InfoPath Dev

Hey there. Hoping that you fine folks can help point me in a direction. I have been searching on the internet and this forum for some sort of example of this situation, but have been unable to find anything. Forgive me if this has been asked before. Basically I am creating an infopath form that will require the approval of either one or two people depending on a particular variable which is supplied by the person submitting the form. I want to do this approval all in form, which I think I have a pretty good handle on how to do with buttons that will update the approval status. What Im struggling with is understanding how to handle changing the approval/form status and submitting the form. Each appover will have an Approve and Reject button. These buttons will be disabled or activated based on input from the submitting user (Email addresses of the approver(s) and the number of approvals required 1 or 2) When the approver approves the form, I want the form status or approval status to be updated appropriately. This means that if only one approval is needed, when the first approver hits the approve button the approval status is updated, the form status is updated, and the form is then submitted. If two approvals are needed, the form needs to check that both approval statuses are "Approved" and then update the form status to Approved and submit the form. If any of the approvers reject the form, then the form status is immediately updated to "Rejected" and the form will be sent back to the originator. My question is this... should the Approve and Reject buttons be doing the submitting? or should I make a separate submit button for this? My other question/concern is this. When I have custom rules firing off when the form is submitted, do those rules only fire when using the default submit button in the ribbon or a submit button? If I add an action to submit a form as the last step of the Approve or reject buttons.. do those submit rules come into play? Thanks for any help, and again I'm sorry if this is a redundant question. Thanks RJM

For me I'd hide the ribbon save options.

I'd have the following:  two buttons. 1 called Approve, 1 called Reject on the form.

A hidden field called FormStatus. I'd have another field called FinalApprovalStatus

Each button has several rules to it when the button is pressed.

Set the field FormStatus to 2.Submitted to X or what ever you want to call it. - I think it's a good habit to get into to have a FormStatus field, as your forms get longer and more complex, it becomes invaluable. You could have a default value of 1.Started or whatever you like.

I'd add two ApprovalStatus Fields i.e.Approval1 and Approval2. That way you can have rules to check that all the required approvals are done etc. based on a user selection

Set the field Approvel1 to Approved or Rejected.

If the form is ready to be finally approved Set the field value FinalApprovalStatus to Approved or Rejected.

Switch to a Approve/Reject Thank you screen

Submit Data

Don't have a separate approve/reject control and a submit button. I've seen to many instances where something is approved, but not submitted.

Emails etc. will done using a workflow.

Rules actually fire off at different times depending on how you have set up your submit options especially validation rules - http://mikesnotebook.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/infopath-submit-options-and-form-validation/

I think there would need to be another submit button on the form though, the person filling out the form for the first time needs to submit it. It's then sent to the approver(s) and they will need to approve/reject. I would probably disable the submit button once the form has been submitted to the approver(s)

If it was me, I'd have an Intial Submission View, Approver 1 View, Approver 2 View and read only summary view using the formstatus fields as my open load rules.