Multi-Purpose Forms in an Access Relational Database Application

Microsoft Access is very flexible development tool. Seasoned developers know this, and take advantage of that flexibility in different ways. For example, different interface objects can be used for two or more purposes. A recent question at UtterAccess gave me an opportunity to create a small demo to illustrate how re-use of objects works.

In this demo Access Relational Database Application, I used one of the arguments for the DoCmd.OpenForm action to change the Data Mode for a single form.
Here's the full line of code, taken from two different procedures: 

    DoCmd.OpenForm FormName:="frmHousehold", View:=acNormal, DataMode:=acFormAdd

which runs from the Click Event of one Command Button. 


    DoCmd.OpenForm FormName:="frmHousehold", View:=acNormal, DataMode:=acFormEdit

which runs from the Click Event of the other Command Button. 

Two Command Buttons Open One Form in Two Different Data Modes

This is a very simple illustration of the re-use of objects. Instead of creating two different objects--add and edit forms in this case--to do two very similar tasks, we re-use the same object but vary the way it is used. Because adding records to a table, and editing records in that same table are almost identical tasks; it's obvious that we can simplify the Access Relational Database Application this way.

This is a simple example of a much broader set of design principles and practices. If you want to learn more, here's an excellent YouTube video by Phillip Steifel.