InfoPath Dev

Hello,

I have a Form Library in SharePoint where my client's partners enter data about sales meetings. My client would now like to create a single report, so they can look at only certain fields from all or from some selected forms.

I was hoping to be able to use the Merge Forms functionality already built into SharePoint then the client could filter on the fields that have been promoted in the Library.

The problem I am having is once the list of forms has been filtered down and then merged, InfoPath does the default merge of combining repeating tables, however I need to summarize the data according to each form filled out.

For Instance the output of the selected merged forms should look like this:
partner1.xml
-Partner Name
--Note 1
--Note 2

partner2.xml
-Partner Name
--Note 1
--Note 2

I think what I would like to do is open a different InfoPath form with a different schema when "Merge Forms" is clicked in SharePoint. Is this possible???

In the book, Developing Solutions with Micorsoft InfoPath, on page 52 there is this sentence: 'We'll return to custom merge in Chapter 10 and discuss using two SharePoint form libraries'. I have been through Chapter 10 and I have not found this example. Would this be an option and if so what page is the example on?

I just found this posting: http://www.infopathdev.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1015&SearchTerms=custom,merge

My problem is the same that this other person asked about.

Hi DTobias and terribly sorry for the delay in responding. I am responsible for the errant reference on page 52. We had originally planned to add a section on custom merge and then cut it. Nobody caught this mistake during review. I'm sorry about this and thank you for pointing it out. It is a very good find.

You are going to need to do a custom merge. What that means is that you will need to develop an xsl that maps the XML from the input forms into another XML that corresponds to the schema for your "aggregated" form. The challenge here is writing the XSL. Another approach would be to change your form's schema to have a repeating node at the root. Then, the form will aggregate by default and you don't have to do any custom XSL. However that requires a schema change which may break your existing form data.

Merge forms assumes the default merge behavior in your existing form, so if you are going to go with option B and redo your schema so that there is a repeating node at the root and a section in your form that includs all of the fields, you can use it as is. However, if you are going with the separate "aggregate" form, you will want to add a button which opens that form and then write some OnLoad code to automatically get the SharePoint form library location and Import the forms there.

I am back from vacation and should be able to respond more quickly in the future. Sorry about the delays.