Adding Tabs and Controls to the Office Fluent Ribbon in Access 2007

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Summary: Learn how to customize the ribbon for an Access 2007 database application.

**Applies to:**2007 Microsoft Office system, Microsoft Office Access 2007

David Hale, Microsoft Corporation

Joel Krist, Akona Systems

March 2007

Microsoft Office Access 2007 lets you customize the ribbon in your application. The ribbon provides a new user model for exposing commands, and it provides easier, more discoverable navigation. You can create a custom ribbon for an Office Access 2007 database by using only ribbon extensibility markup XML and macros. This video demonstrates the four steps to customize the ribbon for a database application: Create XML markup in the editor of your choice. Load XML into the database. Set database, form, and report properties to show customizations. Use macros or VBA to handle simple actions, such as button clicks. Creating XML Markup The following XML samples demonstrate the basic steps to create the XML markup that will display the custom ribbon buttons in an Access database. To see how to add these to your database, watch the video. The simple XML below sets the startFromScratch attribute to True, which hides the default ribbon. <customUI xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2006/01/customui"> <ribbon startFromScratch="true"/> </customUI> Next, extend the XML to add a new tab to hold your custom buttons. <customUI xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com /office/2006/01/customui"> <ribbon startFromScratch="true"> <tabs> <tab id="tabMain" label="Home"> <group id="grpProjects" label="Projects"/> </tab> </tabs> </ribbon> </customUI> Finally, add the buttons by adding the emphasized code show below. <customUI xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com /office/2006/01/customui"> <ribbon startFromScratch="true"> <tabs> <tab id="tabMain" label="Home"> <group id="grpProjects" label="Projects"> <button id="cmdHome" label="Home" onAction= "Ribbon.MarketingProjectsHome" size="large" imageMso="OpenStartPage" supertip= "Return to the Marketing Projects home page. Hold down the right shift key to open the database with full menus."/> </group> </tab> </tabs> </ribbon> </customUI> Let's look now at the details of the XML. The imageMso attribute refers to a ribbon image name that is pulled from the 2007 Office System Icon Gallery. The onAction attribute invokes a macro named Ribbon.MarketingProjectsHome that creates a macro object named ribbon. This object contains an action called MarketingProjectsHome that calls the OpenForm action to open the Marketing Projects Home form. Using VBA to Handle More Advanced Actions You can do many powerful actions using macros, but you may need to use more advanced tasks by creating VBA functions. For example, you need to write code for the following scenarios: Loading XML from a remote location. Implementing a callback. Loading custom images. Loading Remote Code This code creates a Recordset from any table that contains the word "Ribbons" in its name. Then it calls the LoadCustomUI method to load the ribbons, to make them available to the database. And finally, it closes the Recordset and the reference to the DAO.Database object. Option Compare Database Function LoadRibbons() Dim i As Integer Dim db As DAO.Database Set db = Application.CurrentDb For i = 0 To (db.TableDefs.Count - 1) If (InStr(1, db.TableDefs(i).Name, "Ribbons")) Then Dim rs As DAO.Recordset Set rs = CurrentDb.OpenRecordset(db.TableDefs(i).Name) rs.MoveFirst While Not rs.EOF Application.LoadCustomUI rs("RibbonName").Value, rs("RibbonXml").Value rs.MoveNext Wend rs.Close Set rs = Nothing End If Next i db.Close Set db = Nothing End Function Implementing Callbacks In the following example, the group element is declared with the label attribute. The label for this group is static, which means it is set when the group is created: <group id="Navigation" label="Navigation"> In practice, you may want to assign the label dynamically. In the following example, the group element is declared with the getLabel attribute. When this group is created, the ribbon calls the getLabel function to get the value for the label. <group id="Navigation" getLabel="onGetLabel"> The following example shows the VBA function that is called when the ribbon evaluates the XML in the previous example. Function onGetLabel(control As IRibbonControl, ByRef label) Select Case control.ID Case "Navigation": Label = "dynamic label text!" End Select End Function Loading Custom Images The following VBA examples show how to implement the getImage callback function to load images from an attachment field in the current database. This function uses a form to load images. In this example, all the images for the application are stored in the same record. Option Compare Database Option Explicit Dim formOpened As Boolean Dim attach As Attachment Function GetImage(imageId As String, ByRef image) If (Not formOpened) Then DoCmd.OpenForm "USysRibbonImages", acNormal, , , acFormReadOnly, acHidden Set attach = Forms("USysRibbonImages").Controls ("Images") formOpened = True End If Set image = attach.PictureDisp(imageId) End Function In the previous function, the USysRibbonImages opens as read-only and in hidden mode. This indicates that it is not in the UI. The images are retrieved from the Images control. The image whose name corresponds to the imageId that is requested by the ribbon is returned. In the following example, images for the application are stored in different records. If a record contains more than one image in the Images field, the first image is retrieved by default. Function GetImage(imageId As String, ByRef image) Static frmRibbonImages As Form_USysRibbonImages Static rsForm As DAO.Recordset2 Dim rsAttachments As DAO.Recordset2 If frmRibbonImages Is Nothing Then DoCmd.OpenForm "USysRibbonImages", WindowMode:=acHidden Set frmRibbonImages = Forms("USysRibbonImages") Set rsForm = frmRibbonImages.Recordset End If rsForm.FindFirst "ControlID='" & control.ID & "'" If rsForm.NoMatch Then ' No image found Set image = Nothing Else Set image = frmRibbonImages.RibbonImages.PictureDisp End If End Function Access provides flexibility in customizing the ribbon UI. For example, you can store customization markup in a table, embedded in a Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) procedure, stored in another Access database, or linked to from a Microsoft Office Excel 2007 worksheet. You can also specify a custom UI for the application as a whole or for specific forms and reports. You create XML to change the ribbon UI. You can create customization files in any text editor. All applications that include the ribbon use the same extensibility model, so you can reuse the same ribbon extensibility XML with a minimum of adjustments. For example, you can reuse the custom XML you create for the 2007 Microsoft Office release programs, such as Microsoft Office Word, Microsoft Office Excel, Microsoft Office PowerPoint, or Access, and for Microsoft Office Outlook 2007. For more information about ribbon architecture and the specification of the XML markup, see Customizing the 2007 Office Fluent Ribbon for Developers (Part 1 of 3).

Watch the Video Length: 00:07:22| Size: 7.4 MB | Type: WMV file Customizing the Office Fluent User Interface in Access 2007 Customizing the 2007 Office Fluent Ribbon for Developers (Part 1 of 3) 2007 Office System: XML Schema Reference 2007 Office System Lists of Control IDs 2007 Office System Add-In: Icons Gallery