Forcing Microsoft Access to acknowledge that the a Microsoft Access ADE file exists

Question

Here are the details about my local development computer environment: - Windows 7 Professional 64-bit Operating System - Microsoft Office Access 2007 (12.0.6735.5000) SP3 MSO (12.0.6743.5000)

At work, I received these 3 Microsoft Access files that are used to generate reports for one of our applications:

• ReportEngine.ade
• ReportEngine.ADP
• RptEngCore.ade

I've been given the responsibility of trying to understand the code and database schema associated with said files.

The main file is the ReportEngine.ADP file.

I opened up the ReportEngine.ADP in Microsoft Office Access 2007 which in turn opened up Microsoft Visual Basic Editor.

In Microsoft Visual Basic Editor, I navigate and click on Debug -- > Compile ReportEngine , but it gives me the following error:

"Compile error: Can't find project or library"

Then, I navigate and click on Run -- > Reset Next, I navigate and click on Tools -- > References , and I get the following Window Screen:

Microsoft Access dialog windows missing reference ade file

I clicked on the "Browse..." shown in the dialog window screen above, and I specify the file RptEngCore.ade which was one of the other Microsoft Access files that I mentioned in the list at the top of this stackoverflow posting. Unfortunately, it still mentioned that the said file was missing by showing the same dialog window screen shown above again.

I thought the error could be resolved by registering the RptEngCore.ade from Dos command prompt.

I ran Dos command prompt in Administrator mode, and ran the 64-bit version of regsvr32 registration command: C:>%systemroot%\SysWoW64\regsvr32 RptEngCore.ade

However, it gave me the following message:

Windows Registration file compatibility issue

I thought that I might need to run the 32-bit version of regsvr32 registration command:

C:>%systemroot%\System32\regsvr32 RptEngCore.ade

I still got the aforementioned registration message shown above

Could someone please tell me how I can get Microsoft Access to acknowledge that the RptEngCore.ade exists?

Answer 1

@wayne-g-dunn and @danielg : Thank you for your posts.

However, when I upgraded to Microsoft Access 2010, the reference RptEngCore.ade dependency was successfully seen by Microsoft Access 2010.

I spoke to the original developers, and they said that they develop/maintain/support the application using Microsoft Access 2010.

Answer 2

Take a look at the following Microsoft article that describes 'How Access resolves Visual Basic for Applications references' It is a step-by-step explanation that should solve your issue.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/824255/how-access-resolves-visual-basic-for-applications-references

Answer 3

The ADE is likely corrupt, or the reference to it in the host file is expecting a different version. When you reference and ADE, MDE, etc., Access caches information about it. If the referenced file ever changes, Access often gets confused. Other VBA based products do not do this.

I would remake the ADE, and re-reference it, like this:

When you open the ADP project (RptEngCore.ADP), make sure the project name is the name of the file, without the extension. From the VBA editor in RptEngCore.ADP, go to Tools > Properties, and make sure the Project Name is the same as you expect. This is what will appear as a reference name once you reference it, not the name of the file itself. Your code may use a fully-qualified reference, like RptEngCore.MyMethod(). Make the ADE from the RptEngCore.ADP in a location with the correct permissions. Open the file that needs to references the new ADE, and drop the existing reference to it from the references window, or from VBA code (References.Remove(name)). IMPORTANT: NOw compact and repair the database, and then go back and re-add the reference from the Reference window.