Provide status updates for a macro that goes unresponsive before completion
I have a VBA macro for searching email archives.
When searching through tens of thousands of emails (or even just a couple hundred on my test machine) it displays the status for a few seconds and then goes into a non-responder state while working on the rest of the messages.
This caused impatient users to close the issue prematurely and I would like to fix this by providing status updates.
I have coded the following solution and I believe that the problem lies with the way the GarbageCollector functions in VBA during a loop.
Public Sub searchAndMove()
UserForm1.Show
' Send a message to the user indicating
' the program has completed successfully,
' and displaying the number of messages sent during the run.
End Sub
Private Sub UserForm_Activate()
Me.Width = 240
Me.Height = 60
Me.Label1.Width = 230
Me.Label1.Height = 50
Dim oSelectTarget As Outlook.Folder
Dim oMoveTarget As Outlook.Folder
Dim oSearchCriteria As String
' Select the target folder to search and then the folder to
' which the files should be moved
Set oSelectTarget = Application.Session.PickFolder
Set oMoveTarget = Application.Session.PickFolder
oSearchCriteria = InputBox("Input search string: ")
Dim selectedItems As Outlook.Items
Set selectedItems = oSelectTarget.Items
Dim selectedEmail As Outlook.MailItem
Dim StatusBarMsg As String
StatusBarMsg = ""
Dim initialCount As Long
initialCount = selectedItems.count
Dim movedCounter As Long
movedCounter = 0
Dim x As Long
Dim exists As Long
' Function Loop, stepping backwards
' to prevent errors derived from modifying the collection
For x = selectedItems.count To 1 Step -1
Set selectedEmail = selectedItems.Item(x)
' Test to determine if the subject contains the search string
exists = InStr(selectedEmail.Subject, oSearchCriteria)
If Len(selectedEmail.Subject) > 999 Then
selectedEmail.Move oMoveTarget
Else:
If exists <> 0 Then
selectedEmail.Move oMoveTarget
movedCounter = (movedCounter + 1)
Else: End If
End If
Set selectedEmail = Nothing
StatusBarMsg = "Processing " & x & " out of " & initialCount & " messages."
UserForm1.Label1.Caption = StatusBarMsg
UserForm1.Repaint
Next x
Dim Msg As String
Dim Response
Msg = "SearchAndMove has detected and moved " & movedCounter & _
" messages since last run."
Response = MsgBox(Msg, vbOKOnly)
' Close the References to prevent a reference leak
Set oSelectTarget = Nothing
Set oMoveTarget = Nothing
Set selectedItems = Nothing
Set selectedEmail = Nothing
Unload Me
End Sub
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Change the line
UserForm1.Repaint
to
DoEvents
Yes, this will increase the execution time, but in case there are thousands of emails, you have little option.
Tip: You can also change
StatusBarMsg = "Processing " & x & " out of " & initialCount & " messages."
to
StatusBarMsg = "Please do not interrupt. Processing " & x & " out of " & initialCount & " messages."
It is also advisable to inform your user at the beginning of the process that it may take a while, and therefore they can start the process when they are sure that they do not want to work on this computer?
Something like that
Sub Sample()
Dim strWarning As String
Dim Ret
strWarning = "This process may take sometime. It is advisable to run this " & _
"when you don't intend to use the pc for sometime. Would you like to Continue?"
Ret = MsgBox(strWarning, vbYesNo, "Information")
If Ret <> vbYes Then Exit Sub
For x = SelectedItems.Count To 1 Step -1
'~~> Rest of the code
End Sub
NTN
Sid
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