, related to Child, and automatically get a
two-level drilldown.

If I add a second Child table and double-click the parent, Access asks
me which of the two children to add to the display. What I figured out
so far is this:

Select Child1, then AutoForm it. (GrandChild1 is automatically included
in the drill-down view.) AutoForm it and you get a pretty display. Save
the form as Parent1_frm.

Close the form and the table, then repeat, this time selecting Child2.
(Grandchild2 is automatically included.) Autoform it and you get a
pretty display. Save the form as Parent2_frm.

Pretty as it is, the main problem I have with this is that I'm allowing
direct table entry in the child and grandchild, and thus lose all the
cool event handlers. If I substitute a form for the Child table, I
immediately lose the drill-down effect -- which in the current app is
CRITICAL.

Q1: is there another way to get drill-down in Access, while also
retaining the events?
Q2: I note that there are (according to ads, at least) various grids
etc. available for .NET that seem to provide both drill-down and
events/validation. Maybe Access is the wrong FE for this kind of app? 

Note: what I really need to be able to do is prevent updates into a
couple of columns while permitting updates in a couple of other columns.
Binding a table gives me drill-down but no control. Binding a form, I
lose the drill-down.

Any suggestions/solutions?

TIA,
Arthur


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