InfoPath Dev

Is there a way to convert a user name from a Infopath form to be an active user in a SharePoint list?

I created an Infopath form that collect the name of the manager who is supposed to approve the form. I want to create a view that filtered based on that name. The problem is that SharePoint doesn't recognize that name as a network user (see pict attached)

I tried promoting the fields in different ways (by display name, account ID, account type), but no luck...   :-?

Do you have any suggestions?

I want to filter the view by the name in the 'Manager Approver' Column, but it comes out as text and no as an active user field (as the 'Modified By' colum)

How can I convert the names in the 'approvers' colums  to be blue (clickable-'filterable') as the one in the 'Modify By' column

Edwin Brito:

Is there a way to convert a user name from a Infopath form to be an active user in a SharePoint list?

Any reason why don't you create for this:

• from Sharepoint side a column of type Person or Group
  
• or in Infopath Designer 2010 doing the same by drag&dropping Person/Group Picker control   

Update: 

From your screenshot I guess you did not mean a sharepoint list but I also succeeded to do this in a form or document library without any promotions.
Though it is already guessing game (you post your screenshot from library and ask in it about sharepoint list)... 

 

I have tried your suggestion, but still can't figure it out.

The way I initially tried was inserting a 'Person/Group Picker' field in Infopath, but when I promote it to the SP list, it comes out as a string. So when I create a view to be filter by that column is not recognized as a person.

Now I when try your suggestion, I created the column in SP, but I don't know how to make this an editable filed inside Infopath. I tried creating a data connection to receive data from the SP list. I can see the column field, but it is not editable. It inserts a repeating field.

 I guess I don't know how to insert that column field and make it editable in Infopath.

Any suggestion?

I am afraid I do not understand whar you are wrtiting

Edwin Brito:

The way I initially tried was inserting a 'Person/Group Picker' field in Infopath, but when I promote it to the SP list, it comes out as...

It is impossible to promote any Infopath fields to a SP list.
OOOTB, Infopath controls are directly bound to Sharepoint list fields and OOTB this binding is not modifiable 

You create a field in sharepoint list, press   :Customize Form" on ribbon under List (List Tools) tab and it appears in infopath form template.
And vice versa in already created before (as I wrote above) Infopath form, in Infopath Designer 2010 you just drag&drop Person/Group Picker control onto design surface and it appears upon Quick Publish in sharepoint list

 I rechecked it a few times.

Person/Group Picker also works if to save/open XML form into/from a library.
It will appear in sharepoint library as a string if to promote it to library field but it has nothing to do with Infopath, as far as you open the form in Infopath filler or in browser through Infopath Form Service, the Pesron/Group Picker control is working

 

Ohh! I see.

I am using an Form Library not a SharePoint List. My bad, I didn't notice there are different.

In a Form Library, the customize form is not in the ribbon in the browser. To customize the form, I have to open the site on SharePoint Designer, open the list and then the customize form.

Check out the form in the attachment..

I believe I addressed your question in context of library as well 

Gennady Vanin (Геннадий Ванин, Новосибирск):

Person/Group Picker also works if to save/open XML form into/from a library.
It will appear in sharepoint library as a string if to promote it to library field but it has nothing to do with Infopath, as far as you open the form in Infopath filler or in browser through Infopath Form Service, the Pesron/Group Picker control is working

 

Edwin Brito:

I guess I don't know how to insert that column field and make it editable in Infopath

 

The field is editable in Infoapth if you open XML data form from sharepoint library in Infopath, isn't it? 

It is not editable from sharepoint but why do you need it to be editable from sharepoint (if you opted to use Infopath)?

You wrote:

Edwin Brito:

I want to filter the view by the name in the 'Manager Approver' Column, but it comes out as text and no as an active user field (as the 'Modified By' colum)

And you edit it by opening Infopath data form .XML file, don't you? And Person/People Picker control with this field still works in Infopath in full functionality, does not it? 

You do not need the field to be editable (in sharepoint) in order to filter the view (in sharepoint), do you?
Filter it by string

I promoted Person/Group Picker in Infopath and created a filter in Sharepoint library on promoted field, and it works OK in Infopathand is filtered in sharepoint 

 

 

   

 

Hi Gennady:

I tested your solution and it works. But now I want to create a filtered view using the 'Display Name":

a. In SharePoint 2010, I created a view using 'My documents' template.

b. For the view filter, I tried to replace [Modify By]; with 'Display Name'.  The Filter formula should now be:   Display Name is equal to [Me]

However I get this error when saving the view:  "Filter value is not a valid string". 

Have you tried one this yet?  Thanks in advance!

Patrick Lee

Hi, did you ever find a solution to this issue? I am having the same issue creating a view and filtering on [Me]

from my understanding this can only be achieved with a workflow

We did a webinar on this topic recently: http://youtu.be/vQTkRBTSIos

I've used this double eval technique but don't see a difference with just merging the account-ids together when promoting the account-id field.

In the sharepoint formlibrary this column is of type text and not of person/group. Is er a possiblity to change that?

 I managed to do this today:

 

After publishing the InfoPath form to a new SharePoint library go into the SharePoint Form Library list settings. Add two new columns for each Person Picker you want to filter on using the [Me] function.

AccountableAccountID (Single Line Of Text)

Accountable (Person or Group)

So you've added these via SharePoint and not InfoPath and promoted them.

Then re-publish your InfoPath form but in the Property promotion select the AccountID field and set the column name to AccountableAccountID (this should be in the list of options and is the field you created above via SharePoint)

Once this is done you will need to create a Workflow using SP Designer

Make the Workflow run on every save/update of the item.

 The workflow will have one action - Set Filed In Current Item

Set Accountable to Current Item: AccountableAccountID

When you save a form it will run this workflow, which will lookup the AccountableAccountID (e.g. domain\user.name) in you user directory/AD and set the Accountable (Person or Group) field you created to the user.

You can then use the Accountable field in a list filter using the [Me] function.