Re: VB/Delphi "kind of" Service Program_DLL

[Antonio Fernandez-Vicenti <afvaiv@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well, maybe I did not make myself clear...
Let me try to explain it better this time:
As I see it, any "Function" , in any language, is "a program (or 
whatever)" that can be invoked from another program (Application) to do 
some work and return a result value.
What I'd like to write is a "Function", could be called 
"Ask_Customer_ID", that would present some displays (windows) with 
search criteria, show a list (ListBox) of those that qualify for the 
entered search criteria, allow for selection, and return the selected 
Customer_ID.
Any Access Form that needs the customer_ID (Order Entry, or Invoicing, 
etc) asking the user for Customer_ID could then have a "Command Button" 
that, when pressed, would call Function Ask_Customer_ID" to get it 
returned and go on with other processing...

That function (and, possibly, others...) could be "encapsulated" (???) 
in a .DLL to be used "where needed".
Can this be done? Any example of how to do it?
But from Access2000 Help (and I guess Access2003 would be the same...) 
searching for "Call" (Action Execute Code):
   "Microsoft Access ignores the value returned by the Function" (??? !!!)
Then, maybe, passing the Customer_ID as a ByRef parameter?

Hope I made myself more clear this time.
TIA

Shannon ODonnell escribió:

> So...I'm not following this completely here... are you wanting to have a
> customer number (and all key fields) prompt that then writes the values to a
> file which could be read by your Access and other apps?
>
> And you're wanting it such that from within Access or Excel or whatever, you
> can execute this new app to display the prompt. And your goal is so that the
> single prompt provides a uniform look and feel to all the apps, writing the
> data to a single file on the hard drive?
>
> Is that what you're after?
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pctech-bounces+sodonnell=irish-studios.com@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:pctech-bounces+sodonnell=irish-studios.com@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
> Of Antonio Fernandez-Vicenti
> Sent: Friday, June 09, 2006 8:58 AM
> To: PC Technical Discussion for iSeries Users
> Subject: [PCTECH] VB/Delphi "kind of" Service Program_DLL
>
>  Customer is using Access/2003 for several apps. Several of them start 
> asking for something like "Enter Customer Number", so we'd like to just 
> implement such a Function just once and have all initial Forms for each 
> app, when users is promted for "enter CustomerNo" either answer with a 
> number (if he knows it) or , else, press F4 (or whatever, or a Button) 
> to "call a Function" that will do the work: e.g. present a new Form 
> asking for key values (LastName starting chars, FirstName starting 
> chars, CityAreaCode, etc. Then show customers that fulfill those 
> requirements, allow for selection of one of them , ... just to return 
> the selected code or a "not found" value... to the original App.
>
> Such a Function would be used throughout in several different Apps. I 
> think one (best one???) of the alternatives would be to develop a 
> "CustomerSelect Function, receiving no-parms, returning one integer(or 
> zero, maybe) value of selected CustomerCode.
> This Function could/should be writen either in VB or Delphi, then create 
> a  .DLL with that Function, to register under Windows, to be used for 
> any VB projects that need it.
> I think of it as a "ServiceProgram" in RPG... but as a DLL.
>
> Anyone out there willing to share an example (either VB and/or Delphi) 
> of such a Function?
> TIA
>
> Antonio Fernandez-Vicenti
> afvaiv@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>