Version control Access 2007 database and application

Question

I need to version control a Microsoft Access 2007 database and application. Currently everything is contained in a single mdb file.

The application includes:

• Forms
• VBA code
• Actual database

I would assume I need to separate the database from the forms/code. I would like to be able to version control the forms/code as text to support version diffs.

At the moment I don't have access to SourceSafe (I heard there may be some access support) so I would prefer a solution that would work with subversion or git.

Answer 1

Access 2007 has a feature where you can split a DB into its Tables/Queries (backend) and Forms/Reports (front-end). Since your question mentions only version controlling the forms and modules, this might be a more elegant solution. I don't know where modules go after the split, so that might be a stumbling block.

Microsoft offers VSTO (Visual Studio Tools for Office), which will let you develop in VS and run version control via any VS plugin (CVS/SVN/VSS/etc.).

Finally, you can just directly connect to Visual Source Safe. This MSKB article has some good information and background to go through, while this Office Online article is designed for getting you up and running.

Ultimately, I would suggest against taking the code out of Access if at all possible. Assuming the VBA editor is your primary development environment, you'll be adding extra steps to your development process that cannot easily be automated. Every change you make will need to be manually exported, diff'd, and stored, and there is no Application.OnCompile event that you could use to export the changes. Even tougher, you'll have to manually import all changed source files from other developers when they do checkins.

Answer 2

I use the code below to extract the vba code from Excel files, you may be able to modify this to extract from Access.

Sub ExtractVBACode(strSource, objFSO, strExportPath, objLogFile)
Dim objExcel
Dim objWorkbook
Dim objVBComponent
Dim strFileSuffix
Dim strExportFolder


Set objExcel = CreateObject("Excel.Application")

objExcel.Visible = true

Set objWorkbook = objExcel.Workbooks.Open(Trim(strSource))

strExportFolder = strExportPath & objFSO.GetBaseName(objWorkbook.Name)

If Not objFSO.FolderExists(strExportFolder) Then
    objFSO.CreateFolder(strExportFolder)
End If

For Each objVBComponent In objWorkbook.VBProject.VBComponents
    Select Case objVBComponent.Type
        Case vbext_ct_ClassModule, vbext_ct_Document
            strFileSuffix = ".cls"
        Case vbext_ct_MSForm
            strFileSuffix = ".frm"
        Case vbext_ct_StdModule
            strFileSuffix = ".bas"
        Case Else
            strFileSuffix = ""
    End Select
    If strFileSuffix <> "" Then
        On Error Resume Next
        Err.Clear
        objVBComponent.Export strExportFolder & "\" & objVBComponent.Name & strFileSuffix
        If Err.Number <> 0 Then
            objLogFile.WriteLine ("Failed to export " & strExportFolder & "\" & objVBComponent.Name & strFileSuffix)
        Else
            objLogFile.WriteLine ("Export Successful: " & strExportFolder & "\" & objVBComponent.Name & strFileSuffix)
        End If
        On Error Goto 0
    End If
Next

objExcel.DisplayAlerts = False
objExcel.Quit

End Sub

Can you extract the forms as XML perhaps?

Answer 3

I've struggled with this same problem. I originally wrote code very much like the existing answer. The trick is to get all of your modules onto the file system, but that method has some drawbacks. Going that route, you can get your forms and reports out of the VBA Projects, but you can't get them back in. So, I created a library as part of our Rubberduck VBE Add-in. The library I wrote takes care of importing and exporting all of your code to/from the VBA project to/from the repository as you seemlessly push, pull, and commit. It's a free and open source project, so feel free to download and install the latest version.

Here is an example of how the library is used. I'll be adding actual integration with the VBA editor in a future release.

Dim factory As New Rubberduck.SourceControlClassFactory 
Dim repo As Rubberduck.IRepository 
Dim git As ISourceControlProvider

Dim xl As New Excel.Application
xl.Visible = true
Dim wb As Excel.Workbook

Set wb = xl.Workbooks.Open("C:\Path\to\workbook.xlsm")

' create class instances to work with
Set repo = factory.CreateRepository(wb.VBProject.Name, "C:\Path\to\local\repository\SourceControlTest", "https://github.com/ckuhn203/SourceControlTest.git")
Set git = factory.CreateGitProvider(wb.VBProject, repo, "userName", "passWord")

' Create new branch to modify.
git.CreateBranch "NewBranchName"

' It is automatically checked out.
Debug.Print "Current Branch: " & git.CurrentBranch

' add a new standard (.bas) code module and a comment to that file
wb.VBProject.VBComponents.Add(vbext_ct_StdModule).CodeModule.AddFromString "' Hello There"

' add any new files to tracking
Dim fileStat As Rubberduck.FileStatusEntry
For Each fileStat In git.Status
    ' fileStat.FileStatus is a bitwise enumeration, so we use bitwise AND to test for equality here
    If fileStat.FileStatus And Rubberduck.FileStatus.Added Then
        git.AddFile fileStat.FilePath
    End If
Next

git.Commit "commit all modified files" 

' Revert the last commit, throwing away the changes we just made.
git.Revert