InfoPath Dev

Hi,

I have a form published to a sharepoint form library.

One of my fields (locations) is located in a repeating table.  It just so happens that I need to promote this field to Sharepoint so i can use it in workflow emails.  The problem I am getting when I do this is that it only populates the column with the first location the user selected and often times there will be more than one.  (This is a travel request sheet)

Is there any way to maybe auto populate another field with all entries in that nodeset?  I know that sum can use all numbers from a node - I'm looking for something similar but a string of all strings in that set. 

All I have found is telling me how to promote this repeating field to a list - I need it to just work for this form library column. 

Thanks for any help :)

Hi Lindsey,

You've just run into the biggest limitation between InfoPath and SharePoint. Repeating structures can't be mapped to columns in SharePoint form libraries because form libraries are single tables.

Some options:

• You can merge the items instead of taking the first - this will concatenate with space
• You can have a workflow pull the values out of the XML but that will require some custom workflow (and probably coding)
• You can map the items to a separate SharePoint list and add a web part to your form library to show it. qRules free trial provides the mapping from XML to ShP lists.
• You can map the items to a SQL database and convert your SharePoint form library view to a data view that has grouping and can show child tables underneath rows. To map your items to a SQL DB is easy using Qdabra's DBXL Web Service accelerator for InfoPath and SQL. Here again, free trial and very low cost options are available

Best of luck down the rabbit hole! :)

How do I do the first option.. concatenate with space?  I have only figured out how to do this with 3 fields not with just 1.  Would this work like this:

I could create a field (in a non-used view) that has a default value of concat() that field?  So all the entries in that field would be merged?

for instance if they were

• seattle
• los angelos

it would say: seattle los angelos

Am i understanding this right?  That would be great if it could.

p.s. thanks for getting back to me

Hi:

You can create a field and not show it in any views at all -- in your design task pane, look for the data source task pane. Right click the group you want to add the data field to and select "Add". You can access the field's properties in the same task pane -- right click on the field and select "Properties".

Your new field will need a default value that uses a double eval formula to "roll up" your repeating field.

However, looking back at your original question -- you simply want to promote the merged values from your field to the library the form is submitted to -- is that correct? If so, when you promote the property (either during the publishing process, or from Form Options / Property Promotion), and you select a repeating field or group, you should have an option (below the selected field) of what you'd like to do with that repeating data. By default, you'll get the first value, but you can select Sum (handy for numbers!) , Last (must be handy for something...) or Merge -- which is what you want to do. I think when merging, the values are separated by a semi-colon, so if it MUST be a space, you'll need to add a field and give a double eval formula a try.

Thank you Hilary!  This merge function is exactly what I was missing :)