Struggling with many-to-many relationship - InfoPath Dev
in

InfoPath Dev

Having trouble finding a blog or post that answers your question? Check out our Custom Search Page

Struggling with many-to-many relationship

Last post 09-26-2012 03:16 PM by Hilary Stoupa. 5 replies.
Page 1 of 1 (6 items)
Sort Posts: Previous Next
  • 09-24-2012 05:09 PM

    Struggling with many-to-many relationship

     Hi there,

    I have a form that should display information retrieved from an access DB with the following structure:

     

    Server         Application

    Server1       App1, App2

    Server2       App2

    Server3      App1

     As you can see, one server can host multiple Apps, and an App can be hosted in multiple servers.

     

    How do I build this relationship in an Infopath form? 

     

    The Access DB is built as follows:

    TableServer      TableRelation       TableApp

    IDServer           IDServer              IDApp

    ServerName      IDApp                 AppName

     

    Hope it's clear enough, but if not, just let me know!

     

    Thanks in advance!

     

    Adri

  • 09-24-2012 05:17 PM In reply to

    Re: Struggling with many-to-many relationship

    Do you need to be able to create Apps without Servers? That is, would you need your form to submit to the Apps table but not the Servers table?

    If so, I'm wondering if you could create a kind of parent dummy table - with perhaps just one field / row with an ID in it - and then you could relate your Apps table to that, as well as your Servers table.... does that make sense?

    Hilary Stoupa
    Qdabra® Software/ InfoPathDev.com
    The InfoPath Experts – Streamline data gathering to turn process into knowledge.™

  • 09-24-2012 05:23 PM In reply to

    Re: Struggling with many-to-many relationship

    Hi Hillary and thanks for your reply!

    Just to give you a bit of context, what I'm trying to achieve is a Request for Change form (RFC) that once the user selects a server, it displays all the applications hosted in it.(I'm planning to use a multiple selection field for servers, and a repeating table for the apps).

    What you said kind of made sense, but I'm not sure how to build it in Infopath. I can send you a sample of the DB if it helps!

     

     

  • 09-25-2012 08:15 AM In reply to

    Re: Struggling with many-to-many relationship

    So, it actually doesn't sound like many to many in your description - one server may have many apps. The apps may appear on more than one server.

    To me, it seems like your form would be based off the server table, and your apps table would simply be a secondary data source.

    Hilary Stoupa
    Qdabra® Software/ InfoPathDev.com
    The InfoPath Experts – Streamline data gathering to turn process into knowledge.™

  • 09-25-2012 11:28 PM In reply to

    Re: Struggling with many-to-many relationship

    Hi Hilary,

    I spent quite a lot of time working on it and finally got it working, but as usual, you just stumble on a different rock. :)

    I got the interaction between Infopath and access working beautifully, but since the DB was hosted on my pc, Sharepoint users got a security alert.

    What's the best way to upload this DB to sharepoint? I tried uploading it as a document but the form wasn't able to use it as a souce of info. I also tried to export it as Sharepoint lists, but since there is no relationship between the lists I'm not sure how to proceed.

     

    thanks for your help,

     

    Adriano  

  • 09-26-2012 03:16 PM In reply to

    Re: Struggling with many-to-many relationship

    Can you use SQL Express or SQL on a server? I guess you could use two SharePoint lists - one would be your apps list, the other your servers list with a lookup column to your apps list that allows multiple values.

    Hilary Stoupa
    Qdabra® Software/ InfoPathDev.com
    The InfoPath Experts – Streamline data gathering to turn process into knowledge.™

Page 1 of 1 (6 items)
Copyright © 2003-2012 Qdabra Software. All rights reserved.
View our Terms of Use.