InfoPath Dev

Here is what I would like to do.

1. Query a list of Cases using REST to obtain a subset of records (around 150 records returned max).  Each record contains a column that is a unique ID representing a row in another list called Clients.  Note:  There can be one client with many cases.

2. This works fine - I can get and display the results showing cases; however, the Cases list does not contain the names of the clients.

3. So, I need to also show the names of the clients; however, I can't simply query the list for all clients and then filter because the list of clients is too big.

3. So, I want to perform a series of server side REST queries using the clientID from cases to get the clientID from Clients along with corresponding name information.

4.  If this were sql I would say that I have a many-to-many relationship and need to do a join; however, I don't see where REST supports this. 

 Is there something in qRules that would support doing such a query and, if so, what would the roadmap look like.  I think the filter function may do this; however, I can't seem to crack the code on how to use it to populate fields.

1. REST and ODATA are great new features in 2010. We have some new InfoPath training content on this (lab, video, and presentatoin) and would happy to deliver it to you for a small fee or for free in lieu of a qRules testimonial (2-3 line quote we can use). Let me know.

2. Should be easy to select the Clients in the data set so that they come down too. What's the default scehma? Did you have clients in the list before you connected to it?

3. How are the Clients connected to the Cases? You can definitely filter using ODATA and REST and those will run server-side.

4. It's easy to do. You just build up the ODATA query using concats in InfoPath - search for ODATA. There's a ton of stuff out there and we can also show you are training.

No need for qRules to take advantage of ODATA but qRules can help you copy the result set into your main data source.

Patrick,

I appreciate the offer.  I would be happy to provide a testimonial of qRules or your training either way.  Frankly, qRules has saved my sanity.  The ability to write back to a data source is simply beyond my level of knowledge.  qRules and this forum have opened the door to the point that I can now train myself to do just about anything.  Perhaps the one thing that has made a difference is the ability to essentially take a client intake sheet that contains the baseline data needed for our business and turn it into one form.  Prior to qRules, we did this in word or manually and then retyped.  Now, we have one electronic form and inputting in the form also updates the database.  It requires writting to more than a dozen lists.

With respect to your questions:

1) Let me know what product you specifically want me to talk about - and if you have a specific feature in mind I will be happy to emphasize that point.  I feel comfortable talking about your customer support, this forum, SaveToSharePointList, and then the general use of qRules.  I can also talk about how it has enhanced Sharepoint and made forms more functional for my small business. I will also be happy to talk about the fact that I am an end-user with limited skills - Lawyer, MBA, and Engineer, but never any experience programming.

2) I pull into my form the 'cases' list using REST to conduct a server-side query that only retrieves active class for a specific lawyer.  Cases have an associated ClientID which represent a specific client in 'clients'.  I do not have clients in my form as of yet becuase I need to convert the list of clientIDs into a REST query.  ClientID is the ID field in the 'client' list.

4) I think my problem lies in understanding how to convert the results of one REST query into a new concatenanted REST query.  I understand contatenate and the general REST query format, but the conversion from tabular to a string is beyond my knowledge.  I know how to do this with excel, but not with Infopath.

Thanks! We can take your first paragraph from your previous post as the testimonial.

I'm curious about how you have setup your lists to submit to your database. Are you using BCS to do this? If you need to filter your database values it's possible those aren't available to OData. If so, the only solution would be to use something like our Database Accelerator (DBXL) to dynamically filter them. Otherwise, you have the OData option (best) or qRules filterowssvr command (which mainly helps MOSS 2007 users who don't have OData since OData is the preferred way to do this in ShP2010). One caveat: not all ShP2010 installs support OData (so filterowssvr would be the approach for them as well).

We'll need an email link for you to send the training content. Please send email to Support (a-t) Qdabra (d-o-t) com and we'll send you a download link to the training content. Your concats will just include the fields that are changing. The content shows this pretty clearly.

No.  My lists are sharepoint native lists using SP2010.  I do not use BCS lists.  I probably should have; however, writing to these lists became such a problem that I had to resort to the built-in functionality.  I will probably regret this in the future.

Well, you can always use Qdabra's DBXL to easily provide a mapping to SQL. BCS has some limitations and that is why I was curious since it seemed you were problem free. We provide DBXL to fix the problems of connecting InfoPath forms to SQL and that's why I was asking.

Anyway, we received your email and I'll have someone send you the links shortly.

Thanks for your patience!