InfoPath Dev

It appears that InfoPath 2010 no longer allows you to set the default parameter values for secondary WebService data sources before they are automatically called during the form startup.

When you set up a secondary data source to a standard web service call that takes parameters, you get prompted for the sample values.  However, when you run the form, these sample values are not sent to the web service, as you would expect.

Furthermore, because the secondary datasource is automatically called when the form starts up, you are not able to set the values before the automatic call because the rules processing occurs AFTER the initial call to the web service.

I realize that I could do this in code in the Startup routine, but the problem is that we have users who want to stay away from coding and want to use the functionality of InfoPath and it's "easy to use interface" to be able to create forms.   Now I have to tell them that they need to start to learn C#?

Am I doing something wrong here?

Hi,

Are you pertaining to a particular web service? I've been using InfoPath 2010 and have not encountered this issue setting up SharePoint list web services, or even Qdabra's DBXL web services.

As a workaround, have you tried disabling "Automatically retrieve data when the form opens" - an option at the end of the receive data connection wizard when you create it? You would then add Form Load rules (Data tab > Form Load) that first sets your data source parameters and then queries the data connection.

Hope that helps!

I created a web service in Visual Studio that has only one method in it and accepts two parameters, one string and one integer.   When I set up the connection in IP, I get only one screen to enter parameters, whereas in IP 2007, I would get two. 

When the form is started, it tries to query the web services method, but gets an error because the integer parameter is NULL.   So it is not using the default parameters that I specified when creating the secondary data source.

 Yes, I can indeed turn off the "automatic retrieve", but then what is the purpose?   Why even have this option?   Furthermore, now I have to tell all my users that they have to go through all the pain of turning it off and setting up a bunch of form load rules to fill in each of the parameters of every function on every form?   Ouch!   That is a big step backwards.

 Anyway, I am hoping that someone from MS will fix this, because it seems like this is a bug.

Microsoft certainly has made a few perplexing changes in InfoPath 2010, but my guess is that they wouldn't make a change like this by accident.  Most likely having two of those screens was confusing to some users and was receiving some complaints when users didn't find the behavior they expected, so they took it out.  It is frustrating, but I wouldn't suggest holding your breath waiting for the old functionality to come back.

It seems that if you save your template as its source files and manually modify the data connection's corresponding .xml file to put in the default parameters you want.  But by comparison, using rules to set the values and query the data connection is probably the simpler and faster option.

I do agree that having two screens was kind of odd in 2007, I would have just combined it into one.   Usually, though I will agree not in all cases, the parameters you use to generate the XSD are the same ones that you would use as your initial parameters, so just make one dialog, but keep the defaults that were specified when downloading the WSDL.   I can't imagine that it would be all that much of a problem both technically and from a user's perspective to understand that these were the defaults.

I wonder if I open a problem support case with Microsoft if I will get any traction.   Anyone think similarly or am I one of the few who think this way?

Ah ha!   I found something very interesting....

When you open a new form template as "Blank" (Compatibility = "Web Browser Form") you get the two prompts as you normally get in IP2007, but when you open in "InfoPath Filler Form" (Compatibility="InfoPath Filler Form") it no longer works!

So, something about setting the compatibility option between "InfoPath Filler Form" and "Web Browser Form" is changing this behavior.

Anyone have any clues as to why?