InfoPath Dev

First off, I am intermediate with InfoPath at best so be kind please.

I have created an inventory input form for my friends business that publishes to a sharepoint server, as a favor. Obviously as time goes on, updates to the form are needed to help increase productivity. Till now, these have been simple things but one thing is really making me struggle.

 So when the form is opened, the first thing entered is a sku (the item is scanned with a handheld scanner). Once it is scanned, simple information like product title, description, msrp, etc is entered in.

We have found that when you have multiples of the same item, re-entering the product title, sku and retail price is wasted time since that information is already in the sharepoint database.

 I can get this data in for the product title and retail price however for the text box that the product description goes in is what is giving me trouble.

Can anyone tell me how once the sku is entered, that already exists, it automatically pulls the description of an item in the database with the same sku and puts it in the text box?

Hello & welcome! What version of InfoPath are you using? Where is the description stored? A SharePoint list? My thought would be that you need a data connection to that list (if you don't already have one) and you'd be able to get the data and copy it into the form - but there are a lot of variables here based on the structure of the form, the data source with the description and so on. How are you getting the data for the product title and retail price? Is description stored someplace else?

So the process goes like this.

 The warehouse person grabs a product off the shelf that is not currently in inventory.

They login to sharepoint.

They click "new document".

They scan the UPC on the product to the UPC field (tab order 1).

They then google the UPC and find a product title, product description and retail price for the item.

They then enter the product title, description and retail price in to the corresponding fields in the form.

They fill out the remaining required information in the form (ie. condition, missing parts, etc.).

They then click submit which prints a label for the product with a unique internal item number and other information and also submits the information to the sharepoint database.

What we have found is that many times, we are entering the same make/model product (which have the same sku) into the system. So to speed up the process, I want to have the database check the sku that was entered and automatically fill in the product title, product description and retail price field from previously entered products so that they aren't doing a redundant task.

Currently I have it populating product title and retail price but those are combo boxes whereas the product description field is text and doesn't have the properties to pull this data.

I am using InfoPath 2010 with what I think is sharepoint 2010

Thanks for the extra info!

cjones5523:

Currently I have it populating product title and retail price but those are combo boxes whereas the product description field is text and doesn't have the properties to pull this data.

So - how are you doing the above? You have rules to set the main data source values? If you are inclined, you can attach a copy of the form under the "Options" tab in a reply and I won't have to bug you with a billion questions - I'll be able to see better what you already have in place.

 So I have attached the form. The original "pre-auto populate" fields are still there so ignore them. I didn't want to delete those fields until the new fields worked.

Great, thanks!

So - I'm having trouble understanding where you are setting the price and title - I'm not seeing any rules that are doing that. Perhaps that is in the form code?

However, I do see you have a data connection to a list that should return all the existing items - so, basically, here's what I'd expect -

On Prod_Sku (or whatever field the SKU is populated to, maybe P_UPC?) add rules - the rule will set the value of the field you need based on a filter that includes the current value. I've added a rule to Prod_Sku that does this (given I don't have list access, I am not testing in preview, but just trying to give you an idea). I'm selecting the description from the Title_Description data connection where the SKU is equal to the current SKU.

Save the file locally, right click the saved file and select Design to open in design mode - and let me know if I've completely misunderstood what you are trying to do.