Disconnect File Dialog from Access

[Thales750]

Morning All,
Is there a way to open a File Dialog box that does not act like a Model Popup.
Meaning, can we open a standard Windows File Manger from inside Access and have it go to a specific folder, or open the standard FDialog box and have it disconnect from Access.?

Thanks,

 

[arnelgp]

maybe use InternetExplorer.Application and navigate to a folder.

 

[arnelgp]

shell "explorer.exe"

 

[theDBguy]

You could also try:

Application.FollowHyperlink "C:\FolderName"

 

[The_Doc_Man]

There is this question: So you have disconnected this feature from Access control (which you do, technically, by spawning a child process that can have a limited life of its own.) So... is there a presumed result here and if so, did you want it to somehow be communicated back to Access for further action?

 

[Pat Hartman]

I'm with Doc, it doesn't seem to make any sense to open a dialog that is intended to get a piece of information and then disconnect it from the app that opened it. If you don't want the dialog to interact with Access, don't open it from Access.

 

[Thales750]

There is this question: So you have disconnected this feature from Access control (which you do, technically, by spawning a child process that can have a limited life of its own.) So... is there a presumed result here and if so, did you want it to somehow be communicated back to Access for further action?

Doc and Pat,
I guess the making sense part is in the use. Access manages thousand of files, some are linked to an Attachment table, most are in folders that are located using the Project's info.

I use the FDialog for opening Folders that contain Fles for every kind of Program from thousands of Projects. Many of these are in sub-folders, sometimes two or three down from main folder. What I do now is right click one of the folders and "open it in another folder" a folder that is then disconnected from Access. This allows the folder to stay open for further files openings without the 4 or five clicks it takes to get there from Access which by this time is either minimized or closed.

Getting there from scratch using Windows Explorer is even worse, some of these folders are 8, or more, branches deep.

 

[Thales750]

You could also try:

Application.FollowHyperlink "C:\FolderName"

That is the Answer, Thank you so much.

 

[Thales750]

Thanks All.

 

[theDBguy]

That is the Answer, Thank you so much.

Hi. We were all happy to assist. Good luck with your project.

 

[Thales750]

There is this question: So you have disconnected this feature from Access control (which you do, technically, by spawning a child process that can have a limited life of its own.) So... is there a presumed result here and if so, did you want it to somehow be communicated back to Access for further action?

Hey Doc,
To further answer your question I will still use the
Set fDialog = Application.FileDialog(3)
Method when I need to interact with the Dialog Box, but not for just locating files.
Thnaks again,

 

[The_Doc_Man]

OK, here's another thought. So... you used the file dialog to locate a file. But if you are using the FSO, you can also look at the fully qualified file spec you found and extract its parts, then supply that information for the next invocation of the FileDialog. I.e. remember the last successful file as the starting point for the next folder to search.

 

[Pat Hartman]

If you are storing the path to the file, there is no need to use the file dialog at all when opening the file. Just use the Follow Hyperlink method. It will open any file using the correct application as long as the association is known to Windows.

 

[Thales750]

If you are storing the path to the file, there is no need to use the file dialog at all when opening the file. Just use the Follow Hyperlink method. It will open any file using the correct application as long as the association is known to Windows.

Exactly Pat, those are two different things. One is a path created by the database when making new Docs, or ones that are linked to a record manually. Those are the most used docs and opened with a direct link from a record. Other minor files are simply stored in subfolder and need to be accessed without going through several folder branches manually.

The combination works well. The records store more than just folder links they also store wed addresses, phone numbers for autodiling, and record phone record keeping I built a link to cell phones from the database using an API, Email Addresses, all hyperlinked.

 

[Thales750]

OK, here's another thought. So... you used the file dialog to locate a file. But if you are using the FSO, you can also look at the fully qualified file spec you found and extract its parts, then supply that information for the next invocation of the FileDialog. I.e. remember the last successful file as the starting point for the next folder to search.

That's pretty cool. not exactly sure it would be usefull here. When a new project is started, the system creates a set of Folders and Subfolders for that project. It then creates a linked record to each subfolder. that way it the project manager has direct access to that folder. 95% percent of what they do is in the premade part. The rest can be accessed from other areas that is filtered with queries. The goal here is to eliminate manual searches through the folders, and to perform restriction on files saving to order the chaos.

When I was at the TSA I built a system for managing the files from right after the 911 Trials. They had more than a million documents to redact. I say "I", but it was really a cooperative process with the 20 or so Lawyers, and Staff, and me developing.

Now I'm improving on that beginning with Files that can't be accessed directly and a system that moves them to folders that are only accessed by hidden users that have permissions. It moves the files in and out of a folder and creates incremental version.

If you guys want to hear about the progress let me know. I

 

[Pat Hartman]

Doc's suggestion of using the path from the previous file as a starting point is good and should help you..

PS - to the management of the TSA. As a citizen, i would feel much safer flying if instead of being politically correct and harassing grandmothers and mothers with young children equally, you concentrated on able young men -swarthy or otherwise. Those are the people who hijack planes. Use the Israel method and actually keep us safe instead of pretending to keep us safe by wasting time and my money by searching the wrong people. You could improve your effectiveness and cut your staff in half. Instead, you empty my carry on and break my sunglasses. I was using a walker because there is too much walking in airports and my hair is white. Did you really think I was going to hijack a plane? No. NO one but a raving dunitic would think I was even remotely a threat but we must be politically correct. My tax dollars circling the drain as usual.

Sorry about the rant. It isn't your fault unless you are the person who made these ridiculous policies.

 

[Isaac]

Doc's suggestion of using the path from the previous file as a starting point is good and should help you..

PS - to the management of the TSA. As a citizen, i would feel much safer flying if instead of being politically correct and harassing grandmothers and mothers with young children equally, you concentrated on able young men -swarthy or otherwise. Those are the people who hijack planes. Use the Israel method and actually keep us safe instead of pretending to keep us safe by wasting time and my money by searching the wrong people. You could improve your effectiveness and cut your staff in half. Instead, you empty my carry on and break my sunglasses. I was using a walker because there is too much walking in airports and my hair is white. Did you really think I was going to hijack a plane? No. NO one but a raving dunitic would think I was even remotely a threat but we must be politically correct. My tax dollars circling the drain as usual.

Sorry about the rant. It isn't your fault unless you are the person who made these ridiculous policies.

Actually plenty of exploding backpacks around the world have been carried by women...Surprisingly common. No reason to believe they couldn't graduate from exploding backpacks to something airplane related.

Plus, if we focus on just one thing now, won't terrorists notice that and adapt accordingly?

Having said that, I'm still kinda with you ... Just due to the obvious problem with TSA employees. Why they seem to almost ALL be...like...the worst behaving type of employees of any sector or company, I'm not really sure how that happened....it's weird, mathematically speaking.

 

[Thales750]

Wow, I wasn't expecting the TSA blowback.
Now that we are all gathered around the soapbox, here are some figures for you. When I was at TSA Headquarters we had 1 billion pasengers every 500 days. It has been 7280 days since 911 and not one terrorist attack on American Airways. Our trains, ships and ports are all safer.

That's less than one incident in 14.56 billion passengers, I challenge you to find any human endeavor that has that kind of statistical record. Really, it's actually 0 in 14.6 billion.

People love to hate the TSA because it's in their face. It's true there are some bad TSOs, I helped to get some of them convicted, but overall they are out there dealing with an unpredictable public within their personal danger zone. Many people going through the line at the TSA are angry and looking for targets of their anger.


One more (not so commonly known) fact, I've seen the boxes of confiscated weapons taken off passengers from the airports. Airports your family members may have been in at the time.

You may not be so fast to condemn them if you knew some of the thing others know.

 

[Isaac]

Forcing myself to be honest and reflect on your reply, I did pick up on one thing I'll give them credit for: Many of the passengers are awful, too - so chicken or the egg, who knows, but I can understand if the employees have a "legit" reason for having developed their notoriously rude attitude. You must know that the opinion on the behavior/tones/attitudes of TSA employees is pretty universal, there must be something to it.
So while I don't apologize for having taken that tack, I should grant that it is true the passengers (and air passengers in general), are also notoriously badly behaved and looking for a target - I agree....and maybe that is a contributing factor to why the other thing is true.

It is truly amazing how many times a man can be shouting 3 inches from your face: "laptops out of their cases", then at least 1 out of 4 laptops are not out of their cases. While up to now I've mostly noticed how I shudder when TSA grabs the person's precious laptop from where its been shoved with other belongings and literally throws it in a tub.......I should acknowledge where the ire comes from.....that is real, too

 

[Pat Hartman]

Plus, if we focus on just one thing now, won't terrorists notice that and adapt accordingly?

Somehow the Israelis make it work.

Actually plenty of exploding backpacks around the world have been carried by women..

Seriously? Did they pack them themselves or did their boyfriends pack them? Yes women can be evil. Profiling goes beyond sex and age.

I didn't even get an apology from the jerk who broke my glasses. She acted like it was my fault they were in the bag. And then there was the one who took my bottle of medicine the time I was traveling with hives. I pulled up my sleeves and shirt and got no sympathy at all. Rules are rules and the medicine container was too large to pass and he didn't give a flying f*** about my discomfort. The flight was only four hours. I could replace the medicine at my destination. So I could have made a scene and insisted on a supervisor and missed my flight or I could comply like a sheep and suck it up.


Sorry again, Didn't mean to start a firestorm but I see "TSA" and I see red. I used to fly somewhere at least every other month but since 911, you have to push me to get on a plane and I don't travel to bridge tournaments around the country any more. If I can't drive there, I don't go. Why? The TSA. I realize that we don't see what criminals TSA thwarts but we do see reports of what they missed. The problem is simply political correctness. The Israelis profile people. There are categories of people, young males of Arabic descent for example who are prime suspects but the Israelites have fine tuned their profiling so that they don't have to unduly harass young men. With proper profiling, a billion people are much easier to handle, largely because you haven't aggravated 99% of the passengers to begin with by making them stand in never ending lines, take their shoes off, take out their electronics, confiscate their medicine, and get frisked or x-rayed. .