Automatically generating handling of issues

Question

This is more an observation than a real question: MS-Access (and VBA in general) is desperately missing a tool where error handling code can be generated automatically, and

Answer 1

There is no need to buy tools DJ mentioned. Here is my code for free:

Public Sub InsertErrHandling(modName As String)
    Dim Component As Object
    Dim Name As String
    Dim Kind As Long
    Dim FirstLine As Long
    Dim ProcLinesCount As Long
    Dim Declaration As String
    Dim ProcedureType As String
    Dim Index As Long, i As Long
    Dim LastLine As Long
    Dim StartLines As Collection, LastLines As Collection, ProcNames As Collection, ProcedureTypes As Collection
    Dim gotoErr As Boolean

    Kind = 0
    Set StartLines = New Collection
    Set LastLines = New Collection
    Set ProcNames = New Collection
    Set ProcedureTypes = New Collection

    Set Component = Application.VBE.ActiveVBProject.VBComponents(modName)
        With Component.CodeModule

            ' Remove empty lines on the end of the code
            For i = .CountOfLines To 1 Step -1
                If Component.CodeModule.Lines(i, 1) = "" Then
                  Component.CodeModule.DeleteLines i, 1
                Else
                    Exit For
                End If
            Next i

            Index = .CountOfDeclarationLines + 1
            Do While Index < .CountOfLines
                gotoErr = False
                Name = .ProcOfLine(Index, Kind)
                FirstLine = .ProcBodyLine(Name, Kind)
                ProcLinesCount = .ProcCountLines(Name, Kind)
                Declaration = Trim(.Lines(FirstLine, 1))
                LastLine = FirstLine + ProcLinesCount - 2
                If InStr(1, Declaration, "Function ", vbBinaryCompare) > 0 Then
                    ProcedureType = "Function"
                Else
                    ProcedureType = "Sub"
                End If
                Debug.Print Component.Name & "." & Name, "First: " & FirstLine, "Lines:" & ProcLinesCount, "Last: " & LastLine, Declaration
                Debug.Print "Declaration: " & Component.CodeModule.Lines(FirstLine, 1), FirstLine
                Debug.Print "Closing Proc: " & Component.CodeModule.Lines(LastLine, 1), LastLine

                ' do not insert error handling if there is one already:
                For i = FirstLine To LastLine Step 1
                    If Component.CodeModule.Lines(i, 1) Like "*On Error*" Then
                        gotoErr = True
                        Exit For
                    End If
                Next i
                If Not gotoErr Then
                    StartLines.Add FirstLine
                    LastLines.Add LastLine
                    ProcNames.Add Name
                    ProcedureTypes.Add ProcedureType
                End If

                Index = FirstLine + ProcLinesCount + 1
            Loop

            For i = LastLines.Count To 1 Step -1
                If Not (Component.CodeModule.Lines(StartLines.Item(i) + 1, 1) Like "*On Error GoTo *") Then
                    Component.CodeModule.InsertLines LastLines.Item(i), "ExitProc_:"
                    Component.CodeModule.InsertLines LastLines.Item(i) + 1, "    Exit " & ProcedureTypes.Item(i)
                    Component.CodeModule.InsertLines LastLines.Item(i) + 2, "ErrHandler_:"
                    Component.CodeModule.InsertLines LastLines.Item(i) + 3, "    Call LogError(Err, Me.Name, """ & ProcNames.Item(i) & """)"
                    Component.CodeModule.InsertLines LastLines.Item(i) + 4, "    Resume ExitProc_"
                    Component.CodeModule.InsertLines LastLines.Item(i) + 5, "    Resume ' use for debugging"

                    Component.CodeModule.InsertLines StartLines.Item(i) + 1, "    On Error GoTo ErrHandler_"
                End If
            Next i
        End With
End Sub

Put it in a module and call it from Immediate Window every time you add new function or sub to a form or module like this (Form1 is name of your form):

MyModule.InsertErrHandling "Form_Form1"

It will alter your ode in Form1 from this:

Private Function CloseIt()
    DoCmd.Close acForm, Me.Name
End Function

to this:

Private Function CloseIt()
    On Error GoTo ErrHandler_
        DoCmd.Close acForm, Me.Name
ExitProc_:
Exit Function
ErrHandler_:
    Call LogError(Err, Me.Name, "CloseIt")
    Resume ExitProc_
    Resume ' use for debugging
End Function

Create now in a module a Sub which will display the error dialog and where you can add inserting the error to a text file or database:

Public Sub LogError(ByVal objError As ErrObject, moduleName As String, Optional procName As String = "")
    On Error GoTo ErrHandler_
    Dim sql As String
    MsgBox "Error " & Err.Number & " Module " & moduleName & Switch(procName <> "", " in " & procName) & vbCrLf & " (" & Err.Description & ") ", vbCritical
Exit_:
    Exit Sub
ErrHandler_:
    MsgBox "Error in LogError procedure " & Err.Number & ", " & Err.Description
    Resume Exit_
    Resume ' use for debugging
End Sub

This code does not enter error handling if there is already "On Error" statement in a proc.