“Compile error: qualifier must be a collection” error when trying to update record ID with recordset Bookmark

Question

How would I address the "Compile error: qualifier must be a collection" on the indicated line in the code below?

I basically have two tables: items ( ID , title , amount ) and relationships ( parentId , clientId ). I'm basically just trying here to create a new record in items , and then creating a new relationships table record as well.

I'm not sure how to allocate the the new items record (just created) to the new relationships record's childId field.

Private Sub Command18_Click()
    Debug.Print ("*** Starting ***")

    ' New Record
    Dim rsItems As Recordset
    Set rsItems = CurrentDb.OpenRecordset("items")
    rsItems.AddNew
    rsItems![title] = "title"
    rsItems![amount] = 123
    rsItems.Update

    ' Get new ID
    rsItems.Bookmark = rsItems.LastModified
    newId = rsItems.Bookmark
    Debug.Print ("New ITEM record with ID " & newId)

    ' Relationships
    Dim rsRelationship As Recordset
    Set rsRelationship = CurrentDb.OpenRecordset("relationships")
    rsRelationship.AddNew
    'Debug.Print ("Relationships Field Types: " & TypeName(gcItemParentId) & ", " & TypeName(rsItems.LastModified!ID))
    rsRelationship![parentId] = gcItemParentId  'taken from text box on main form that holds current parent ID
    rsRelationship![clientId] = rsItems.LastModified!["ID"] ' *** ERROR HERE *** 
    rsRelationship.Update

    ' Get new ID
    rsRelationship.Bookmark = rsRelationship.LastModified
    newId = rsItems.Bookmark
    Debug.Print ("New RELATIONSHIP record with ID " & newId)

    ' Refresh Form
    Me.Refresh

    ' Cleanup
    rsItems.Close
    rsRelationship.Close
    Set rsItems = Nothing
    Set rsRelationship = Nothing

End Sub

Answer 1

You're getting this error because you're trying to use LastModified and Bookmark to represent IDs in records rather than just record positions in recordsets. They can't do that.

What you need instead of newId = rsItems.Bookmark , therefore, is newId = rsItems!ID . Once you have the primary key for the record you just added, you'll use it with rsRelationship!clientId = newId . (You should probably also add a primary key field named RelationshipID [although the name is not really important] to the Relationships table. In Access, all tables that have enforceable relationships [in the Access sense] must have primary keys, and generally just about all tables should have them whether they technically need them or not. Mostly because all tables that can theoretically have enforceable relationships should; Access is far better at maintaining data integrity and making easy-to-use links than hand-written code usually is.)

The code as a whole, then, would look something like this, debugging statements, error handling, and redundant comments removed:

Private Sub Command18_Click()
    Dim rsItems As Recordset
    Set rsItems = CurrentDb.OpenRecordset("items")
    rsItems.AddNew
    rsItems!title = "title"
    rsItems!amount = 123
    rsItems.Update
    ' Go back to the record we just saved
    rsItems.Bookmark = rsItems.LastModified
    newId = rsItems!ID

    Dim rsRelationship As Recordset
    Set rsRelationship = CurrentDb.OpenRecordset("relationships")
    rsRelationship.AddNew
    rsRelationship!parentId = gcItemParentId
    rsRelationship!clientId = newId
    rsRelationship.Update

    Me.Refresh

    rsItems.Close
    rsRelationship.Close    
End Sub