InfoPath Dev

Hi guys. I've been hunting for this answer and I can't find it/am running out of combinations of phrases to type into Google.

The scenario is this:

I have two form libraries in SharePoint, each matched to a different InfoPath 2003 form.

Form1 has a repeating section. In this repeating section is a text box bound automatically to a field. There's other stuff in the repeating section, but for simplicity's sake, let's ignore it. A user filling out the form can type something into this text box, insert a new item (or several new items) in the repeating section, and fill out something different in the next version of that text box. All is normal here.

Form 2 has a dropdown list box. What Form 2 wants to do is get the data from Form 1's text box, ALL instances of this text box in ALL submitted copies of the form, and populate the dropdown with those items.

So Alice fills out a copy of Form 1. She puts "Jerry Seinfeld" into the text box, inserts a new item to the repeating section, and puts "Elaine Benes" in the second text box. She submits it.

Then Bob fills out a copy of Form 1. He puts "Cosmo Kramer" into the text box, inserts a new item to the repeating section, and puts "George Costanza" in the second text box. He submits it.

Then, Charles opens up Form 2 to fill it out, and opens the dropdown. What he SHOULD see is a list of: Jerry Seinfeld, Elaine Benes, Cosmo Kramer, George Costanza. What he ACTUALLY sees is: Jerry Seinfeld.

Help. How do I get all of these to show up?

Thanks.

-Rae

Hi Rae_bot,

Using XML files as default data for other XML files is a best practice. I gave a webinar for our product customers on this topic last week. There are several ways to do it. If Form1 is always just one XML file, you can add it as a network XML receive data connection in Form2's XSN. Then, just bind the dropdown to the value. All is done. If you have multiple XMLs for form1 and want to specify which one to load, I recommend mapping the XMLs from Form1's XSN to a list as separate rows and using a SharePoint List receive data connection to populate. You'll want to filter the list server-side using the filterowssvr technique.

Cheers,

Thanks for the speedy reply. Um. I'm going to clarify a few things.

1. I have no idea what 70% of what you just said actually means.
2. I'm very new to InfoPath and SharePoint.
3. I've barely dealt with XML directly at all, ever. I've been working with the forms only through the "Design a Form" UI and SharePoint's UI, and all filtering and data-acquiring has been done directly in InfoPath through its Data Connections and stuff.
4. Right now, I am using a Receive data connection to get data from Form 1 into Form 2. I've tried binding the dropdown to the field and to the group, and in each case, I just get the first value given as the only result.
5. I don't know what an XSN is. Or how many XML files are being generated. Or what the filterowssvr technique is, or if I can use it without leaving the InfoPath/SharePoint UIs. TT_TT

Hi Rae_bot,

XSN is the form template which is what you save from the "Design a Form" UI. It's also what get's published to SharePoint as a "template.xsn" in the form library or folder if it's a content type.

If the dropdown isn't showing the values it may be because your data source in Form1 is not correctly setup. Can you paste a picture of the main data source for Form1?

Here it is:

Is TestNumber a dropdown in your view? Can you attach an image of the properties for that dropdown?

In Form 1, TestNumber is just a text box. In Form 2, testNumDropDown is a dropdown that's supposed to get populated by all of the entries available for TestNumber.

It's getting the data through SharePoint. Is it possible I'm not hooked up properly, or am not sending the data to SharePoint completely?

Yes, that's probably the case.

You should get the data as an XML file (and make sure it is access via network and *MAKE SURE* that you are not caching the data). If you are pulling from a ShP list, you will need special sauce to map from your XML to the list.

Delightful. Any suggestions on how to do that?

Thanks for your support.

Have you tried to open the form up in the designer and click on Tools->Data Connections? You can add the connection to the XML file there and if you are still using IP2003 you don't have to worry about caching since it isn't supported.

Keep in mind that you need to learn a little bit about how InfoPath works. We can't serve every simple step up to you on a silver platter. We just don't have time to answer level 100 questions. Please show some initiative and do some self-training. Go to Microsoft's site and look at their labs. Search for "InfoPath Data Connections XML resources" etc. You'll find tons of stuff. I could step everyone through everything but I would never get anything done including sleep. :)

Thanks for your understanding.

May the force of InfoPath rise within you.

Patrick Halstead:

Keep in mind that you need to learn a little bit about how InfoPath works.

Working on it.

Patrick Halstead:

Have you tried to open the form up in the designer and click on Tools->Data Connections? You can add the connection to the XML file there and if you are still using IP2003 you don't have to worry about caching since it isn't supported.

What I've actually ended up doing - and this may be terrible practice - is sending the stuff from Form 1 to a SQL database, and using Form 2 to access the stuff in the database. Now I'm running into some other special issues and limitations, but it's further along than it was before. I'll post any tangential questions in other threads (after searching for the answer elsewhere, of course).

Thanks for your help on this.