InfoPath Dev

Hi all - first post please help!

This is partially a rant but I really do need some help. 

We had a consultant come in to get us pointed in the right direction with our shiny new SharePoint portal.  Part of the scope of the work was to create 2 InfoPath forms for some common HR forms.  After spending several days on the effort, the forms were created and published to the portal.  They use a data connection library that has both a SP list for a single drop-down and a web service for querying active directory.  At this point they worked.

He leaves and I go back to clean up the forms so they appear more like our current paper docs.  I'm only on the first one and I can get it to preview locally but I get the dreaded:

There has been an error while processing the form.

Click Continue to resume filling out the form. You may want to check your form data for errors.

Click Start Over to load a new copy of the form.

Hide error details

Some rules were not applied.

when run on the server.  I've checked data connections over and over and still no go.  I'm pulling my hair out!!!! (what little is left).

Any help is extremely appreciated!

No way to randomly guess which rules it not being applied, and we can't analyze your XSN easily due to your data connections. 

so you get this error when the form opens, right?  If so, then check the form open rules in Tools > Form Options > Open and Save.  Something in there must be bombing out.  Is this a browser or rich client form?  What web service is touching AD? Is it custom built, is it Qdabra's ADWS, or is it the built-in UserProfileService (doesn't touch AD).

Thanks for the reply! 

Yes, I get the error when the form loads and have looked at the rules for Open and Save over and over.  Basically what happens is data fields are populated from AD if it's the initial load (determined by checking if one of the fields is blank).  It's a browser form and the web service is in-house custom.  The service has been tested and was working fine before I touched the form.

I have gone through each field and made sure it is pointing to the proper data source in the SP library.

Other info - The form is set to full trust.  Any suggestions would be a great help; I can post screen shots, etc. if needed.

 Thanks again!

Since it's full trust, that means it's administratively approved and deployed from Central Admin, right?

As for the rules on form open, if you click "continue," are there any fields in the form that you can verify to see if those form opening rules are working or not?  If you can find something that is NOT getting populated, then you know the rule that isn't working and can troubleshoot accordingly.

Thanks again Clayton.

I am very new to SP administration so I'll just go through the steps on getting the form up:

1.  The form is published to the portal (eg http://ourportal)
2.  The form is then uploaded within CA Manage Form Templates to install
3.  It's then activated from the portal site via site collection features
4.  Within the document library on the portal, the content type is added from existing
5.  The form is instantiated by selecting it from the New drop-down in the document library

If I select continue, none of the AD data comes across but for the life of me I can't see anything wrong.  Of course, being a newbie I really am not sure what I'm looking for.  Do you need me to post any screen shots or xml as a help?

Thank you once more.

David

Is there a reason why you're using a custom built AD web service when MOSS provides a web service that gives this exact info?  If you're not getting the AD info, then those are the rules that are failing, but you don't know why yet.  Either the rules are now messed up due to changes you made, or the form cannot access that web service.  I don't believe it's a problem with accessing the web service, because otherwise you'd get a data access error instead of a rules error.

warrtalon:

Is there a reason why you're using a custom built AD web service when MOSS provides a web service that gives this exact info?

Wow!  The consultants (I won't mention names but they are a large firm) said we needed to write a web service to do this.  What is the service in MOSS?

I have a backup of this form that works fine so I'll compare it to the changed one to try and see where the data connection is hosed.  Fortunately, I keep my feathers numbered for just such an emergency. :)

Thank you again Clayton!

I've written a blog showing the greatness of the UserProfileService, and it's based off a 2+ year old blog that I learned from a while ago...

InfoPath - Get user information without writing code (extended)

The UserProfileService has a ton of web methods that can be used for leveraging profile information, which is pulled from AD by the SSP's profile import.  The method in my blog post is just one of many.  Also, the site we're on right now is run by Qdabra.com, and they have an ACtive Directory Web Service that DOES talk to AD directly (for use on non-MOSS InfoPath forms as one example), and it only costs $249.  I'm not sure how much you paid to have it created by that firm, but it was probably more.  =P  In that vein, be sure to look at everything Qdabra offers either on the corporate site or through this site, because there is a ton of free stuff and some very cheap add-ons.

Thanks again for the help and your advice.

I solved the issue by recreating the data connection and converting it again.

Now when I create the form to kick off the workflow I get this:

Error assigning role to an item. The parameter loginName cannot be empty or bigger than 251 characters.

Hmmm.  The workflow executes to the point where it sends the first notification email, then chokes on the following action to send another email to a different account.  Is there any way to step through the workflow to debug it?

Depends on what the workflow was built in.  OOTB, SPD, VS?

It's apparently relevant to the loginName parameter that inveitably comes from the custom web service (such a shame when it's freely available otherwise).  If you can't end up debugging the workflow, though I believe you can, you can try playing with that node from the web service by adding temp fields to the form and using preview.

Thanks Clayton.

 It was built in SPD and regarding loginName, it is not in the web service.  I wrote the web service my self and have searched the source to make sure I didn't use that name for a parameter or variable.  Check this link - apparently it's not just me:

http://www.webparts360.com/infomotion/Dashboard/default.aspx

 

I'm confused.  I thought you said some other consultant wrote your AD web service, but you just said that you wrote it yourself?  Reconcile that for me, please.  Maybe you meant to say you wrote the workflow.

loginName is not a parameter that I've ever seen and is not what SharePoint uses to reference a user.  InfoPath uses userName() for the current user's login name, and the function shows up as get-userName.  Also, the profile elements in SharePoint for a user are AccountName, UserName, and UserProfile_GUID.  loginName has to be coming from something in your data connections.  What is that link showing?  I see the error, but I see no commentary.

Anyway, to "debug" the SPD workflow, I suggest adding actions to each step using "Log to History List."  Log little comments that explain which action has just occurred.  That way, you can see what the last comment is in the history list after the workflow bombs, and you'll have a pretty good idea that it's the next action that is bombing.

Sorry about the confusion; 

 From one of my above posts:

mcpsspa:

The consultants (I won't mention names but they are a large firm) said we needed to write a web service to do this. 

I did, in fact, write the web service.  That's why I know for certain that loginName is not in it.  The consultant wrote the workflow but I have no problem modifying it if needed.

I posted the link because it showed up when searching for the error message.  Not sure it's SP related but certainly a coincidence at least.

warrtalon:

Anyway, to "debug" the SPD workflow, I suggest adding actions to each step using "Log to History List."  Log little comments that explain which action has just occurred.  That way, you can see what the last comment is in the history list after the workflow bombs, and you'll have a pretty good idea that it's the next action that is bombing.

That's great info!  I'm on it - Thank you!

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This ambiguous error message( very common if you are developing with Microsoft products  :o)  )  is always related to an unterminated Dataconnection

Meaning, You might have a data connection that is not bound to any field.

 

How to fix :

1.       Open the Form to design view in InfoPath .

2.       Got to Tools - > Data Connections.

3.       Find out which control is not being used , if you designed it you would know.

4.       Or start assigning those to static text field one at a time and find the one that breaks.

 

Good Luck coding

-George Gergues