InfoPath Dev

Hi InfoPathDev Experts This is my first post but I have visiting this site for some time now. I always seem to get the answer and advice that I need by trawling previous posts; however I have an issue that I can't find any solution to. I have an issue with an InfoPath 2003 form that has an SQL 2005 database as its primary data connection and form data storage. The SQL database is linked via SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) to an Access 2003 database. This allows ease of maintenance of the Access DB. SQL creates an SSMA_Timestamp during conversion from Access to SQL. The timestamp column that was created by the Access to SQL conversion now appears in both Access, SQL and in the Data Source list of my InfoPath form and is marked as a mandatory field. The ‘Mandatory Field’ property is grey out in the data source properties therefore is can not be switched off. The problem that I now have is the form will not submit as it sees that mandatory SSMA_Timestamp field and rejects the submitting process. Does anyone have any advice on how to treat the SSMA_Timestamp field in InfoPath that will allow the form to submit?

Hi Syd and thanks for posting!

I don't know the answer to your question, but one possible workaround would be to just convert your form to regular XML and map that to SQL using a Web service (such as DBXL). You'll have more control over your form's data that way. However, I realize that's a major change though.

So, some other ideas: from the File menu in the InfoPath Designer you can export the form as source files and look at the XSD file that was "inferred" from the SQL database. Open this up and look at the SSMA field. Say you want to change it, you can open up the manifest.xsf in notepad and change the edit mode properties for the XSD to be "Full" (or something like that). To resave the XSN, just save the manifest.xsf file (make sure the InfoPath Designer is closed first) and then right click and choose Design. Then you can see if your change allowed you to update the data source. You can also open up the XSD in notepad and manually modify it, but I'm not sure that submit will succeed if the type data is incorrect. Might be easier just to auto-fill the field with the value that it wants. What is the data type for the SQL SSMA field?  Maybe InfoPath just doesn't know how to convert to that.

Good luck,

P

Hi Patrick - Thanks for the advice, you have helped my narrow down some possibilities. I'll try this today to see if I can find a work around. I'll post a reply if I come up with anything tangible. Cheers - Syd

Hi Patrick - I have found the solution to my problem. All I needed to do was edit the default values in my form options. That is, switch off (uncheck) the SSMA Timestamp field under Tools>>Default Values. So simple! After all it is a Newbie question ;-). Thanks for your input as I did manage to learn some things from it. - Syd