InfoPath Dev

Okay, I'm pretty new to InfoPath so to help myself (and anyone willing to help me) I thought I'd go through the process I'm taking with this proof of concept. This goal is to make this work and then apply to some existing forms later.

 My goal is pretty simple: Use an InfoPath form to populate one list in SharePoint (Offering Details List). One of the fields in the InfoPath form will be populated with data pulled from another list (Refresh Dates List).

 

I have two lists in SharePoint that are relevant (Offering Details & Refresh Dates):

 

I started a fresh instance of InfoPath and started designing my form. This POC will have 2 fields -- Title and Dates. I added a Text Field and named it "Title". I then added a Multiple-Selection List Box (don't know if this is the best option for what I'm trying to do). I then went through the process to get it to retrieve data from the Refresh Dates list.

 

Here's what the Preview looks like. It is pulling the dates (which I'd like to format differently, but first things first):

 

I then published the form to a new library (New Offering):

 

 

The Title field is the next thing I need to address but have struggled with.

I wasn't able to simply double-click the Title field and set a Rule to add an item to the SharePoint list I wanted it to go to (Offering Details). I thought maybe the problem was that I had no Submit Options. So I took a look at the Submit Options and did the following:

 

Unfortunately when I double-click the Title field I'm still unable to find the Offering Details list in the drop-down menu to make it write to that list.

 

And of course I'll need the Dates to write to that list so the whole thing is stopped at this point. Odd thing is I was able to get it to write the Title to the list yesterday. But I've forgotten how to do it now. This wasn't even the part I originally came here for help on...

Okay, I was in error. I wasn't updating the List I was updating the Library. Fine. I'll jump off the next bridge in a bit and talk about the workflow between the Library and the List. For now here's what I have:

 

It's updated the "Title" field, but not the "Dates" field. How can I get it to update the Dates field with the mulitple selections? That's the real question I have for this thread. I need to be able to show multiple Dates in the Dates column. I don't care if they're comma/semi-colon delimited but they all need to be in that column. I'm later going to use that column of dates to drive logic (next date after today, that sort of thing).

Hi -- Forgive me, I've gotten a little lost. In your promoted properties for you form, where you select Dates -- I see that you've set it to 'first'. If you change that to 'merge', what happens?

Also -- as to your 'submit' data source -- it won't show up in the data connections list. You can choose, in a rule, an action of 'Submit' -- but that data connection won't show up in your data source task pane.

Hilary Stoupa:

Hi -- Forgive me, I've gotten a little lost. In your promoted properties for you form, where you select Dates -- I see that you've set it to 'first'. If you change that to 'merge', what happens?

Sorry about that. I included all of my steps for a couple reasons. 1) So I can see what I'm doing. 2) So if I'm missing something it might help others. In retrospect I probably didn't need to post even a fraction of what I did -- because the hurdle I'm trying to overcome is the writing of multiple selections into one list entry.

As to your question, I didn't "set it" to first, but I did notice that when I promoted that property. I don't know what that setting does, but "Merge" seemed to have quite an effect!

Hilary Stoupa:

Also -- as to your 'submit' data source -- it won't show up in the data connections list. You can choose, in a rule, an action of 'Submit' -- but that data connection won't show up in your data source task pane.

Doesn't look like this is a problem. I was having a lapse when I wrote that and was looking for a connection to write the data to a list instead of the library. After that I went into SharePoint Designer and created a simple workflow to update the list with the library items.

This is where my next problem is. I don't know if you're familiar with workflows in SPD but I don't see "Dates" as an available field...

 

 

And then the last thing (until I have another :) ) is how to modify the dates into a different format (instead of "2009-03-27 00:00:00" I'd prefer it say "03-27-2009" or at the very least leave off the H/M/S section...)

Okay, the main problem was "Dates" didn't exist as a field in my Offering Details list. I added it and then it appeared for use in my workflow. Unfortunately I couldn't use it as a "Date and Time" field as it will only accept one item, not multiple. I changed the field to "Multiple Lines of Text" and am testing it now. It seems to be working alright. I see now that it may have been working before when I had "first" selected instead of "merge". Notice the first item is blank. It was probably submitting the first item, which was blank.

thanks for posting your whole process... i have a question unrelated to your focus so far... i'm also getting options for my multiple-selection field from a sharepoint list.  each time i select an item though, i have to wait for the thing to requery.  since my list is pretty long, this takes an irritating amount of time.  does this happen to you, and if not, any ideas as to why??  Thanks!

Let me get this straight. Are you saying in your InfoPath form you're displaying the data from your SharePoint list column, but upon selecting one of the items in your Multiple-Selection field the data is refreshing?

thanks for your response! 

I think it's refreshing... each time i select an item, i have to wait for the system to do something.  the items i select stay selected, and the selection list remains the same.   

i have another field with a rule that requeries the data for the selection list above; that lookup takes about 7 seconds, and it shows a prompt letting me know it's "communicating with the sharepoint site"    when i select an item in the selection list, i don't get a prompt, the screen just freezes for about 5 seconds before i can select another item. 

:) if none of this makes sense i can do some screen shots...