Question

In Access 2010, I have tables Task and Action that have a many-to-many relationship through table ActionTask. In the form for Task, I want to put a subform for all the Actions related to the current task through the ActionTask junction table.

This, in itself, I can do.

The trick is that Action is actually the bottom rank of a four-tier hierarchy of tables.
Each Action belongs to a Goal, each Goal belongs to a Theme, each Theme belongs to a Strategy.

Rather than just have a combo box listing all the available Actions, I’d like to use cascading combo boxes for the Strategy/Theme/Goal/Action.

This I can also do.

The problem is when I use this technique in a datasheet, if I select a given row, the selected row shows the proper Strategy/Theme/Goal/Action, but in all the other rows

• the Action is blank
• the Strategy/Theme/Goal is set to the current row’s values, rather than that row’s values

I’ve tried using the “Continuous Forms” view rather than the “Datasheet” view, but the result is pretty much the same.

I think I know why (the Me.StrategyCombo = ... stuff in my Form_Current callback), but I don’t know another way to achieve that.

How can I make the subform display all the rows properly?

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Here’s the Access file, but all the relevant details should be below.

Tables:
  Strategy   : (ID, Desc)
  Theme      : (ID, StrategyID, Desc)
  Goal       : (ID, ThemeID, Desc)
  Action     : (ID, GoalID, Desc)
  Task       : (ID, Desc, ...)
  ActionTask : (ActionID, TaskID)

Form Settings:

  [Forms]![Task]![ActionTaskSub]:
    Link Master Fields: ID
    Link Child Fields : TaskID

  [Forms]![Task]![ActionTaskSub].[Form]:
    On Current:
      Private Sub Form_Current()
          ' when the form loads a record, should reverse propegate
          ' action > goal > theme > strategy
          Dim goalID, themeID, strategyID

          ' figure out the goal, theme, and strategy that go with this action
          If (Me.ActionID) Then
            goalID = DLookup("[GoalID]", "Action", "[ID] = " & CStr(Me.ActionID))
            themeID = DLookup("[ThemeID]", "Goal", "[ID] = " & CStr(goalID))
            strategyID = DLookup("[StrategyID]", "Theme", "[ID] = " & CStr(themeID))
          End if

          ' populate the combo boxes and make the appropriate selections
          Me.StrategyCombo = strategyID
          Me.ThemeCombo.Requery
          Me.ThemeCombo = themeID
          Me.GoalCombo.Requery
          Me.GoalCombo = goalID
          Me.ActionCombo.Requery
          Me.ActionCombo = Me.ActionID
      End Sub

  [Forms]![Task]![ActionTaskSub].[Form]![StrategyCombo]:
    Row Source  : SELECT [Strategy].[ID], [Strategy].[Desc] FROM [Strategy];
    After Update:
      Private Sub StrategyCombo_AfterUpdate()
          Me.ThemeCombo = Null
          Me.ThemeCombo.Requery
          Call ThemeCombo_AfterUpdate
      End Sub

  [Forms]![Task]![ActionTaskSub].[Form]![ThemeCombo]:
    Row Source  : SELECT [Theme].[ID], [Theme].[Desc] FROM [Theme] WHERE 
                  [Theme].[StrategyID] = [Forms]![Task]![ActionTaskSub].[Form]![StrategyCombo];
    After Update:
      Private Sub ThemeCombo_AfterUpdate()
          Me.GoalCombo = Null
          Me.GoalCombo.Requery
          Call GoalCombo_AfterUpdate
      End Sub

  [Forms]![Task]![ActionTaskSub].[Form]![GoalCombo]:
    Row Source  : SELECT [Goal].[ID], [Goal].[Desc] FROM [Goal] WHERE 
                  [Goal].[ThemeID] = [Forms]![Task]![ActionTaskSub].[Form]![ThemeCombo];
    After Update:
      Private Sub GoalCombo_AfterUpdate()
          Me.ActionCombo = Null
          Me.ActionCombo.Requery
      End Sub

  [Forms]![Task]![ActionTaskSub].[Form]![ActionCombo]:
    Row Source  : SELECT [Action].[ID], [Action].[Desc] FROM [Action] WHERE 
                  [Action].[GoalID] = [Forms]![Task]![ActionTaskSub].[Form]![GoalCombo];

Answer 1

You can’t. Any action applies to the subform current record but appears to affect all controls. There are various work-arounds.