InfoPath Dev

Does InfoPath have the capability to take information from several forms and put it all in one clean form?  For example:

• Bob has an expense report for January 2011 - $100 for lodging, $50 for meals and $75 for transportation.
• Susan has an expense report for January 2011 - $150 for lodging and $100 for meals.
• Jack has an expense report for January 2011 - $25 for transportation.

Is there a way to get all of that information together in one report where it says...

January 2011 expenses:  $250 lodging, $150 meals, $100 transportation

...instead of having to get all three reports together, add it all up and submit the expenses?

Thanks!

Do you really need it to be in another report? Is this using SharePoint or just InfoPath standalone?  If using SharePOint, you just create views with summed columns so that you can see the totals for all relevant values by slicing and dicing the metadata.  If it's standalone, then I don't know how you'll consume all that data into one form unless the data resides in a database to where you can create receive data connections.

Please clarify your environment, because InfoPath has tons of capability, but much of it depends on your environment.

Hey warrtalon,

Thanks for your response.  What I've done is created an InfoPath form for my colleagues to use on a monthly basis and when they submit the report, it's updated to a SharePoint site so that we at least have a record of it.  However, we have a lot of people who submit reports on a monthly basis, so it'd be nice to be able to have the capability to "grab" all reports submitted for a certain month and compile it together into one nice, clean report to use instead of having to get each report, add everything up, make sure we've got the right numbers, etc. 

Does that make sense?

Am still waiting on a response to my question, thanks.

If you are promoting properties from your original form that has the info you need, you could use another form (or another view in this form) that uses the library your forms submit to as a secondary data source, and then aggregate the promoted data there....

EDIT: or you could also modify a view in your form library to show the aggregated data as well...

Yes, the first option is what I'm looking for.  Where can I find instructions on how to do something like that?  I want it to be able to take several submitted expense reports for a particular month and put it all together in one report so I don't have to open each one, add up all the numbers and risk making a mistake...

Well -- Add a secondary data connection to your form library where you have your submitted expense reports.

You can then use expression boxes to show the aggregated data. I've got a sample here that shows how to do this -- not by month, but the logic would be similar. The sample is also browser compatible, in case you need a browser form.

Not what I'm looking for.  Maybe I need to build an Access database, link the InfoPath file to it so it can compile and calculate all of the numbers I need at once.  Thanks.

Confused. InfoPath allows you to calculate all of the values at once in the form without code - just use xpath expressions.

I’m wondering if I have to get someone to build an Access database for me to do what I want it to do….

Hi Elon2000,

You certainly don't need Access to do this, but Access could do it. Really, it depends on what you feel comfortable with. I don't like Access because I don't really have much experience with it.

We use SQL instead of Access. You could certainly map your forms to SQL and create a nice Excel report to aggregate them - that's the default demo we do when we show people how our DBXL Web Service works. It allows you to easily map your expense reports to SQL and then you can just create this simple Pivot Table and chart to show the aggregate info. Takes maybe 15 minutes. That's probably your fastest route. Install the DBXL v2.4 Web Service on your local computer (for the local version you will need to download the free version of SQL Express from our YouSendIt site and install that first).

I am guessing you could have this all installed and working in 1-2 hours max. Could take less time. Ted Fitch can show you a quick 10-15 minute demo of the approach and point you to the download sites. Send him email if you are interested. Just e-mail Support at Qdabra dot com and we'll call you and do a live meeting.

Best regards,