InfoPath Dev

I have a working InfoPath 2007 form (browser-based) that is published to a SharePoint 2007 forms library. I can create new entries using the form and edit those same entries and life is great, ... almost!

I have uploaded about 600 pre-existing documents. The uploaded forms open up in the browser-based form, work well, visuall are complet, and the form appears to works up until I try to update the data in SharePoint. However, the submit fails. There is no error message, but the chnages are not posted and the form does not close as the next step in the rule past the update would have it do. After some checking, all proceeding rules fire, but the update does nto work.

The form, the update control and the data connection all work with any entry created using that same InfoPath form, but none of the imported forms will update. I have inspected the data looking for missing or oddly encoded data. I have also inspected the .xml files' headers, but they appear good. I have validated that uploaded files are not checkin and that they are not read-only. I am perplexed.

BTW, I can create a form using the InfoPath form, copy it within Window Explorer view within SharePoint, and have it update as if I created it drectly from the InfoPath form.

Worse case, we'll need to re-enter the existing data, but there has got to be a reason. I can't even tell how the form KNOWS the imported forms were not created with form.

It knows because there are processing instructions in the xml files linking them to the template they were created with. I'm not the most SharePoint savvy, but under the form library's settings, in the Permissions and Management section, there is a link that says Relink documents to this library. Have you tried relinking your uploaded forms?

Thnak you for the response. I tried that early on. In fact I even updated the library's relink form to allow all items on the page to be selected at once. (That is something that seems painfully missing when looking at 600 check boxes). I could not get the form services to even open the forms until I relinked them. (They tried to default to the client prior to the relinking.)

These forms open in the right infopath form and the data is transferred in. It just seems to be more specifically with the ability to update the data from the InfoPath form.

It is almost as if the .xml forms are read only.

Oh, I bet with 600 forms the checkboxes were a realy nightmare.... We have a resident SharePoint guru -- I'll ping her and see if she has any ideas....

Hello Bowdish,

I found the only way I could reproduce this problem is if I had changed the original form template before I published it. As long as I didn't change any fields, it added all my original data to the columns, allowed me to make changes and displayed all information on upload. Is it possible that your form template was changed in any way before it was published to the library?

I’ll be dissecting the forms later today to see if I can make a change to them to have them better imitate the InfoPath generated documents. I was hoping that maybe it was some column in the form library that was simply noting them as read-only, or something more obvious than playing with the format of otherwise working documents.

Well, I hate to say I have solved the problem WITHOUT learning anything definite.

However, I am not 100% sold on that reasoning. The reason is that the "Sending Data..." prompt would briefly flash upon the earlier failed updates, indicating it was attempting to update the record. But if the scenario I stated above it correct, how would the "Sending Data..." prompt be even briefly displayed if the step that contained the update didn't fire because of a condition that evaluated as false.

Just thinking aloud, wishing I had more facts around the true problem. Thank you to all who readily and quickly helped with the problem.

Wow. Thanks for posting your fix. I'm not sold either on what might have caused the issue.... IP is very precise about matters of schema. However, I'm glad you've got it sorted....

We do have a tool that lets you update your XML files' processing instructions. You can either right-click on an individual XML, or if you have a bunch, bulk-update all of them at once. Here's a link to our Web Store where you can obtain the tool.

Please let us know if you encounter any issues and we'll be glad to help you further.

Cheers!

Thanks for the suggestion. We'll take a look.

Just in case you didn't find the link...

http://www.infopathdev.com/blogs/mel_balsamo/archive/2009/05/27/how-to-use-the-qdabra-modify-pi-tool-for-infopath.aspx

I looked back through the QDABRA site based on her signiture and looked at it there. Thanks!