Analyse an Access or VBA application

CodeCharta reads the source files an Office application exports, not the .accdb, .xlsm or .docm file itself. Export the application into a folder first, then map that folder like any other codebase:

ccsh analyse codecharta-export

Export an Access application

The export macro CodeChartaExport.bas writes everything CodeCharta reads:

1. Open the application in Access and the VBA editor with Alt+F11.
2. Import the macro with File > Import File… and pick CodeChartaExport.bas.
3. Run ExportForCodeCharta (place the cursor in it and press F5).
4. The export lands in the folder codecharta-export next to the database. Delete the module CodeChartaExport again, or keep it out of the map with -e CodeChartaExport.

Folder	Holds	Ending
vba	standard modules, class modules, form and report modules	.bas, .cls
forms	the layout of each form	.form
reports	the layout of each report	.report
macros	each stand-alone macro	.macro
queries	the SQL of each query	.sql

Tables and their relationships are not exported: they hold no logic, and CodeCharta does not map them.

An export of the msaccess-vcs-addin works for the modules and the .sql queries. It writes layouts, macros and query designs as .bas files, which CodeCharta would read as VBA modules, so leave them out:

ccsh analyse my-app.src -e '(forms|reports|macros|queries)/[^/]*\.bas$'

Export from Excel or Word

Export the modules from the VBA editor with File > Export File… (or any tool that writes the VBA project to files) into one folder: standard modules as .bas, class and document modules (ThisWorkbook, Tabelle1) as .cls, UserForms as .frm. VB6 forms (.frm) are read the same way.

What the map shows

• Unified Parser: complexity, functions, lines of code and comment lines of every module. A form or report layout counts the lines that hold logic (expressions, the SQL of its record and row sources) and its number_of_controls; a macro counts its actions and conditions, its submacros as functions.
• Dependency Parser: the edges between modules, from a module to the forms, reports, queries and macros it opens, from a layout to its sources, subforms, code module and the functions its expressions call, from a macro to what its actions open and run, and from a query to the forms and VBA functions it names. The rules are spelled out in vba.md.
• Domain Language Parser: the words of the names, captions, messages and comments, without the VBA keywords and the naming prefixes of Access (frm, qry, txt).

A VBA module that the editor exported in the Windows code page reads as such, so umlauts stay intact; a layout or macro reads in UTF-16, as Access writes it.

Not read

• The code inside an .accdb, .xlsm or .docm file: export it first.
• Tables, relationships and the data macros of tables.
• A name held in a variable (DoCmd.OpenForm strName), SQL text built in VBA, the member CallByName names, and an Excel sheet named by its caption (Worksheets("Kunden")); a sheet named by its code name (Tabelle1) draws its edge.
• VB6 project files (.vbp), user controls (.ctl) and designers (.dsr).