InfoPath Dev

All,

Environment: SharePoint 2010 standard, InfoPath 2010 used to build IP 2007 filler forms, Windows 7 clients using Office 2007/2010.

Problem: I have an existing IP 2007 filler form (deployed as a content type) that I've added a new field to (so far tried as text box and drop-down list controls) and even though the view, control and field are NOT read-only the field behaves as if it is read-only in the InfoPath UI (other fields are editable and the form submits OK to SharePoint). I verified the form view and control are not designated as read-only before publising the form and I used PowerShell to verify the field ReadOnly property is false. I need to add this new field to the form and then populate it with data from a workflow and that won't happen until the field is editable. If I edit the properties of the item in Sharepoint then I can key data into the promoted property columns of the item, but the data in this column does not save when the item is saved. Crazy stuff...

If anyone has words of wisdom here I would be very thankful.

-Don 

Hey - do you have this issue when you open existing files with the new template? Or also when you fill out a new form?

Hilary,

It is only with existing .xml files, new ones work fine.

-Don

So, my guess is going to be that the template is not set to upgrade existing XML. Under Form Options / Versioning, make sure Update existing forms is set to Automatically upgrade existing forms.

Hilary

I made the suggested change (thanks for that BTW) and republished the form, but the behavior remains (form control greyed out and property changes do not save on existing forms).

Do you have any other ideas?

Thanks,

-Don

I would download one of the existing XML files and save it locally. Then in the form options, under preview, I'd set the form to preview with that XML. That may help you troubleshoot. You can preview, then use File > Save As to save the XML you previewed with, then open the XML with notepad and verify the new node was added, for example. You don't have any conditional formatting on the control, do you?

I do not have any InfoPath rules defined for the new field or the control. I'll give this a try later today. Thanks.

I downloaded an example .xml file from the server and tested using the recommended procedure and the xml node for the new field is successfully created with data present.

And the published form is opened in IP Filler? Any chance the cached form template is from before setting the upgrade settings?

Yes, the form is opened in IP Filler and I just re-tested after clearing the IP form cache (Infopath /cache clearall) with the same results.

The only other thing I can think of is that the XML is a greater version number than the max version to upgrade in the manifest.xsf of the form - but since it works in preview that seems unlikely...

Hilary,

I have solved the problem, but only after I set this down, walked away and worked on something else for a couple days...

I opened the form in designer today and noticed under File | Info | Form Template Properties that the Name had somehow changed to ActualFormName_OLD. I changed this back to the actual form name and republished and now all is well and I get to keep my job. :)

I typically save form templates on my local with suffixes, but I never change the internal form name. I checked some of my other forms and they have unique external file names but all have the same internal form name so at this time I have no definitive root cause of the internal name change, but I will never forget this lesson...

Thank you so much for your help in this matter. 

 -Don

Hooray!!! Glad you got it sorted out and thanks for posting your solution.