InfoPath Dev

My form has multiple sections which may be digitally signed.  When signed, the controls are made read only.  Before emailing the form after the first section is signed, I confirm that the unsigned sections are not read only.  When only one of the sections is digitally signed and I email the form, the person receiving the email is unable to open the form and gets the following error:

 "InfoPath cannot open the following file: C:\Users\..........xml.  There was an error in the custom validation code."

Details:

"The data in this control has been digitally signed and cannot be changed." 

Why is this error happening? 

What I want to accomplish is sequential approval with indication of approver of form segments with each section being read only once approved.  This is currently accomplished with multiple data connections which email the form to the appropriate person with the click of a button.  The form is published to SharePoint as it contains a SharePoint data retrieval connection, but my company does not support the use of workflows in SharePoint.  Is there a better way to do this?

I guess the first thing I'd wonder is if there were rules on load, or default values, that are changed when the XML file is opened. So, I wonder if the "email" portion is just a bit of a red herring - that is, if you fill out the form and save the XML locally, and re-open the XML, do you get the same error?

When I saved the form locally I am able to re-open and do not get an error.  Only the signed section is read only as expected.  Other thoughts? 

Wow - that does make it sound like the emailing is the issue, doesn't it? I'm going to see if I can reproduce this, at least it may help you narrow down the troubleshooting. Are you using Office 2010?

Yes 2010

Great - I'll try this with a simple sample form at some point today, and let you know if I have the same issue.

Doing some further testing.  Tried to change the signature so that the signed section is NOT made read only when signed.  However, if I reopen the Section Properties, Digital Signature tab, the checkbox for "When signed, make controls read only" looks blue - not selected and not deselected.  When I save the form locally and reopen, I get the error message "The data in the control has been digitally signed and cannot be changed" and I can't open the form.  I get the same message if I try to email.  So, probably NOT email as you first suspected but inconsistent. 

So, that kind of makes it sound like something related to the form itself. Can you create another simple template, and see if you can reproduce the issue? The signing section only needs to be a single control, so you wouldn't have to go to a great deal of effort.

I am getting similar error but not while emailing the form. My form is saved to the form library and it is signed by 2 persons the digital signature is locking 2 different sections of the form once it is signed

It is really strange, it was working till yesterday and suddenly started giving this error.

Now when we try to open the form the error comes.

Did you get any solution for this issue.

thanks,

Madhura