ListView
This is the continuing saga of putting records on a userform. I followed up on Rob's suggestion of the ListView control and I like it. I wouldn't call it its use intuitive, but once you get the hang of it, it's O.K.
I don't have this whole thing figured out yet, but I'll show you what I do have. Suggestions and corrections are always welcome. It all starts with the showform3 procedure:
Dim colRecords As Collection
Dim ufScroll As UScroll2
Dim i As Long
'Fill a collection with CRecord objects - pretty much the same code
'as the previous posts, just put into a function.
Set colRecords = New Collection
Set colRecords = FillRecords
'Create a new instance of the userform rather than relying on the
'default instance
Set ufScroll = New UScroll2
'Load the records into a custom property of the userform
Set ufScroll.Records = colRecords
ufScroll.Show 'Show the form. Code is suspended at this point
'Get the new records, if any, from the userform's property
Set colRecords = ufScroll.Records
'Print out the records to make sure I didn't miss something
For i = 1 To colRecords.Count
Debug.Print colRecords(i).Name, colRecords(i).Department, colRecords(i).Current
Next i
End Sub
When the Show method is called, the Activate event fires. In addition to filling the Department combobox, the Activate event adds three columns to the ListView via the ColumnHeaders.Add method. I set the first two column's width equal to the controls above and just threw in a number for the Current column.
Next, I set a few properties for the ListView. The HideColumnHeaders property is False by default, but I set it in code explicitly. The View property is important if you want columns. Setting View equal to lvwReport is similar (exactly?) like choosing Details when you're viewing a Windows Explorer window. The default view is like the List view in Windows, where subitems are not shown. Finally I show gridlines because I like the way it looks.
In the next section, I loop through all the CRecord objects in the collection and add them to the ListView. I add ListItems using the Name property and add SubItems 1 and 2 to hold the Department and Current properties. Finally, I run the ItemClick event to populate my edit controls.
Dim i As Long
Dim li As ListItem
Dim vaDepts As Variant
vaDepts = Array("Accounting", "Marketing", "Production", "Information Technology", "Shipping")
For i = LBound(vaDepts) To UBound(vaDepts)
Me.cbxDept.AddItem vaDepts(i)
Next i
With Me.ListView1
.ColumnHeaders.Add , , "Name", Me.tbxName.Width 'Add columns
.ColumnHeaders.Add , , "Department", Me.cbxDept.Width
.ColumnHeaders.Add , , "Current", 50
.HideColumnHeaders = False 'set some properties
.View = lvwReport
.Gridlines = True
For i = 1 To mcolRecords.Count 'populate listview
Set li = .ListItems.Add(, , mcolRecords(i).Name)
li.SubItems(1) = mcolRecords(i).Department
li.SubItems(2) = mcolRecords(i).Current
Next i
ListView1_ItemClick .ListItems(.SelectedItem.Index) 'fill edit controls
End With
End Sub
The ItemClick event fills the textbox, combobox, and checkbox so the user can edit the selected item. The other ListView event I use is the ColumnClick event. I haven't quite got the sorting thing figured out yet, but I can toggle ascending and descending on the Name column.
If ColumnHeader.Text = "Name" Then
Me.ListView1.Sorted = True
Me.ListView1.SortKey = 0
If Me.ListView1.SortOrder = lvwDescending Then
Me.ListView1.SortOrder = lvwAscending
Else
Me.ListView1.SortOrder = lvwDescending
End If
Else
Me.ListView1.Sorted = False
End If
End Sub
Private Sub ListView1_ItemClick(ByVal Item As MSComctlLib.ListItem)
With Item
Me.tbxName.Text = .Text
Me.cbxDept.Value = .SubItems(1)
Me.chkCurrent.Value = .SubItems(2)
End With
End Sub
The Delete and New buttons' code is shown below. The Delete code is pretty straight forward. The mbIsDirty variable stores whether changes have been made. This will come into play in the Close button code. The New button code clears the edit boxes and set the focus ready to create a new list item. It also changes the caption of the button next to the edit controls from Save to Add in an attempt to make it intuitive for the user.
With Me.ListView1
.ListItems.Remove .SelectedItem.Index
End With
mbIsDirty = True
End Sub
Private Sub cmdNew_Click()
Me.tbxName.Text = "" 'Clear the edit controls
Me.cbxDept.Value = ""
Me.chkCurrent.Value = False
Me.tbxName.SetFocus
Me.cmdCommit.Caption = "Add" 'change the commit button caption
Me.cmdCommit.Accelerator = "A"
End Sub
The Commit button, which either says Save or Add depending on whether the user is editing an existing record or adding a new one, uses the code shown below. Depending on the caption of the button, it adds a new ListItem (and related SubItems) or changes the currently selected ListItem. It then changes the button's caption and updates mbIsDirty to reflect that the data has changed.
If Me.cmdCommit.Caption = "Add" Then
With Me.ListView1.ListItems.Add(, , Me.tbxName.Text)
.SubItems(1) = Me.cbxDept.Value
.SubItems(2) = Me.chkCurrent.Value
.Selected = True
.Top = Me.ListView1.Top
End With
Else
With Me.ListView1.ListItems(Me.ListView1.SelectedItem.Index)
.Text = Me.tbxName.Text
.SubItems(1) = Me.cbxDept.Value
.SubItems(2) = Me.chkCurrent.Value
End With
End If
Me.cmdCommit.Caption = "Save"
Me.cmdCommit.Accelerator = "S"
mbIsDirty = True
End Sub
The Apply button creates a new collection if anything has been changed. The variable mcolRecords contains the collection that was originally passed into the form until this procedure is called, at which time it is overwritten with whatever is in the ListView. Rewriting the collection is fine for this twenty-six member collection, but I'd have to come up with something better if there were a lot of records. I should probably disable this button until mbIsDirty is True also.
Dim clsRecord As CRecord
Dim i As Long
If mbIsDirty Then
Set mcolRecords = New Collection
With Me.ListView1.ListItems
For i = 1 To .Count
Set clsRecord = New CRecord
clsRecord.Name = .Item(i).Text
clsRecord.Department = .Item(i).SubItems(1)
clsRecord.Current = .Item(i).SubItems(2)
mcolRecords.Add clsRecord, CStr(i)
Next i
End With
mbIsDirty = False
End If
End Sub
Finally, the Close button hides the form, returning control back to showform3. If any of the data has changed and not been 'applied', this sub will ask the user what to do.
Dim lResp As Long
Dim sMsg As String
sMsg = "Save Changes?"
If mbIsDirty Then
lResp = MsgBox(sMsg, vbYesNoCancel, Me.Caption)
If lResp = vbYes Then
cmdApply_Click
Me.Hide
ElseIf lResp = vbNo Then
Me.Hide
End If
Else
Me.Hide
End If
End Sub
You can download UFScroll.zip.
Jon Peltier:
In ShowForm3 you are (I think) assigning a collection of records to the listview in one step:
Set ufScroll.Records = colRecords
In UserForm_Activate you are looping through the collection, assigning listview elements one cell at a time:
For i = 1 To mcolRecords.Count 'populate listview
Set li = .ListItems.Add(, , mcolRecords(i).Name)
li.SubItems(1) = mcolRecords(i).Department
li.SubItems(2) = mcolRecords(i).Current
Next i
In ShowForm3 you are doing the reverse also in one step:
Set colRecords = ufScroll.Records
but in cmdApply_Click, you are looping again:
With Me.ListView1.ListItems
For i = 1 To .Count
Set clsRecord = New CRecord
clsRecord.Name = .Item(i).Text
clsRecord.Department = .Item(i).SubItems(1)
clsRecord.Current = .Item(i).SubItems(2)
mcolRecords.Add clsRecord, CStr(i)
Next i
End With
My philosophy is to use the one step approach as much as possible. Am I misunderstanding your code, or are there inconsistencies in the way you've programmed it?
(I also generally work with 2D arrays rather than collections of 1D arrays. I can see the advantages of the collection approach, but force of habit being so strong, I may not try it out for some time.)
26 December 2006, 11:44 amDick Kusleika:
I don't think you can populate a ListView in one step. In ShowForm3, I'm passing the collection into the userform's module via a property (property statements not shown) so it's available to the userform. I'm separating my user interface from business logic - although there's no business logic yet.
Re arrays: With just three second dimension elements, I prefer arrays too for simplicity. However, as the second dimension elements increase, I prefer collections of custom classes so I can refer to
26 December 2006, 1:17 pmcolRecords(i).Locationinstead ofaRecords(i,12)or some such thing. The app I'm working on that started this whole thing has about 25 columns per record.Jon Peltier:
Oh, userform properties. Duh. Too much eggnog.
The advantage I see to using a collection is how easily you can add elements, as opposed to redimming an array. To redim an array's number of records, i.e., the first index of two or more, you need to use an intermediate array, because ReDim Preserve only works on the last index of the array.
26 December 2006, 1:45 pmDoug Glancy:
Dick, here's some things I'd do:
Change the ListView's FullRowSelect property to True, so the cursor doesn't need to be over a name in order to select that row - I like the way the selected row looks too. However, it seems this allows the user to select and modify a name by double-clicking, so I added this short sub:
Private Sub ListView1_BeforeLabelEdit(Cancel As Integer)
'prevent editing in listview
Cancel = True
End Sub
I also think it would be nice if deleting changed your edit boxes, so they don't still have the name of the deleted entity, and so that the next ListView item is selected:
Private Sub cmdDel_Click()
Dim selected_item_index As Long
Dim new_selection_index As Long
With Me.ListView1
selected_item_index = .SelectedItem.Index
.ListItems.Remove selected_item_index
new_selection_index = WorksheetFunction.Min(selected_item_index, .ListItems.Count)
.ListItems(new_selection_index).Selected = True
Me.cbxDept.Text = .ListItems(new_selection_index).SubItems(1)
Me.tbxName.Text = .ListItems(new_selection_index)
.SetFocus
End With
mbIsDirty = True
End Sub
Last, I'd capture the delete keypress and call the same code as above, so you can use the delete key.
26 December 2006, 3:09 pmRob van Gelder:
Jon: if you want a half-way point between collections and arrays, try an array of user defined type.
eg.
Type Person
Name As String
Computers As Long
End Type
Sub test()
Dim udtPeople() As Person
ReDim Preserve udtPeople(1 To 10)
udtPeople(1).Name = "Jon Peltier"
udtPeople(2).Computers = "3"
End Sub
Dick: You've got the sorting spot on. I've seen implementations that paste an arrow graphic into the column header as a sorting indicator. That requires API hacks, I believe.
One gotcha is the sorting of a date column. To address date sorting, I add a zero-width sister column that is formatted yyyymmddhhmmss. Then, when column header click event is fired check which column and sort by the other.
You've taken the "save" approach to applying listview changes. This can be good, though each change requires 2 commits - 1 for save, 2 for apply.
Another approach is to keep your "apply" button, but ditch the "save" button.
Implement immediate editing using the Textbox Change events. This requires careful testing since not all controls update the same way. ie afterupdate vs beforeupdate vs onchange.
If a user updates 1 or 2 records at a time, the re-work wont be too high if they have to click cancel and re-open it as a method of undo.
26 December 2006, 3:14 pmRob van Gelder:
edit to above:
udtPeople(1).Computers = "3"
Doug:
26 December 2006, 3:17 pmThe same can be achieved by:
ListView1.LabelEdit = lvwManual
Doug Glancy:
Thanks Rob, I'll use that in my VB project, certainly cleaner.
26 December 2006, 3:19 pmJon Peltier:
Rob -
"if you want a half-way point between collections and arrays, try an array of user defined type"
I frequently use a 1-D array of 1-D arrays, which can get a little hairy. The array of UDTs is something I haven't tried, but it should be pretty easy to implement. Thanks for the idea.
26 December 2006, 9:56 pmjkpieterse:
I sometimes use an array of a custom type to avoid the extra dimensions:
Type Person
Name as String
Age As Integer
End Type
In a sub:
Dim typPersons() as Person
Redim typPersons(1)
27 December 2006, 4:14 amtypPersons(0).Name="John"
typPerson(0).Age=50
typPersons(1).Name="Jim"
typPerson(1).Age=12
Rob van Gelder:
oh my goodness... did I just do this?
27 December 2006, 1:32 pmComputers As Long
udtPeople(1).Computers = "3"
jkpieterse:
Hi Rob,
??? Not sure I grasp what you are saying here?
28 December 2006, 7:58 amjkpieterse:
Hi again Rob,
Sorry, I obviously didn't look at your post.
28 December 2006, 8:00 amJD:
For the sorting:
Private Sub ListView1_ColumnClick(ByVal ColumnHeader As MSComctlLib.ColumnHeader)
ListView1.Sorted = True
If ListView1.SortKey = (ColumnHeader.Index - 1) Then _
GoTo changesort 'there's already a sort in place for this column
'No need to change sort order the first time the column is selected
ListView1.SortOrder = lvwAscending
ListView1.SortKey = (ColumnHeader.Index - 1) 'Sortkey = 0-based, Index = 1-based
Exit Sub
changesort:
'I prefer select statements as they take up slightly less CPU time
Select Case ListView1.SortOrder
Case lvwAscending
ListView1.SortOrder = lvwDescending
Case Else
ListView1.SortOrder = lvwAscending
End Select
End Sub
28 December 2006, 2:48 pmRob van Gelder:
JK:
My post got cut in half because I used some reserved html characters.
I was pointing out my own mistake - I was storing a String in a Long variable. shocking and how embarrassing.
Rob
30 December 2006, 4:29 pm