Question

I’m involved with updating an Access solution. It has a good amount of VBA, a number of queries, a small amount of tables, and a few forms for data entry & report generation. It’s an ideal candidate for Access.

I want to make changes to the table design, the VBA, the queries, and the forms. How can I track my changes with version control? (we use Subversion, but this goes for any flavor) I can stick the entire mdb in subversion, but that will be storing a binary file, and I won’t be able to tell that I just changed one line of VBA code.

I thought about copying the VBA code to separate files, and saving those, but I could see those quickly getting out of sync with what’s in the database.

Answer 1

We wrote our own script in VBScript, that uses the undocumented Application.SaveAsText() in Access to export all code, form, macro and report modules. Here it is, it should give you some pointers. (Beware: some of the messages are in german, but you can easily change that.)

EDIT: To summarize various comments below: Our Project assumes an .adp-file. In order to get this work with .mdb/.accdb, you have to change OpenAccessProject() to OpenCurrentDatabase(). (Updated to use OpenAccessProject() if it sees a .adp extension, else use OpenCurrentDatabase().)

decompose.vbs:

' Usage: '  CScript decompose.vbs <input file> <path>  ' Converts all modules, classes, forms and macros from an Access Project file (.adp) <input file> to ' text and saves the results in separate files to <path>.  Requires Microsoft Access. '  Option Explicit  const acForm = 2 const acModule = 5 const acMacro = 4 const acReport = 3  ' BEGIN CODE Dim fso Set fso = CreateObject('Scripting.FileSystemObject')  dim sADPFilename If (WScript.Arguments.Count = 0) then     MsgBox 'Bitte den Dateinamen angeben!', vbExclamation, 'Error'     Wscript.Quit() End if sADPFilename = fso.GetAbsolutePathName(WScript.Arguments(0))  Dim sExportpath If (WScript.Arguments.Count = 1) then     sExportpath = '' else     sExportpath = WScript.Arguments(1) End If   exportModulesTxt sADPFilename, sExportpath  If (Err <> 0) and (Err.Description <> NULL) Then     MsgBox Err.Description, vbExclamation, 'Error'     Err.Clear End If  Function exportModulesTxt(sADPFilename, sExportpath)     Dim myComponent     Dim sModuleType     Dim sTempname     Dim sOutstring      dim myType, myName, myPath, sStubADPFilename     myType = fso.GetExtensionName(sADPFilename)     myName = fso.GetBaseName(sADPFilename)     myPath = fso.GetParentFolderName(sADPFilename)      If (sExportpath = '') then         sExportpath = myPath & '\Source\'     End If     sStubADPFilename = sExportpath & myName & '_stub.' & myType      WScript.Echo 'copy stub to ' & sStubADPFilename & '...'     On Error Resume Next         fso.CreateFolder(sExportpath)     On Error Goto 0     fso.CopyFile sADPFilename, sStubADPFilename      WScript.Echo 'starting Access...'     Dim oApplication     Set oApplication = CreateObject('Access.Application')     WScript.Echo 'opening ' & sStubADPFilename & ' ...'     If (Right(sStubADPFilename,4) = '.adp') Then         oApplication.OpenAccessProject sStubADPFilename     Else         oApplication.OpenCurrentDatabase sStubADPFilename     End If      oApplication.Visible = false      dim dctDelete     Set dctDelete = CreateObject('Scripting.Dictionary')     WScript.Echo 'exporting...'     Dim myObj     For Each myObj In oApplication.CurrentProject.AllForms         WScript.Echo '  ' & myObj.fullname         oApplication.SaveAsText acForm, myObj.fullname, sExportpath & '\' & myObj.fullname & '.form'         oApplication.DoCmd.Close acForm, myObj.fullname         dctDelete.Add 'FO' & myObj.fullname, acForm     Next     For Each myObj In oApplication.CurrentProject.AllModules         WScript.Echo '  ' & myObj.fullname         oApplication.SaveAsText acModule, myObj.fullname, sExportpath & '\' & myObj.fullname & '.bas'         dctDelete.Add 'MO' & myObj.fullname, acModule     Next     For Each myObj In oApplication.CurrentProject.AllMacros         WScript.Echo '  ' & myObj.fullname         oApplication.SaveAsText acMacro, myObj.fullname, sExportpath & '\' & myObj.fullname & '.mac'         dctDelete.Add 'MA' & myObj.fullname, acMacro     Next     For Each myObj In oApplication.CurrentProject.AllReports         WScript.Echo '  ' & myObj.fullname         oApplication.SaveAsText acReport, myObj.fullname, sExportpath & '\' & myObj.fullname & '.report'         dctDelete.Add 'RE' & myObj.fullname, acReport     Next      WScript.Echo 'deleting...'     dim sObjectname     For Each sObjectname In dctDelete         WScript.Echo '  ' & Mid(sObjectname, 3)         oApplication.DoCmd.DeleteObject dctDelete(sObjectname), Mid(sObjectname, 3)     Next      oApplication.CloseCurrentDatabase     oApplication.CompactRepair sStubADPFilename, sStubADPFilename & '_'     oApplication.Quit      fso.CopyFile sStubADPFilename & '_', sStubADPFilename     fso.DeleteFile sStubADPFilename & '_'   End Function  Public Function getErr()     Dim strError     strError = vbCrLf & '----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------' & vbCrLf & _                'From ' & Err.source & ':' & vbCrLf & _                '    Description: ' & Err.Description & vbCrLf & _                '    Code: ' & Err.Number & vbCrLf     getErr = strError End Function 

If you need a clickable Command, instead of using the command line, create a file named ‘decompose.cmd’ with

cscript decompose.vbs youraccessapplication.adp 

By default, all exported files go into a ‘Scripts’ subfolder of your Access-application. The .adp/mdb file is also copied to this location (with a ‘stub’ suffix) and stripped of all the exported modules, making it really small.

You MUST checkin this stub with the source-files, because most access settings and custom menu-bars cannot be exported any other way. Just be sure to commit changes to this file only, if you really changed some setting or menu.

Note: If you have any Autoexec-Makros defined in your Application, you may have to hold the Shift-key when you invoke the decompose to prevent it from executing and interfering with the export!

Of course, there is also the reverse script, to build the Application from the ‘Source’-Directory:

compose.vbs:

' Usage: '  WScript compose.vbs <file> <path>  ' Converts all modules, classes, forms and macros in a directory created by 'decompose.vbs' ' and composes then into an Access Project file (.adp). This overwrites any existing Modules with the ' same names without warning!!! ' Requires Microsoft Access.  Option Explicit  const acForm = 2 const acModule = 5 const acMacro = 4 const acReport = 3  Const acCmdCompileAndSaveAllModules = &H7E  ' BEGIN CODE Dim fso Set fso = CreateObject('Scripting.FileSystemObject')  dim sADPFilename If (WScript.Arguments.Count = 0) then     MsgBox 'Please enter the file name!', vbExclamation, 'Error'     Wscript.Quit() End if sADPFilename = fso.GetAbsolutePathName(WScript.Arguments(0))  Dim sPath If (WScript.Arguments.Count = 1) then     sPath = '' else     sPath = WScript.Arguments(1) End If   importModulesTxt sADPFilename, sPath  If (Err <> 0) and (Err.Description <> NULL) Then     MsgBox Err.Description, vbExclamation, 'Error'     Err.Clear End If  Function importModulesTxt(sADPFilename, sImportpath)     Dim myComponent     Dim sModuleType     Dim sTempname     Dim sOutstring      ' Build file and pathnames     dim myType, myName, myPath, sStubADPFilename     myType = fso.GetExtensionName(sADPFilename)     myName = fso.GetBaseName(sADPFilename)     myPath = fso.GetParentFolderName(sADPFilename)      ' if no path was given as argument, use a relative directory     If (sImportpath = '') then         sImportpath = myPath & '\Source\'     End If     sStubADPFilename = sImportpath & myName & '_stub.' & myType      ' check for existing file and ask to overwrite with the stub     if (fso.FileExists(sADPFilename)) Then         WScript.StdOut.Write sADPFilename & ' exists. Overwrite? (y/n) '         dim sInput         sInput = WScript.StdIn.Read(1)         if (sInput <> 'y') Then             WScript.Quit         end if          fso.CopyFile sADPFilename, sADPFilename & '.bak'     end if      fso.CopyFile sStubADPFilename, sADPFilename      ' launch MSAccess     WScript.Echo 'starting Access...'     Dim oApplication     Set oApplication = CreateObject('Access.Application')     WScript.Echo 'opening ' & sADPFilename & ' ...'     If (Right(sStubADPFilename,4) = '.adp') Then         oApplication.OpenAccessProject sADPFilename     Else         oApplication.OpenCurrentDatabase sADPFilename     End If     oApplication.Visible = false      Dim folder     Set folder = fso.GetFolder(sImportpath)      ' load each file from the import path into the stub     Dim myFile, objectname, objecttype     for each myFile in folder.Files         objecttype = fso.GetExtensionName(myFile.Name)         objectname = fso.GetBaseName(myFile.Name)         WScript.Echo '  ' & objectname & ' (' & objecttype & ')'          if (objecttype = 'form') then             oApplication.LoadFromText acForm, objectname, myFile.Path         elseif (objecttype = 'bas') then             oApplication.LoadFromText acModule, objectname, myFile.Path         elseif (objecttype = 'mac') then             oApplication.LoadFromText acMacro, objectname, myFile.Path         elseif (objecttype = 'report') then             oApplication.LoadFromText acReport, objectname, myFile.Path         end if      next      oApplication.RunCommand acCmdCompileAndSaveAllModules     oApplication.Quit End Function  Public Function getErr()     Dim strError     strError = vbCrLf & '----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------' & vbCrLf & _                'From ' & Err.source & ':' & vbCrLf & _                '    Description: ' & Err.Description & vbCrLf & _                '    Code: ' & Err.Number & vbCrLf     getErr = strError End Function 

Again, this goes with a companion ‘compose.cmd’ containing:

cscript compose.vbs youraccessapplication.adp 

It asks you to confirm overwriting your current application and first creates a backup, if you do. It then collects all source-files in the Source-Directory and re-inserts them into the stub.

Have Fun!