InfoPath Dev

I am ripping my hair out.

I have an IP 2010 FILLER form on a 2007 sharepoint site.  The form has not been changed or republished since April of 2014.  Suddenly today, it starts to throw "Some Rules Were Not Applied" errors when people (or I) try to submit a new request.  It's the ever helpful "...cannot be submitted due to validation errors... check for asterisks or other red things" error... even though ALL of the required fields are being filled in.  Needless to say, I was shocked this was happening and really thought people weren't filling in something.  NOPE.

I have tested myself and know what fields are required and can't submit .  I've published to a new library (yes, I changed the location of the submit to go to the new library) and it still fails.  I've stripped out all required fields and any manually entered validation rules, republished to the test site and STILL have errors.  What is going on?!?!?!

How can a form that hasn't been touched, and has worked for over a year, just decide to freak out?

I've hit up other people in my company who have worked with IP, but they are as lost as I am.

Please, please, please help.  The idea of completely building the form from scratch and migrating data to a new library fills me with dread and sadness.

Jen

The easiest way to find the field IP thinks is invalid is to open one of the XML you know won't submit and use the keyboard shortcut of Ctrl + shift + the letter "o".

Then click Show Details on the error message. What's the error say? 

 Thanks Hilary,

Before I saw this, after much trial and error, I've found that it doesn't like what I have chosen for the Value of a dropdown from an external source (even though it never minded before and is set up on another form the same way). 

But, now I have a new fun problem.  During the testing of that dropdown, I removed the external data choices and just used a manually added choice (because Infopath wouldn't let me save without it).  Now, although I've changed it back to an external link to get the dropdown choices, the manually added (but deleted) choice is still showing up!  I can't get the darn thing to go away.  I've tried everything I can think of, but there it is.

 Have you ever had a dropdown refuse to let go of a manually added list option after it was deleted and the external link to a list was added in?

 Perhaps the default value of the field is set to the choice you keep seeing? In the data source task pane (Fields), right click the field and select properties. Does the field have a default value?

Back on the original problem, I’ve narrowed the issue down to 1 of 3 dropdown fields in the form (Lead BA, BA 1, BA 2) which have always connected to and external list.  Lead BA and BA 1 are connected to the external list and working just fine.  BA 2 is the problem.  When I connect that field to the external list, I get the validation error when trying to submit.

Here’s what I know/have done:

• ·         If I don’t use the external list to populate the BA2 dropdown, and just use choices I enter manually, the dropdown works fine.

• ·         If I connect BA 2 to the external list, I get the validation error.  (All settings are the same as the other dropdowns)

• ·        I deleted the field completely and republished to remove it from the sharepoint site.  Then recreated the field (same name), connected to external list, published the field.  Got the same error when trying to submit.

• ·    I deleted the field AGAIN, removed it from the sharepoint site then recreated the field (new name), connected to external list, DID NOT publish the field.  Got the same error on submit.  If I remove the external connection, add dropdown options manually, I can magically submit.
• I’ve confirmed all dropdown fields have the data type of Text (string), so it isn’t a problem with that.

I don’t know where else to look or anything else to try.

Any ideas? 

 Can I see your form? You can attach it under the Options tab in a reply.

What is the full validation error? 

 Happily!  I've attached a copy of the form I'm using to test.  The Supporting BA 2 (IPBA2) is the problem child.  It is currently set to pull from the data source like the other two.

The error I'm getting on submit is "Rules were not applied" and the details of missing validation.  I did the ctrl+shift+o (thank you so much for that!) and got the detail of "a problem with the form's design..." "a field or group #text. Error: No exact match was found"  I'll attach the two error message on another post as it appears I can only attach one thing on this one.

 Error after ctrl+shift+o  (Attached)

For some reason it won't let me add the other file.  The error upon submit is the generic validation error:

"Some rules were not applied"

Details: InfoPath cannot submit the form.
The form cannot be submitted because it contains validation errors. Errors are marked with either a red asterisk (required fields) or a red, dashed border (invalid values).
 

 Trying this one again.  This is the error after trying to submit when the dropdown is connected to the external list.

 The drop down is set up differently for IPBA2 - did you notice that? For the others you are using for display and value fields from the person or group column. For IPBA2, the value is from "Title" - is that intentional? The validation error on #text is weird, for some reason I think I've seen that before. I'm going to go take a look online.

 http://www.infopathdev.com/forums/p/18483/64566.aspx

https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/9fa89823-0d0c-4cce-aa2e-f7d4ed13de0b/infopath-form-validation-error-on-submit-to-a-sharepoint-library?forum=sharepointcustomizationlegacy

Both of these threads discuss the same validation error - I don't see any rules on the IPBA2 field, but are you using any logic to set values in a people picker control?

FYI -  I just opened the manifest file in notepad to see if I could find a reference to #text or just #.  I'm finding nothing. 

Yeah, it was by choice.  The list it pulls from has a people picker field that I'm using for account ID as the value.  Since it wasn't working in the BA2 field, I grabbed the text field with the MS ID to see if it would play nicer than the people picker.
No luck.

 Hi Hilary,

I'm using logic to set a people picker, but it isn't related to the field causing the issue.  They don't have any connection at all.  THere's a supervisor field that is partially filled in on a button click if a certain role is using the form.  It just enters a name and then the user clicks the checkbox to confirm it.  I thought it might be the issue initially, but after removing the rule to set the name, it still had errors occurring.

The list that the three fields pull from uses the sharepoint people picker option to find individuals and then I use the Account ID as Display Name the value and display for the field.  What's obnoxious is that it is just fine in the other two dropdowns (and about 20 others I've done this with in another form).

How is it that I can completely remove the BA2 dropdown field, rename it, and still have the same issue ONLY when I link it to the external list... that the other two fields use without error?

 I looked at the two other items you linked to, but my form doesn't have the same set up as those did.  (I wish it did, as I would have an answer)

 Perhaps I was lying and somehow they are relating to each other.  I just removed the option to set the name and it now let me submit with the BA2 field as is (even though, when I tried that yesterday, without messing with the other fields, it didn't).

I'm going to test re-adding and setting all three options and see what happens...

Stay tuned.