Access showed a dialog

Symptom: a step fails with “Access showed a dialog, which was cancelled: <title>: <text>”.

Environment

All versions of the WKL Office SDK; builds, exports and checks in a hidden Access.

Cause

Access answers some problems with a modal dialog: a parameter prompt of a query, a missing table, “file in use”, a runtime error in code that runs during the build (the finishing function, the model of WKL Forms Object Library). In a hidden Access nobody would see it, and the build would wait forever. The SDK watches for dialogs of its Access while a step runs, records title and text, cancels the dialog and fails the step.

Resolution

The text of the dialog names the problem; fix it in the sources. Common cases:

A parameter prompt: a query or a record source names a field or table that does not exist.
A runtime error in the finishing function: handle errors in the function and return a text instead; any text other than "" or "OK" stops the build with that text.
Time limit: a step that does not finish in time ends with “Access did not finish within <n> s and was ended”; the Access is ended and the step fails.