InfoPath Dev

Hello -

My forms go through a workflow process and at the end I want them to be submitted to Qdabra.  The issues I have is when they are submitted to Qdabra

1. A new IP form is created with the Doc. ID as the name.

2. Since the form is really an update to the database (I have a trigger setup on a table to update to another table.) there are mulitple documents if the data is changed on the form and then resubmitted to Qdabra so the SQL data is updated. <-- hopefully that makes sense.

3. When a document is deleted from the sharepoint site but it stays in Qdabra. I installed the listener.

I have Infopath services moss 2007 with SQL 2008 express on Windows 2008 server.  My workstation is XP with IE8.

 Thanks,

Brandon

Hi -- is the issue then item 3 -- that when you delete from SharePoint, the document is not deleted from DBXL? I don't understand the question in item 2?

It is really two issues and I wrote it out as three.

1 - Documents don't delete in Qdabra when deleted from sharepoint.

2- When I resubmit a document to Qdabra it is created as a new document in qdabra and on the sharepoint site.

For item 2, does this happen if you close and re-open the document after submitting? DBXL writes the Doc Id into the processing instructions of the XML, so on the first submit, that information won't be there, and if the XML is not closed and re-opened, DBXL won't know that the document already exists.

For item 1, I'll have someone with greater familiarity with the listener post -- I'll let the team know of your issue.

Hi Brandon,

For item #1, you have to check Propagate Deletes checkbox in the SharePoint mapping tab of DAT in order to sync your forms in SharePoint and DBXL. Give it a try and let us know how it goes.

Thanks,

Hi Brandon,

For #1, I'm confused about the "workflow" that you describe previous to the form being submitted to DBXL. Can you provide more details?

From the description in item #2 it sounds like your InfoPath form is a database form. Is that true? Could you attach your form (XSN)? I would like to check the data connection that submits to DBXL to make sure there is no issue there.

Also, does your DBXL document type have Database mapping? Does it have SharePoint mapping?

For #3, can you confirm that you followed the steps in our documentation? Unless you are getting an error in eventvwr (to help us diagnose a possible issue), the only way to troubleshoot is to walk thru the steps again to reconfigure the listener.

Thanks for the additional info.

Hillary - Yes, if I open the original document and resubmit it will duplicate.  I have not tried to edit and submit the document that is created by qdabra.  I think the real issue here is that I am not using qdabra as my initial submit. 

Ernesto - This is a purchase approval document and needs to go through an approval process before it is submitted to the purchasing database.  So, I have the IP form going through an approval workflow which was created in sharepoint designer.  After the form has been been signed by the all of the approvers it is moved to a folder for accounting processing,  Accounting will be the people to actually click the button to submit to Qdabra and qdabra updates the purchasing database.

 Jo-Anne - I have checked the propogate delete check box and I have installed the listener dll according to the instructions.

 I think all of my problems would be solved if I could turn off the qdabra post to the sharepoint site, however, if I turn off the form services check box then the form will not be usable with IPFS.  Is there a way to format the name that comes back from qdabra?  The current form name is concat(Submitter - Cost - Date/Time Stamp).  If I could have qdabra submit the form the same way one of my issues would be solved.

 Although I would still have the issue with delete propogation.  I will try deleting and recreating the document type to see if maybe I made too many changes and I misclicked somewhere.

 Thank you for everyones help!

I don't know the details of your workflow or whether the workflow would work if the documents were in DBXL from the start, but if there is a field in your form that indicates that it has been approved by accounting, you can set up your database mapping so that the data only gets stored into the database when that field takes on a certain value.  Just have a look at this blog:

http://www.infopathdev.com/blogs/ernesto/archive/2009/07/31/conditional-sql-mapping-with-dbxl-v2-3.aspx 

Unfortunately Sharepoint workflow forces you to store the XML in Sharepoint, but DBXL needs to own/store the XML to handle the propagate delete and the database mapping and even the submit (because DBXL creates and injects processing instructions into every XML).

But as Jimmy says, you can accomplish all of this with conditional mapping in DBXL and move to forms-based workflow (a field where status is stored, and based on that status kick off the shredding).

It still gives me a duplicate form in sharepoint.  For example, my user creates a purchase request, it goes through the work flow and at the end when it is shredded I get a form called 32 with the same data as the purchase request.  The 32 came from qdabra, I don't need that form to added to my sharepoint site I just need the data shredded from the original request.  Is there a way to not have the form added to the site?  If not I can create a hidden forms library and then have a workflow automatically delete the qdabra created form.

The solution is not as easy as adding the conditional mapping. You would need to change your form to use forms-based workflow.

As I understand it, this is the scenario:

1. Your form submits to SharePoint. This creates version 1 of document called 32.

2. Sharepoint workflow happens. (Sharepoint owns the XML and DBXL is not involved.)

3. A user clicks to submit to DBXL. "Version 2" of document called 32 is created. But in reality, this is the first DBXL has seen of the xml, so it's simply saving it as it should.

4. DBXL maps to the SQL database

5. DBXL maps to SharePoint. This is where the duplicate comes from. And also, because of the SharePoint submit in #1, the Propagate Deletes will encounter issues because now there are duplicates.

Is the Sharepoint mapping on your doctype necessary? Removing this will solve the duplicates issue, but then the documents in Sharepoint will be out of sync with the documents in DBXL because there is nothing linking them. Sharepoint workflow owns one version and DBXL owns the other version. There might be a way to link the two but it will most likely involve code.