Emulate document locking in Lotusscript - lotus-notes

In my Lotus Notes Application, when a user clicks an action, the action will call a run-on-server agent that will process the current document. The invoked agents sometimes doesn't run (which I think because of the concurrent agent limit of the server). This is why every 5 minutes there is a maintenance agent that runs to processed documents that are not processed by the invoked agents. The problem is, sometimes, a document is SIMULTANEOUSLY processed by these 2 agents, producing unacceptable results.
Is there a way I can emulate the document locking, such that documents can only be processed by one agent at a time? I don't like to use the native document locking because problems with the business rules might arise. I tried tagging the documents when one of the agents process it, then clears the flag after it is done. But the problem here is that there will still be a chance that the agents get hold of the document reference AT THE SAME TIME (due to the delay of saving the document, maybe).
Please help me. Thanks! :D

Yeah, that is not hard. Create a locking database where you have locking documents. They really only need to contain the UNID of the document being locked.
When your agents start processing a document, check if a locking document exists. If not, create one.
If there is one, either wait or skip the document for now.
After the document is done processing, delete the locking document.
This is trivial. Back when we were still on Notes/Domino 5, I even wrote a simple class to handle document locking in one of my application. The code below is referencing some functions and variables from another script library, but you get the idea. I am sure you can easily modify the code to work for you.
Option Public
Option Declare
Use "Functions.Globals"
Class DocumentLock
Private lockdb As NotesDatabase
Private lockview As NotesView
Private lockdoc As NotesDocument
Private lockservername As String
Private lockdbname As String
Private lnpdoc As NotesDocument ' Document to lock/unlock
Public Sub New(doc As NotesDocument)
me.lockservername = globals.GetValue("LockServer")
me.lockdbname = AppHomeDir + globals.GetValue("LockDBname")
If me.lockdb Is Nothing Then
Set me.lockdb = New NotesDatabase(me.lockservername, me.lockdbname)
End If
Set me.lockview = me.lockdb.GetView("LockedDocs")
Call me.lockview.Refresh()
Set me.lnpdoc = doc
End Sub
Public Sub LockMe()
Set me.lockdoc = New NotesDocument(me.lockdb)
me.lockdoc.Form="Locked"
me.lockdoc.LockUNID=me.lnpdoc.UniversalID
me.lockdoc.LockUser= globalcurrentusername
me.lockdoc.LockTime=Str(Now())
me.lockdoc.ClaimNumber = me.lnpdoc.GetItemValue("ClaimNumber")(0)
me.lockdoc.DocumentForm = me.lnpdoc.GetItemValue("Form")(0)
Call me.lockdoc.Save(True,True)
End Sub
Public Sub UnlockMe()
Call me.lockview.Refresh()
Set me.lockdoc = me.lockview.GetDocumentByKey(me.lnpdoc.UniversalID)
If Not me.lockdoc Is Nothing Then
Call me.lockdoc.Remove(True)
Call me.lockview.Refresh()
End If
End Sub
Public Function IsLocked(flagShowInfo As Boolean) As Boolean
Call lockview.Refresh()
Set me.lockdoc = me.lockview.GetDocumentByKey(me.lnpdoc.UniversalID)
If me.lockdoc Is Nothing Then
me.IsLocked = False
Else
me.IsLocked = True
If flagShowInfo = True Then
MsgBox "Document locked " & locktext & "." & Chr$(13) & "Please wait a while and try again.."
End If
End If
End Function
Public Function LockText() As String
LockText = "by " & LockUserName() & " at " & me.lockdoc.LockTime(0)
End Function
Public Function LockUserName() As String
Dim lockedby As String
lockedby = me.lockdoc.LockUser(0)
If lockedby = globalcurrentusername Then
LockUserName = "you"
Else
LockUserName = lockedby
End If
End Function
End Class

Related

Events causing cross-thread error in backgroundworker_progresschanged and backgroundworker_complete

My VB.NET winforms app runs a timer which creates a background worker to update the objects in an ObjectListView.
In the timer loop, a number of 'device' objects are added to an observable collection (in the backgroundworker_progresschanged event) and (in the backgroundworker_complete event), I use an OLV.SetObjects(allDevices, true) to populate them.
This all works flawlessly. However, the currently selected items in the OLV are lost during the OLV.setobjects so I need to restore them.
To do this, (in the backgroundworker_complete event), I want to access the selecteditems property of the OLV but I keep getting a "Cross-thread operation not valid: Control 'DeviceListView1' accessed from a thread other than the thread it was created on." All attempts at trying to read the selected listviewitems (either by OLV.selecteditems or a loop reading them from the OLV) fail with the cross-thread exception.
I may misunderstand but I thought I could access GUI elements on the backgroundworker_progresschanged and backgroundworker_complete events?
Here's the relevant code:
The PopulateDevices sub is called when the timer is started and will not run again until a specific time has passed. It runs the RunWorkerAsync of the Worker.
Public Sub PopulateDevices()
' Debug
_UpdateCount += 1
' Pause the Update Timer
UpdateTimer.Stop()
' Get the Starting Time of this Update
StartTime = DateTime.Now
' Stop updating the DeviceListView1 ObjectListView
ControlHelper.ControlInvoke(DeviceListView1, Sub() DeviceListView1.BeginUpdate())
' Clear Existing Devices from the List
AllDevices = New TrulyObservableCollection(Of DeviceItem)
' Get the selected devices
'_SelectedDevices = GetSetSelectedDevices(DeviceListView1)
' Prep the BackgroundWorker
PopulateDevicesWorker = New BackgroundWorker
PopulateDevicesWorker.WorkerReportsProgress = True
' Add the Event Handlers
AddHandler PopulateDevicesWorker.DoWork, AddressOf PopulateDevicesWorkerDoWork
AddHandler PopulateDevicesWorker.ProgressChanged, AddressOf PopulateDevicesWorkerProgressChanged
AddHandler PopulateDevicesWorker.RunWorkerCompleted, AddressOf PopulateDevicesWorkerCompleted
' Start the BackgroundWorker
If Not PopulateDevicesWorker.IsBusy Then
PopulateDevicesWorker.RunWorkerAsync()
End If
End Sub
The worker will read a list of devices from a SQLite DB and (in the progresschanged event) populate an observable collection (AllDevices):
Private Sub PopulateDevicesWorkerDoWork(sender As Object, e As System.ComponentModel.DoWorkEventArgs)
' We only continue if the \Clients\_Cache File exists and can be read
If Not File.Exists(CacheFilePath) Then
Exit Sub
End If
' Create a new SQLite Connection & Connect to database
Dim DBC As SQLiteDatabase = OpenDB(CacheFilePath)
If Not IsNothing(DBC) Then
' Count the Rows in the \Clients\_Cache file
Dim RowCount As Integer = CountTableRows(DBC, "_Cache")
' Set the SQL Query
SqlQuery = "SELECT * FROM _Cache WHERE Archived = #Archived"
' Create the SQLite Command
Using SQLitecmd As SQLiteCommand = New SQLiteCommand(SqlQuery, DBC.Connection)
SQLitecmd.Parameters.AddWithValue(String.Empty & "Archived", IIf(fMain.ButtonItem_VIEWARCHIVE.Checked, "True", "False"))
Using SQLiteReader = SQLitecmd.ExecuteReader()
Dim Counter As Integer = 0
' Read All Properties into the Array
While SQLiteReader.Read()
Using DeviceItem As New DeviceItem
With DeviceItem
' Get the Device Info here
End With
' Report progress at regular intervals
PopulateDevicesWorker.ReportProgress(CInt(100 * Counter / RowCount), DeviceItem)
' Increment the Counter (for Progress)
Counter += 1
End Using
End While
End Using
End Using
End If
CloseDB(DBC)
End Sub
Here is the WorkerProgressChanged event. It adds the current device (from the worker) into the observable collection (AlLDevices)
Private Sub PopulateDevicesWorkerProgressChanged(sender As Object, e As ProgressChangedEventArgs)
' Update Status
LabelItem_STATUS.Text = "Working.. (" & e.ProgressPercentage & "%)"
' Add the Device to Collection
AllDevices.Add(TryCast(e.UserState, DeviceItem))
End Sub
The WorkerCompleted event will set the objects in AllDevices to the OLV (DeviceListView1)
Private Sub PopulateDevicesWorkerCompleted(sender As Object, e As System.ComponentModel.RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs) ' Handles PopulateDevicesWorker.RunWorkerCompleted
' This is producing Cross-Thread error
If Not IsNothing(_SelectedDevices) Then
For Each item As ListViewItem In _SelectedDevices
Debug.Print(item.Text)
Next
End If
' Populate the ObjectListView
ControlHelper.ControlInvoke(DeviceListView1, Sub() DeviceListView1.SetObjects(AllDevices, True))
' Re-enable Form Updates
ControlHelper.ControlInvoke(DeviceListView1, Sub() DeviceListView1.EndUpdate())
' If the refresh rate isn't already set, set it to the time taken to complete the Update PLUS the Seconds specified in the SETTINGS.INI File
Dim difference As TimeSpan = DateTime.Now.Subtract(StartTime)
If UpdateTimeInSeconds = -1 Then
UpdateTimer.Interval = (RefreshRate + difference.TotalSeconds) * 1000
End If
' Restart the Update Timer
UpdateTimer.Start()
End Sub
I was under the impression, that I can update the GUI (get the OLV selecteditems, etc.) from the WorkerProgressChanged and WorkerCompleted backgroundworker events but I get the darn cross-thread error.
I'm also having to INVOKE the BEGIN\END UPDATE as calling them directly produces error.
I have read that the olv.setobjects in ObjectListView 2.91 (the version I am using) should persist the selections but I haven't seen this at all.
Please! What am I missing? Its probably something daft or is there another way of doing this?
If you are not using a Forms.Timer (but Timers.Timer or Threading.Timer) for your UpdateTimer, anything called from the timer "tick" event will run on a different thread.
Thus, PopulateDevices would also be called from a non GUI thread and the BackgroundWorker will run on that thread as well.

Catch event trigger from external application in Excel VBA

I use VBA to automate an external application that recently changed their COM API. The new API loads files asynchronously (used to be synchronous) so I need to wait for the file loaded trigger before I continue when I try to load a file.
I have tried the methods listed on the Microsoft website (EX1, EX2) which were also part of an accepted answer on StackOverflow.
Below is the code I have in a class module named UCExternal to contain the external application object:
Public WithEvents obj As External.Application
Private fileLoaded As Boolean
Private Sub obj_OnFileLoaded(ByVal lLayer As Long, ByVal strUNCPath As String)
Debug.Print lLayer
Debug.Print strUNCPath
fileLoaded = True
End Sub
Public Sub LoadSingleFile(fileStr As String)
fileLoaded = False
obj.LoadFile 0, fileStr
Do
DoEvents
Loop Until fileLoaded
End Sub
And then this is what I had in a normal code module to run using a button on the sheet:
Sub TryLoadFile()
Dim extObj as New UCExternal
set extObj.obj = CreateObject("External.Application")
filePath = "path/to/file"
extObj.LoadSingleFile filePath
End Sub
The event code never seems to fire and instead the Do Loop just runs until Excel crashes. I don't know if there is a way to confirm the application actually sent the event trigger? I have read through the new documentation for the application and that is the event they say to wait for. I have reached out to them for help as well but I wasn't sure if there was something more general I may have been missing. I have not worked with events external to Excel in the past. If I just step through it using the debugger and manually exit the Do Loop eventually the rest of the code that works on the loaded file works as well, so it does load the file.
extObj needs to be declared outside of TryLoadFile, or it will go out of scope and get cleared as soon as TryLoadFile completes
Dim extObj as New UCExternal
Sub TryLoadFile()
Set extObj = New UCExternal
set extObj.obj = CreateObject("External.Application")
filePath = "path/to/file"
extObj.LoadSingleFile filePath
End Sub

How to run a sub in a `Create` function and how to make a mock/stub/fake for a chart `Series`?

Preface
About 10 years ago I started refactoring and improving the ChartSeries class of John Walkenbach. Unfortunately it seems that the original it is not available any more online.
Following the Rubberduck Blog for quite some time now I try to improve my VBA skills. But in the past I only have written -- I guess the experts would call it -- "script-like god-procedures" (because of not knowing better). So I am pretty new to classes and especially interfaces and factories.
Actual Questions
I try to refactor the whole class by dividing it into multiple classes also using interfaces and than also adding unit tests. For just reading the parts of a formula it would be sufficient to get the Series.Formula and then do all the processing. So it would be nice to call the Run sub in the Create function. But everything I tried so far to do so failed. Thus, I currently running Run in all Get properties etc. (and test, if the formula changed and exit Run than. Is this possible and when yes, how?
Second, to add unit tests -- of course using rubberduck for them -- I currently rely on real Charts/ChartObjects. How do I create a stub/mock/fake for a Series? (Sorry, I don't know the correct term.)
And here a simplified version of the code.
Many thanks in advance for any help.
normal module
'#Folder("ChartSeries")
Option Explicit
Public Sub ExampleUsage()
Dim wks As Worksheet
Set wks = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets(1)
Dim crt As ChartObject
Set crt = wks.ChartObjects(1)
Dim srs As Series
Set srs = crt.Chart.SeriesCollection(3)
Dim MySeries As IChartSeries
Set MySeries = ChartSeries.Create(srs)
With MySeries
Debug.Print .XValues.FormulaPart
End With
End Sub
IChartSeries.cls
'#Folder("ChartSeries")
'#Interface
Option Explicit
Public Function IsSeriesAccessible() As Boolean
End Function
Public Property Get FullFormula() As String
End Property
Public Property Get XValues() As ISeriesPart
End Property
'more properties ...
ChartSeries.cls
'#PredeclaredId
'#Exposed
'#Folder("ChartSeries")
Option Explicit
Implements IChartSeries
Private Type TChartSeries
Series As Series
FullSeriesFormula As String
OldFullSeriesFormula As String
IsSeriesAccessible As Boolean
SeriesParts(eElement.[_First] To eElement.[_Last]) As ISeriesPart
End Type
Private This As TChartSeries
Public Function Create(ByVal Value As Series) As IChartSeries
'NOTE: I would like to run the 'Run' sub somewhere here (if possible)
With New ChartSeries
.Series = Value
Set Create = .Self
End With
End Function
Public Property Get Self() As IChartSeries
Set Self = Me
End Property
Friend Property Let Series(ByVal Value As Series)
Set This.Series = Value
End Property
Private Function IChartSeries_IsSeriesAccessible() As Boolean
Call Run
IChartSeries_IsSeriesAccessible = This.IsSeriesAccessible
End Function
Private Property Get IChartSeries_FullFormula() As String
Call Run
IChartSeries_FullFormula = This.FullSeriesFormula
End Property
Private Property Get IChartSeries_XValues() As ISeriesPart
Call Run
Set IChartSeries_XValues = This.SeriesParts(eElement.eXValues)
End Property
'more properties ...
Private Sub Class_Initialize()
With This
Dim Element As eElement
For Element = eElement.[_First] To eElement.[_Last]
Set .SeriesParts(Element) = New SeriesPart
Next
End With
End Sub
Private Sub Class_Terminate()
With This
Dim Element As LongPtr
For Element = eElement.[_First] To eElement.[_Last]
Set .SeriesParts(Element) = Nothing
Next
End With
End Sub
Private Sub Run()
If Not GetFullSeriesFormula Then Exit Sub
If Not HasFormulaChanged Then Exit Sub
Call GetSeriesFormulaParts
End Sub
'(simplified version)
Private Function GetFullSeriesFormula() As Boolean
GetFullSeriesFormula = False
With This
'---
'dummy to make it work
.FullSeriesFormula = _
"=SERIES(Tabelle1!$B$2,Tabelle1!$A$3:$A$5,Tabelle1!$B$3:$B$5,1)"
'---
.OldFullSeriesFormula = .FullSeriesFormula
.FullSeriesFormula = .Series.Formula
End With
GetFullSeriesFormula = True
End Function
Private Function HasFormulaChanged() As Boolean
With This
HasFormulaChanged = (.OldFullSeriesFormula <> .FullSeriesFormula)
End With
End Function
Private Sub GetSeriesFormulaParts()
Dim MySeries As ISeriesFormulaParts
'(simplified version without check for Bubble Chart)
Set MySeries = SeriesFormulaParts.Create( _
This.FullSeriesFormula, _
False _
)
With MySeries
Dim Element As eElement
For Element = eElement.[_First] To eElement.[_Last] - 1
This.SeriesParts(Element).FormulaPart = _
.PartSeriesFormula(Element)
Next
'---
'dummy which normally would be retrieved
'by 'MySeries.PartSeriesFormula(eElement.eXValues)'
This.SeriesParts(eElement.eXValues).FormulaPart = _
"Tabelle1!$A$3:$A$5"
'---
End With
Set MySeries = Nothing
End Sub
'more subs and functions ...
ISeriesPart.cls
'#Folder("ChartSeries")
'#Interface
Option Explicit
Public Enum eEntryType
eNotSet = -1
[_First] = 0
eInaccessible = eEntryType.[_First]
eEmpty
eInteger
eString
eArray
eRange
[_Last] = eEntryType.eRange
End Enum
Public Property Get FormulaPart() As String
End Property
Public Property Let FormulaPart(ByVal Value As String)
End Property
Public Property Get EntryType() As eEntryType
End Property
Public Property Get Range() As Range
End Property
'more properties ...
SeriesPart.cls
'#PredeclaredId
'#Folder("ChartSeries")
'#ModuleDescription("A class to handle each part of the 'Series' string.")
Option Explicit
Implements ISeriesPart
Private Type TSeriesPart
FormulaPart As String
EntryType As eEntryType
Range As Range
RangeString As String
RangeSheet As String
RangeBook As String
RangePath As String
End Type
Private This As TSeriesPart
Private Property Get ISeriesPart_FormulaPart() As String
ISeriesPart_FormulaPart = This.FormulaPart
End Property
Private Property Let ISeriesPart_FormulaPart(ByVal Value As String)
This.FormulaPart = Value
Call Run
End Property
Private Property Get ISeriesPart_EntryType() As eEntryType
ISeriesPart_EntryType = This.EntryType
End Property
Private Property Get ISeriesPart_Range() As Range
With This
If .EntryType = eEntryType.eRange Then
Set ISeriesPart_Range = .Range
Else
' Call RaiseError
End If
End With
End Property
Private Property Set ISeriesPart_Range(ByVal Value As Range)
Set This.Range = Value
End Property
'more properties ...
Private Sub Class_Initialize()
This.EntryType = eEntryType.eNotSet
End Sub
Private Sub Run()
'- set 'EntryType'
'- If it is a range then find the range parts ...
End Sub
'a lot more subs and functions ...
ISeriesParts.cls
'#Folder("ChartSeries")
'#Interface
Option Explicit
Public Enum eElement
[_First] = 1
eName = eElement.[_First]
eXValues
eYValues
ePlotOrder
eBubbleSizes
[_Last] = eElement.eBubbleSizes
End Enum
'#Description("fill me")
Public Property Get PartSeriesFormula(ByVal Element As eElement) As String
End Property
SeriesFormulaParts.cls
'#PredeclaredId
'#Exposed
'#Folder("ChartSeries")
Option Explicit
Implements ISeriesFormulaParts
Private Type TSeriesFormulaParts
FullSeriesFormula As String
IsSeriesInBubbleChart As Boolean
WasRunCalled As Boolean
SeriesFormula As String
RemainingFormulaPart(eElement.[_First] To eElement.[_Last]) As String
PartSeriesFormula(eElement.[_First] To eElement.[_Last]) As String
End Type
Private This As TSeriesFormulaParts
Public Function Create( _
ByVal FullSeriesFormula As String, _
ByVal IsSeriesInBubbleChart As Boolean _
) As ISeriesFormulaParts
'NOTE: I would like to run the 'Run' sub somewhere here (if possible)
With New SeriesFormulaParts
.FullSeriesFormula = FullSeriesFormula
.IsSeriesInBubbleChart = IsSeriesInBubbleChart
Set Create = .Self
End With
End Function
Public Property Get Self() As ISeriesFormulaParts
Set Self = Me
End Property
'#Description("Set the full series formula ('ChartSeries')")
Public Property Let FullSeriesFormula(ByVal Value As String)
This.FullSeriesFormula = Value
End Property
Public Property Let IsSeriesInBubbleChart(ByVal Value As Boolean)
This.IsSeriesInBubbleChart = Value
End Property
Private Property Get ISeriesFormulaParts_PartSeriesFormula(ByVal Element As eElement) As String
'NOTE: Instead of running 'Run' here, it would be better to run it in 'Create'
Call Run
ISeriesFormulaParts_PartSeriesFormula = This.PartSeriesFormula(Element)
End Property
'(replaced with a dummy)
Private Sub Run()
If This.WasRunCalled Then Exit Sub
'extract stuff from
This.WasRunCalled = True
End Sub
'a lot more subs and functions ...
You can already!
Public Function Create(ByVal Value As Series) As IChartSeries
With New ChartSeries <~ With block variable has access to members of the ChartSeries class
.Series = Value
Set Create = .Self
End With
End Function
...only, like the .Series and .Self properties, it has to be a Public member of the ChartSeries interface/class (the line is blurry in VBA, since every class has a default interface / is also an interface).
Idiomatic Object Assignment
A note about this property:
Friend Property Let Series(ByVal Value As Series)
Set This.Series = Value
End Property
Using a Property Let member to Set an object reference will work - but it isn't idiomatic VBA code anymore, as you can see in the .Create function:
.Series = Value
If we read this line without knowing about the nature of the property, this looks like any other value assignment. Only problem is, we're not assigning a value, but a reference - and reference assignments in VBA are normally made using a Set keyword. If we change the Let for a Set in the Series property definition, we would have to do this:
Set .Series = Value
And that would look much more readily like the reference assignment it is! Without it, there appears to be implicit let-coercion happening, and that makes it ambiguous code: VBA requires a Set keyword for reference assignments, because any given object can have a paraterless default property (e.g. how foo = Range("A1") implicitly assigns foo to the Value of the Range).
Caching & Responsibilities
Now, back to the Run method - if it's made Public on the ChartSeries class, but not exposed on the implemented IChartSeries interface, then it's a member that can only be invoked from 1) the ChartSeries default instance, or 2) any object variable that has a ChartSeries declared type. And since our "client code" is working off IChartSeries, we can guard against 1 and shrug off 2.
Note that the Call keyword is superfluous, and the Run method is really just pulling metadata from the encapsulated Series object, and caching it at instance level - I'd give it a name that sounds more like "refresh cached properties" than "run something".
Your hunch is a good one: Property Get should be a simple return function, without any side-effects. Invoking a method that scans an object and resets instance state in a Property Get accessor makes it side-effecting, which is a design smell - in theory.
If Run is invoked immediately after creation before the Create function returns the instance, then this Run method boils down to "parse the series and cache some metadata I'll reuse later", and there's nothing wrong with that: invoke it from Create, and remove it from the Property Get accessors.
The result is an object whose state is read-only and more robustly defined; the counterpart of that is that you now have an object whose state might be out of sync with the actual Excel Series object on the worksheet: if code (or the user) tweaks the Series object after the IChartSeries is initialized, the object and its state is stale.
One solution is to go out of your way to identify when a series is stale and make sure you keep the cache up-to-date.
Another solution would be to remove the problem altogether by no longer caching the state - that would mean one of two things:
Generating the object graph once on creation, effectively moving the caching responsibility to the caller: calling code gets a read-only "snapshot" to work with.
Generating a new object graph out of the series metadata, every time the calling code needs it: effectively, it moves the caching responsibility to the caller, which isn't a bad idea at all.
Making things read-only removes a lot of complexity! I'd go with the first option.
Overall, the code appears nice & clean (although it's unclear how much was scrubbed for this post) and you appear to have understood the factory method pattern leveraging the default instance and exposing a façade interface - kudos! The naming is overall pretty good (although "Run" sticks out IMO), and the objects look like they each have a clear, defined purpose. Good job!
Unit Testing
I currently rely on real Charts/ChartObjects. How do I create a stub/mock/fake for a Series? (Sorry, I don't know the correct term.)
Currently, you can't. When if/when this PR gets merged, you'll be able to mock Excel's interfaces (and much, much more) and write tests against your classes that inject a mock Excel.Series object that you can configure for your tests' purposes... but until then, this is where the wall is.
In the mean time, the best you can do is wrap it with your own interface, and stub it. In other words, wherever there's a seam between your code and Excel's object model, we slip an interface between the two: instead of taking in a Excel.Series object, you'd be taking in some ISeriesWrapper, and then the real code would be using an ExcelSeriesWrapper that works off an Excel.Series, and the test code might be using a StubSeriesWrapper whose properties return either hard-coded values, or values configured by tests: the code that works at the seam between the Excel library and your project, can't be tested - and we woulnd't want to anyway, because then we'd be testing Excel, not our own code.
You can see this in action in the example code for the next upcoming RD News article here; that article will discuss exactly this, using ADODB connections. The principle is the same: none of the 94 unit tests in that project ever open any actual connection, and yet with dependency injection and wrapper interfaces we're able to test every single bit of functionality, from opening a database connection to committing a transaction... without ever hitting an actual database.

Check if Query Connection was successfully refreshed on VBA [duplicate]

In Excel 2016 VBA, I'm refreshing several queries like this:
MyWorkbook.Connections(MyConnectionName).Refresh
After the code is done, and no errors are encountered, I see that the hourglass icons for most of the queries are still spinning for several seconds.
Is it possible to check for success AFTER all the refreshes are completed? I'm concerned that my code isn't going to know if an error happens after the code finishes but before the queries are done refreshing.
BTW I don't want to do a RefreshAll, because some of the queries are dependent on others (uses them as a source). I refresh them in a certain sequence so that dependent queries are refreshed after the queries they are dependent on.
UPDATE:
I see that the Connection objects have a read-only RefreshDate property, which at first glance looked like it could be used to do this check:
MyWorkbook.Connections(MyConnectionName).OLEDBConnection.RefreshDate
HOWEVER, it doesn't seem to be getting set. I get an error trying to check it. If I set a Variant variable to that RefreshDate property, the variable shows as "Empty". The source is a SQL server database.
The QueryTable object exposes two events: BeforeRefresh and AfterRefresh.
You need to change your paradigm from procedural/imperative to event-driven.
Say you have this code in ThisWorkbook (won't work in a standard procedural code module, because WithEvents can only be in a class):
Option Explicit
Private WithEvents table As Excel.QueryTable
Private currentIndex As Long
Private tables As Variant
Private Sub table_AfterRefresh(ByVal Success As Boolean)
Debug.Print table.WorkbookConnection.Name & " refreshed. (success: " & Success & ")"
currentIndex = currentIndex + 1
If Success And currentIndex <= UBound(tables) Then
Set table = tables(currentIndex)
table.Refresh
End If
End Sub
Public Sub Test()
tables = Array(Sheet1.ListObjects(1).QueryTable, Sheet2.ListObjects(1).QueryTable)
currentIndex = 0
Set table = tables(currentIndex)
table.Refresh
End Sub
The tables variable contains an array of QueryTable objects, ordered in the order you wish to refresh them; the currentIndex variable points to the index in that array, for the QueryTable you want to act upon.
So when Test runs, we initialize the tables array with the QueryTable objects we want to refresh, in the order we want to refresh them.
The implicit, event-driven loop begins when table.Refresh is called and the QueryTable fires its AfterRefresh event: then we report success, and update the event-provider table object reference with the next QueryTable in the array (only if the refresh was successful), and call its Refresh method, which will fire AfterRefresh again, until the entire array has been traversed or one of them failed to update.
Just found this solution at Execute code after a data connection is refreshed
The bottom line is: Excel refreshes data connection in the background and thus the rest of the code is executed without interruption.
Solution: set BackgroundQuery property to False
Example:
For Each cnct In ThisWorkbook.Connections
cnct.ODBCConnection.BackgroundQuery = False
Next cnct
Possible problem: don't know which connection it is...
Remedy: case... when...
Dim cnct as WorkbookConnection ' if option explicit
' ODBC and OLE DB
For Each cnct In ThisWorkbook.Connections
Select case cnct.type
case xlconnectiontypeodbc
cnct.ODBCConnection.BackgroundQuery = False
case xlconnectiontypeoledb
cnct.OledbConnection.BackgroundQuery = False
end select
Next cnct
As you can see, code above only deals with ODBC and OLE DB. Depending on what types of data connection you are using, you can expand the select case clause. Unless changed, once run, connection's BackgroundQuery will remain off.

$Ref flag reappears even after deletion

We have an Xpage based Web mail-in application. Some emails are coming with $Ref field (response document). We wanted to convert them into normal document by removing $Ref field so that it will no longer a response one. We are able to delete the $ref field but it reappears again after saving the documents from web interface(xpage) and it makes all such documents again response document. This started happening recently and working well earlier. Can you please suggest what is the root cause? How to stop it?
Sub Initialize
On Error GoTo ErrorHandler
Dim s As New NotesSession
Dim db As NotesDatabase
Dim coll As NotesDocumentCollection
Dim doc As NotesDocument
Dim count As Long
Set db = s.Currentdatabase
Set coll = db.Unprocesseddocuments
MessageBox "Count : " & coll.Count
'Exit Sub
count = 1
Set doc = coll.Getfirstdocument()
While Not doc Is Nothing
If doc.Hasitem("$Ref") Then
Call doc.Removeitem("$Ref")
Call doc.Save(false, false)
End If
Print count
count = count + 1
Set doc = coll.Getnextdocument(doc)
Wend
Exit Sub
ErrorHandler:
MessageBox "Error " & Error & " at line " & Erl
Exit Sub
End Sub
Try changing your save method to Call doc.Save(true, false).
This will force the document save, and also prevent creating a response.
Also verify that you are running the agent on a server not accessable to active users. Also verify that you are only running your agent once, and that it isn't enabled on multible replicas.
Have you tried using If(doc.isResponse) Then instead of If doc.Hasitem("$Ref") Then
Note: I am looking in the java editor, but assume that the isResponse method is also in LS.
Wheather a document is a response is controlled by a property of the used form. As long as you do not assign another form that is a "Document" and not a "Response", you will most probably not be able to remove the "isresponse"- flag. As already told: most probably your xpage saves the "frontend" document after your backend manipulation and resets the state (form validation enabled in xpage properties). But without source code of the xpage one cannot tell.
Check the form name. Emails can use either the "Memo" form or the "Reply" form. Emails using the Reply form are response documents. You may also need to change the form to "Memo".

Resources