How does one decompile and recompile a database application?

Question

I have an Access database application and I would like to know the proper way of decompiling and recompiling it.

Answer 1

I wrote a VBS script to automate the process of decompiling. It's silly that Microsoft hasn't integrated this into Access, considering it is a necessity when developing VBA-heavy applications.

The script locates MSACCESS.exe and runs Access with the decompile flag on a database located in the parent directory of the script, whose name is given in the code.

Option Explicit
Dim MSAccPath
Dim RegKey
Dim WSHShell
Dim currentDirectory

' Get MSACCESS.exe directory
RegKey = "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\" _
    & "CurrentVersion\App Paths\MSACCESS.EXE\Path"
Set WSHShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

' Get parent directory
MSAccPath = WSHShell.RegRead(RegKey)
currentDirectory = WSHShell.CurrentDirectory

' Decompile
WSHShell.Run Chr(34) & MSAccPath & "MSACCESS.EXE" & Chr(34) & " " & Chr(34) & currentDirectory & "\..\testdb.accdb" & Chr(34) & " /decompile"

' Clear shell var
Set WSHShell = Nothing

Simply paste this text into a document with a .vbs extension and double-click it to run. Access will launch, decompile the compiled P-code ("packed" code), and automatically recompile the VBA source back into P-code.