InfoPath Dev

So I have an infopath form, not sure if being infopath matters, however as part of the form submit, it sets the next approver and changes a form status from New to Approval. I also have a number of things hidden until the approval process starts. Problem? Well when I leave the form blank, and hit submit, it triggers the rules to set the variable values, but the form then errors in SharePoint and now I see things I shouldn't and even though the form isn't submitted, the variables are now set that the form in in the Approval process and it's assigned to the first approver. This seems to be a general thing I have never seen anyone tackle. Is the rules supposed to be triggering if the submit action fails due to required fields? Do I have to set some additional conditions that if everything required in the form is not containing something don't trigger the actions? Thanks. JR

You need to set additional conditions. Usually I just do that in a single rule at the beginning of the submit rules - you could add a field to your form for an error message (if this is a browser form) or display a message box (if filler) and select the checkbox to not run the rest of the rules if the condition is met. Your rule condition verifies that all the fields that can't be blank, aren't blank. Let me know if a sample form would be helpful.