Text import/export

Access can write most objects to a text file (SaveAsText) and read them back (LoadFromText). PyAccessKit exposes this through db.objects, for forms, reports, macros, modules and queries.

text = db.objects.export_text("form", "frmCustomers")  # str, LF line endings
db.objects.import_text("form", "frmCustomersCopy", text)

path = db.objects.save_text("module", "modMath", "src/modMath.bas")  # UTF-8 file
db.objects.load_text("module", "modMath", path, replace=True)

db.objects.names("macro")
db.objects.rename("report", "rptOld", "rptNew")
db.objects.delete("macro", "mcrUnused")

Encodings

Access uses different encodings per object type, and gets confused if you mix them up:

Kind	What Access reads and writes	What PyAccessKit gives you
Forms, reports, macros, queries	UTF-16LE with a byte-order mark	str, and UTF-8 files with LF line endings
Modules	The Windows ANSI code page	str, and UTF-8 files with LF line endings

UTF-16 files are treated as binary by Git. PyAccessKit converts them for you, so exported objects diff nicely. Class modules carry four Attribute VB_... header lines in their text form. Plain VB6-style .cls files are accepted, and their extra header lines are dropped.

When to use it

Text export is the full-fidelity way to move objects between databases, keep designer-made forms in source control, or look at what Access really stores. It is not the main way to build objects: the text format is undocumented, version-dependent and unvalidated, and LoadFromText overwrites without asking. PyAccessKit therefore refuses to replace an existing object unless you pass replace=True.

Stripping volatile content (checksums, printer settings, GUIDs) for cleaner diffs is planned for the source-control milestone.