[dba-VB] JIT Subforms, was Merge rows (now: seriously OT)

Max,

That really wasn't my question.  Do you have multiple subform CONTROLS on your form, or do you have 
a single subform control and just tell that one subform control to load a specific form when a 
specific button is pushed.

Let me give you an example of when it is nice to have multiple subform controls, and keep them loaded.

I have an application where the user is looking at and possibly updating a lot of different data 
about an insurance claim.  There is a single form with about 20 tabs on a tab control.  Each tab has 
its own subform control.  The user clicks back and forth between the tabs.  He looks at the claimant 
information, he looks at the policy information, he looks at the claim information, he looks at 
benefit checks paid, he looks back at...  He sends email out to a doctor, or he prints a medical 
information request form from a doctor...

Get the picture?  He might have the claimant on the phone and just be answering questions, or he 
might be performing some process to the claim.

In the end he is spending a long time in a given claim.  Tabbing back and forth between the tabs and 
reloading the subforms isn't necessarily efficient.  They are not moving back and forth between 
claims, in fact the form loads with a single claim loaded, and they cannot add or delete or move 
between CLAIM records.  When the form loads, it does not load all of the subforms, in fact it does 
not load ANY subforms, all of which are out on separate tabs.  However once a tab is clicked and a 
subform loads, I do not unload the subform.  Why would I?  It takes time to load and why cause the 
user to reload a form on a tab that he visited a few seconds ago?  Keeping the subform loaded in no 
way slows down his work, in fact it speeds it up.

As you can see, there are valid reasons for having multiple subform controls, multiple subforms 
loaded at the same time, and not unloading when the user moves to another tab.  I went with JIT 
subforms with this form because it was taking a looooong time to load.  Now it loads instantly, 
however each additional tab, ONCE CLICKED ON, keeps its subform loaded.

I have been doing this exact kind of thing (JIT subforms on tabs of a tab control) since the late 
90s.  Support for it is embedded in my framework.  I find a tab an efficient paradigm for handling 
multiple subforms.  I can unload them if I want, and leave them loaded when I need.

Makes sense to me!

John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com


Max Wanadoo wrote:
> Only one sub form is loaded at any one time.
> 
> Max
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: dba-vb-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
> [mailto:dba-vb-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of jwcolby
> Sent: 22 September 2009 17:41
> To: Discussion concerning Visual Basic and related programming issues.
> Subject: Re: [dba-VB] JIT Subforms, was Merge rows (now: seriously OT)
> 
> Do you have a single subform control?  If so then you can't have 10 subform
> controls and all of them 
> left bound.
> 
> John W. Colby
> www.ColbyConsulting.com