InfoPath Dev

Hi, has anyone used an InfoPath form on Office 365 in the Browser mode (not Filler), and in that had a filtered repeating table based on a data connection pulling back information from a list or library? I have and it seems to be remarkably slow in performing the filtering.

I've got a form (call it the Parent), from which you can create Children-type records, and so on the Parent I want to see a list of all the Children documents that I've created.  I did the normal business of creating a Data Connection and then dropped the values from that back onto the Parent form, removing some fields I didn't want to see, and then adding a filter to the repeating table to only display records where the ParentID on this document = the ParentID in the Data Connection.  I then published the form up to the LIbrary, and it loaded fine.

Once the new templates was in place, I opened a record, and yes the section and repeating table was there, but so were a whole bunch of records from the list, and over quite a number of seconds - sometimes more than 30 - the filtering took hold and eventually on valid documents were left being displayed.  I tried it on new Parent documents as well (which of course would have no children) and it still displayed a long list.

Does anyone have any theories about what is going on here?  I done the same on SharePoint systems for on-premise situations and it has been immediate - the list only displays valid material from the 1st second.

Suggestions or ideas about the cause and potentially any methods (no code please) I could employ would be really helpful.

Regards   Alan C.

It's a problem that needs to be attacked on two fronts: rows and columns. How many columns are you bringing back? How many rows are you bringing back? If you're using SharePOint 2010 (or Office 365), you can declare the value of a field in the queryFields of the data connection. Then when the data connection executes, the results come pre-filtered by the server, and there's no need for you to filter within the form. Here is information from MSDN on this: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/infopath/archive/2010/05/06/sharepoint-list-data-connections-in-infopath-2010.aspx

Ernesto

Thanks for coming back to me on this one, and although I've used the filtered data connection before (by choosing the field I want to pre-filter with, and then setting it to either the value of a field in the 'Main' data source or to a explicit value), I must admit to have forgotten that, and reverted to the approach of filtering on the repeating table itself. The pre-filter return is obviously better, faster and cleaner etc, so thanks for that.

In this instance my issue seems to be a bit of an odd one though, and I get the idea it might be something else that is happening.

To explain a bit more about what I'm doing, I've two main views on the form, and through each, I'm saving a document giving it a 'false' content-type-like-flag - Type A and Type B. Type B's can only be composed by clicking a button on A, which inherits some of the values of the A document (including the its unique Title field) into the B document they are then saved as a separate document. The Title field is the unique element which identifies an A and its related B's (children), and the Title is what I want to use in order to do the filtering. And basically what I've got on the A document is a (filtered) repeating table which lists all of the B's which have been composed from it as it is important to see what secondary documents have been created as responses.

In some ways how I filter the repeating table doesn't matter, however when I set it up as above, and have an existing A document and have created B's from it, when I return to look at the A document, when the document is opened, and the repeating table is examined, rather than just displaying the few B documents, it displays the complete list BUT if you however the mouse in the table, and move it up and down on the page (!!), the 'incorrect' entries disappear one at a time, and after a few seconds, you are left with the 'correct' entries in the list.

So it isn't as if it never filters it, rather that it needs to be refreshed or re-displayed or something - very odd. I've designed and built InfoPath forms for about 5 years now and never seen anything like it. Normally if you filter the repeating table it only ever shows the entries that are correct - this is most odd.

So I hope that explains things. If it doesn't I'll prepare a screencam of it.

Any further thoughts and suggestions will be gratefully received.

Alan C.

Ernesto

Just wondered if you had any further thoughts on why this doesn't appear to be working correctly?  I've created another view in the form, and copied into that the repeating table element from the receive Data connection, and trialled with both filtering after the pull-back (adding a conditional statement to the repeating table) and using the pre-filtered approach, and both are successful and both ONLY display the documents I'm wanting to see.

So that means there looks to be something affecting how elements work in the first view.  The only thing that seems to ever have problems that I'm aware of is the people-picker field, and so I'm wondering if there is some form of postback problem as I've got several names fields being used.  Anything you or anyone else can suggest would be very gratefully received.

Regards - Alan C.