InfoPath Dev

I have a form in which a user can create a new project, or edit it based on query fields. there are 4 query fields. I was able to set it up so that the second dropdown would filter based on the first, third on the second, and ultimately the 4th on the 3rd dropdown which should filter down to the project they would like to edit.

The customer feels that the user may not know all of the information required to narrow down for that project. For instance, say the only info on the project that the individual knows is held within the third dropdown. The way the form is currently designed, the third dropdown won't populate any choices until you have populated the previous two.

 Is there a way to set a dropdown to either filter based on the selection in the previous box OR if the box is blank to allow a user to select from the entire datasource?

Once this happens, is there a way to make any of the four dropdowns filter based on the selections in any of the other boxes regardless of the order in which they are selected?

Hi,

You would just have multiple dropdowns, all bound to the same node. You can then hide/show these different dropdowns as desired, using conditional formatting.

So you could:

1. Show dropdown1.

2. User makes a selection

3. Based on the selection in dropdown1, you show dropdown3A, which is the dropdown that shows the data set filtered based on the selection made in dropdown1.

4. The user selects an option in dropdown2.

5. This causes dropdown3a to become hidden. You now display dropdown3B, which shows the data set filtered based on BOTH dropdown1 and dropdown2.

Does that make sense? Good luck!