[mdb-dev] Location of VBA code in MDB file

[Ross Knudsen]

Hi all,

I see on the TODO list that there is a task to extract the VBA code from
the database. I'm quite keen on giving this a go but I wanted to know
where in the database it is actually stored? Is it a record in a table
somewhere?

Thanks in advance.

Rossco

[Tony Toews]

Post by Ross Knudsen
I see on the TODO list that there is a task to extract the VBA code
from the database. I'm quite keen on giving this a go but I wanted
to know where in the database it is actually stored? Is it a record
in a table somewhere?

I have a vague memory that, starting in Access 2000, all VBA code was
placed in a BLOB/Memo field in one record. I'm not at all sure if
compiled VBA code was placed in the same BLOB. That said the code
won't be that useful without the forms and reports.

Tony


-----
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Tony's Main Microsoft Access pages - http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/
Granite Fleet Manager http://www.granitefleet.com/

[Ross Knudsen]

Hi Tony,

Thanks for the reply, I managed to find it. Here are the details for a
MDB-2000 file format:

There is a system table called MSysAccessObjects. This table has an ID
field (autoincrement) and a Data field (binary data). All the binary data
is of a fixed length (3992 bytes from memory). The first entry (ID=0)
appears to be some sort of header but the rest of the Data fields contain
an OLE Compound file similar to what was used in the legacy Office file
formats.

So if you concatenate the Data fields in ID order for ID>0 and write to a
file you can extract the VBA contents amongst other information. You can
inspect the file contents using 7zip. Here is the VB.net code I used to
extract the information:

Sub Main()

Const Sql As String = "Select * from MSysAccessObjects where ID > 0 order
by ID ASC;"
Const DatabasePath As String = "c:\users\ross\desktop\Copy 1st Mech
JobCosting.mdb"
Const OutputFilePath As String = "c:\users\ross\desktop\compoundfile"

Using conn As New OleDbConnection()

With New OleDbConnectionStringBuilder()
.DataSource = DatabasePath
.Provider = "Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0"
conn.ConnectionString = .ConnectionString
End With

conn.Open()

Dim table As New DataTable
Using adapter As New OleDbDataAdapter()
adapter.SelectCommand = New OleDbCommand(Sql, conn)
adapter.Fill(table)
End Using

conn.Close()

Using writer As New BinaryWriter(New FileStream(OutputFilePath,
FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write))
For Each row As DataRow In table.Rows
writer.Write(row.Item("Data"))
Next row

writer.Close()
End Using

End Using

End Sub

Post by Ross Knudsen
I see on the TODO list that there is a task to extract the VBA code from
the database. I'm quite keen on giving this a go but I wanted to know
where in the database it is actually stored? Is it a record in a table
somewhere?
I have a vague memory that, starting in Access 2000, all VBA code was
placed in a BLOB/Memo field in one record. I'm not at all sure if
compiled VBA code was placed in the same BLOB. That said the code won't
be that useful without the forms and reports.
Tony
-----
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Tony's Main Microsoft Access pages - http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/
Granite Fleet Manager http://www.granitefleet.com/