[RESOLVED] Can a menu bar cause validation?

Hello again,

My project's tester just found that while my infamous custom controls properly fire their validation methods when he saves data from a toolbar button, the menu command to save a record does NOT fire validation.

As the title says: How do I set a menu command to fire a control's validation event?

Should we guess what you've done in the control and menu? How about some code?

Code:

---

' and ALWAYS
'    remember
'        code
'              tags

---

I don't think this is possible unless anyone proves me wrong. What you can do is to perform the validations before allowing to save after clicking the menu...

I had forgotten about this until today, when we got a defect report that led to the same issue: Controls that require going through their Validate event do not fire Validate when the user clicks on the menu bar (such as the classic File|Save).

The menu bar was made in VB 6 through the form editor in Visual Studio.

And my latest searches agree with dee-u, there appears to be no way to have the menu cause validation.

There is a click event for each menu item, so I suppose you could use that to trigger the Validate event. There you could set focus to a control which doesn't require validation, such as a button.

Returning to this issue one more time, now with a code extract.

Here is my handler:

Code:

---

'**
'Menu Click Event Handler
Private Sub MnuSave_Click()
On Error Resume Next
'Manually fire validation for the current control
'If validation passes, call ToolAction
    SendKeys "{TAB}" 'Does not actually pass focus or fire control validation
    Call m_objForm.ToolAction(tbrBntSAVE_REC)
End Sub

---

The call to SendKeys does not actually move focus to another control.

Would it help if I did something like:
dim ctlTemp as Control
set ctlTemp = Me{form}.ActiveControl
Me.ActiveControl = (some other control -- this line needs work)
if ctlTemp = Me.ActiveControl then
.... do the save processing
end if

How about trying it out and perhaps share us the results?

I gave it a shot and had two issues.

1. I was trying to use pointer comparisons in VB6; I can't do an equality comparison between control objects directly. I'll have to use control.Name and control.Index instead.

2. The line I tagged as needing work needs work. ActiveControl is read-only, and I didn't find a quick way to manipulate the Controls collection to move focus. Any suggestions?

Try the SetFocus method for a control instead of SendKeys. Or you can change the focus via API.

Try evaluating objects with the Is operator instead of the equals sign.

BTW, top level menus have a click event too, so you can use one event to do the change in focus for all the items in that menu's list. You could also make a sub to pass focus, and simply call it from whatever menu click events you need.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by WizBang

Try the SetFocus method for a control instead of SendKeys. Or you can change the focus via API.

---

The question is, how do I pick the control to use for ctl.SetFocus?

Edited to add: The Is operator worked properly for the comparison. Thanks; that's part of the issue resolved.

SPY++ will give you addresses of any contol. It's built into VB6 IDE

Upon a brief testing your idea of using SendKeys seem to work, what problem are you actually encountering with that?

dglienna: I want to move focus to the next control in the tab order that can take focus.

dee-u: Maybe the TAB was being thrown off by stepping through code in the debugger. I'll put the breakpoint after it, and try again.

The SendKeys didn't work. Here's the current code:

Code:

---

'**
'Menu Click Event Handler
Private Sub MnuSave_Click()
'On Error Resume Next
    'Manually fire validation for the current control
    'If validation passes, call ToolAction
    Dim ctlTemp As Control
    Dim ctlTemp2 As Control
    Set ctlTemp = Me.ActiveControl
    SendKeys "{TAB}"
    Set ctlTemp2 = Me.ActiveControl
    If Not (ctlTemp Is ctlTemp2) Then
        Call m_objForm.ToolAction(tbrBntSAVE_REC)
    End If
   
    Set ctlTemp = Nothing
    Set ctlTemp2 = Nothing
End Sub

---

I tested this and made no changes to data, so validation would have passed. I set my breakpoint on the IF statement, and found that ctlTemp and ctlTemp2 were pointing to the same control.

What can I try next?

A mere

Code:

---

SendKeys "{TAB}"

---

worked for me. How many controls do you have in your form? Or could you attach a sample form?

I have many controls on each of several major forms, relying heavily on custom user controls, and I strongly doubt I can attach one of the forms. It would be difficult to even put together a decent representative mock-up.

Perhaps just a single form, with two textboxes and menu to test with?

I added a call to DoEvents after the call to SendKey, as I noticed that the tab key was being processed after the menu event exited. This resolved the issue, and validation is now working as desired from the menu.

Glad to hear it is now working.