Problems creating a popup keypad in access.

October 31, 2006 8:29 AM

I am developing an access app for a UMPC, and because of the lack of a keyboard, I want to make a keypad number entry popup.

I am now struggling with the getting it to work. My current method is
Private Sub Button1_Click()
DoCmd.GoToControl "PackQuantity"
SendKeys "1", no
End Sub

and then repeat for each button. Currently I can only get it to put one number in the text box, because each press of the button erases the existing data. I have tried adding a line like:
SendKeys "{End}", no
Or instead of end, Right, but it does about the same thing.
I know this probably isn't the best way to do it, but its all I've come up with so far. Any suggestions would be welcome at this point.

posted by JonnyRotten to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Is there a reason you can't have a "Done" button? You could just append the numbers to a string and then send all the keys at once once the user is done.
posted by xvs22 at 8:44 AM on October 31, 2006

Response by poster: No reason at all. I just need to get the numbers into a string in some way without a keyboard.
posted by JonnyRotten at 8:51 AM on October 31, 2006

Functional decomposition is your friend.

Second, you have no need to use sendkeys: you just want to fill in the text box. sendkeys is more than you need and a potential stumbling block.

Presumably, there is a way to get the text currently in the box (textbox.getText(), perhaps?). Presumably there is also a textbox function to set the text( textbox.setText( string), perhaps? ).

To append arbitrary text, there's either an existing function already on textbox (look!) or it's simply a matter of calling
textbox.setText( textbox.getText() + suffix )

Now, decompose this. First an append function:

Private Sub appendToTextBox( Textbox t, String s )
t.setText( t.getText() + s )
End Sub

Now write your button code in terms of this:

Private Sub Button1_Click()
appendToTextBox( myTextBox, "1" )
End Sub

Now find a way to sub-class the button type, passing the text to append in the constructor; I have no idea how this works in VB, but find out. This will allow you to encapsulate both the button display (the "1" button ought to display a "1", yes?) and behavior (by overriding onClick() ).

It will also allow you to make an array of button subclasses:

MyTextBox = new textBox;
MyTextButton[] = { MyTextButton( MyTextBox , "1" ), MyTextButton( MyTextBox "2" ), MyTextButton( MyTextBox, "3" ) ....

More elegant and stable compositions of the sub-objects is left as an exercise. (Hint: tie the textbox and the buttons together in another object, a "Keypad".)
posted by orthogonality at 9:12 AM on October 31, 2006

What about...

dim Keylog as String

Private Sub Button1_Click()
Keylog = Keylog & "1"
End Sub

Private Sub Button2_Click()
Keylog = Keylog & "2"
End Sub

Private Sub ButtonDone_Click()
SendKeys Keylog
End Sub

That presumes you can send multiple keystrokes in one SendKeys though. Otherwise...

for a = 1 to Len(Keylog)
SendKeys Mid(Keylog, a, 1)
next a
posted by xvs22 at 9:15 AM on October 31, 2006

I missed out DoCmd.GoToControl "PackQuantity". Not sure where that should go! What orthogonality said sounds like a sleeker way of doing it mind you.
posted by xvs22 at 9:20 AM on October 31, 2006