InfoPath Dev

I've seen lots of posts about how this isn't possible directly from InfoPath.  Most solutions suggest saving the AccountID as text and then using a SPD workflow to set the Person/Group field in SharePoint. 

Can anyone explain why/how this works if I create a SP list, add a Person/Group field and then Customize the list form with InfoPath?  When I do this, the form automatically is created with the People Picker, and values are saved back into the SP list field - no problem.  Is there something in InfoPath making this work, or is SharePoint doing something behind the scenes?

Property promotion is not applicable to customized SharePoint lists.  You can have a person/group column in your SP list and customized that form in InfoPath without any problems.  The issue you are reading about exists for document libraries that save as an XML back to SharePoint.  If you want to use the person/group field in SharePoint from the XML, you will run into the problems you mentioned.

Thanks, Anson.  I wasn't clear.  I do realize that the property promotion doesn't factor into the list case.  I guess my question is whether anyone can explain how InfoPath is able to populate those Person fields in the list scenario?  Is it just writing the accountID as text and SP is resolving the name?

That is simply built in functionality that InfoPath and SharePoint lists provide out of the box.