New Features of Total Access Analyzer Version 14.5 for Access 2010

On forms and reports, controls may have conditional formatting to use colors and relative size for different values. Total Access Analyzer documents those settings and performs cross-reference analysis to determine if fields, code and other references are valid. These new reports are available:

• Form Controls with Format Conditions
• Report Controls with Format Conditions

Here's more information on Conditional Formatting Documentation.

Total Access Analyzer documents the navigation controls and buttons. References to subforms are documented and cross-referenced for validation. Additionally, an error and two suggestions are offered:

Navigation Control Button Has No Action

A navigation control has a navigation button that does not have any events and its NavigationTargetName property is not defined. This means if the user clicks on the button, the navigation subform is not updated and nothing happens.

Navigation Control Button has No Caption

A navigation control button doesn't have a caption or picture, so it's just blank.

Navigation Control Button Should Show Hyperlink Hand

Display a hyperlink hand rather than the default mouse arrow when the cursor is over the button. This provides a user experience similar to a web browser. Set the button's Cursor On Hover property to Hyperlink Hand to get this feature.

Total Access Analyzer performs module analysis and cross-referencing to identify invalid procedure calls. If your database calls functions stored in a library, those functions are not being detected and procedure calls to them are incorrectly flagged as undefined.

Total Access Analyzer cannot detect the procedures in your referenced library databases. However, if you create a table in your database listing the procedure names from your library or libraries, Total Access Analyzer will avoid flagging those procedure calls as undefined.

Simply create a table name usysTAnalyzerLibraryProcs in your database with two text fields: Procedure and Library. Fill the table with the procedure names you call. The library value isn’t required, but provided for easier tracking. Total Access Analyzer will check the list to avoid identifying those procedures as undefined.

Over the years, from customer feedback and as we encounter mistakes in our own work, when possible, we add their detection to Total Access Analyzer. This version includes three new Best Practices:

Unused DLL and Windows API Declare Procedures

DECLARE statements let you use procedures defined in DLL files and Windows API commands. Procedures defined in DECLARE statements that are not called are flagged as unused.

Property or Procedure Name Conflicts with Parameter

Parameters shouldn’t be the same name as the property or procedure name since it creates confusion when referencing it.

Unused Constants, Variables, and Parameters are Separated

Previously, all of these unused definitions were categorized into one Unused Variables group. They are now separated into three separate issues so you can manage them differently. Unused Parameters are particularly important to address because the calling procedure may be expecting different behavior from the procedure based on that parameter, but it’s completely ignored.

The VBA module parser for the 2010 version added support for compiler conditionals in the declarations section or procedures as defined in #IF...#ELSE…#END IF statements. This is particularly common when using the VBA7 constant to manage 32 versus 64 bit code:

#If VBA7 Then
  < 64 bit specific code >
#Else
  < 32 bit specific code >
#End If

The VBA parser in the update of Total Access Analyzer supports entire procedures defined by compiler conditionals to avoid triggering duplicate procedure definition issues. The duplicate procedures should be paired together:

#If VBA7 Then
  Sub ProcName()
    ...
  End Sub
#Else
  Sub ProcName()
    ...
  End Sub
#End If

Conditional compilers are also considered when determining unused code.

A search bar, similar to what’s available on the Navigation Pane, is added to the places where you select objects.

• Documentation Wizard
• Quick Doc Wizard
• Report Filter, Objects Tab

This simplifies the filtering of the list of objects by name.

The list of documented databases now shows when each database documentation process started and how long it took:

New Reports

In addition to the report listing the databases by name, two new reports are available:

• Output Databases, Sorted by Analysis Time
• Output Databases, Sorted by Start Time

For the reports that show issues, you can specify a filter to limit which issues are included. The Errors, Suggestions, and Performance tabs now show the count for each issue to make it easier to decide which issues to include:

The Count Field is Added to the Report Filter for Issues

New Treeview and Graphics

The hierarchical treeview is used in the View Explorer and Diagrams. A new treeview interface is provided with more modern graphical icons and font, more responsive expand and collapse behavior in the diagrams, and support for 32 and 64-bit versions of Microsoft Access. It also eliminates the dependency on the treeview in the Microsoft Common Control which has experienced Microsoft update issues that caused it to fail.

Improved Display of Module Code

When viewing module results, the Module Tab now shows the entire module rather than separate records for each procedure

Improved Jumping to Module Code

When viewing module results, you can press the Design icon to open the module editor at the current procedure. This feature is enhanced to better handle property Get, Let, and Set definitions, and to move to the first line of the procedure (after any comment lines) and highlight it.

Modern Fonts and Larger Sizes

With higher and higher resolution monitors, larger fonts are used throughout the program to make it easier to read.

New Manual and Context Sensitive Help

Updated manual and help file with detailed documentation of how the program works and how to best use it.