InfoPath Dev

InfoPath 2010 - SharePoint 2010 

I'll be honest, I don't know how best to title this request.

What I have is a list of specific Directors in a SP list. In the list is the following:
1. ID
2. Title (UserID)
3. Area (of expertise)
4. Categories (or responsibilities)
5. Comments
 
I need to build a dropdown based on the area where the form user can select the Director's name. I know how to filter the data in the dropdown to only include the "Area" so that's no biggie.

But, the problem I have is that I need to put a nonexistent "Director Name" in the display section of the dropdown, with their user ID as the value. Again, I know how to separate those two.

When I created the dropdown, to my dismay, it appears to only accept the "stuff" in the list to populate it with, without any way to branch off to complete the process (run a webservice (WS) to get the name)

What I can't figure out how to do is to get the name into the dropdown.

IDEA!: (light bulb icon goes here) 
What I figured I could do, since the DropDown doesn't want to play fair, was to create a hidden temp repeating table bound to the Directors list with all the fields I need.
To do this, I figured I would bind the temp table to the list and then snag the userID from the "Title" as it was building, and run it through the AD WS to get the directors name and put it somewhere in the temp table.
Then bind the DropDown to the hidden repeating table to get the new directors name field as the display field and their userID as the value field.

IDEA Implementation:  FAIL

So...

1. I created a hidden repeating temp table
2. I then created a rule on the userID that when it changed (got created) it would take the UserID contents, and fill the username queryfield in the "GetUserInfo" method.
3. The next line in the rule was to query on the GetUserInfo data source.
4. But the problem is that I don't have a place to stick the value from the WS.
5. I added a column in the repeating table.
6. I tried to create a textbox in the new column, but without success.

So I don't and can't seem to figure out how to build a place in the temp table to store the name value from the WS, and I'm not sure how to fire it to boot.

I then tried to populate the displayName in the GetUserInfo WS in the comments field since I really don't need that field as part of the program.

But with every attempt it appears that it only wants to get populated with the list data it's bound to and my efforts to change it are in vain.

 

 

 

 

 

Can you add to your directors list at all? Why not include a person or group so you can pick the director in the list and then you'd have the display name in IP?

Yes, what I am building is a Director-Info SharePoint list they can add all the directors to. Their data entry people will just edit directly into the list using a spreadsheet view.

I was wanting them to just enter the “Title” (UserID), the “Area” of expertise, (radio button choice of supply or operations) and “Categories” (checkbox choice of three, “Cardiology,” “Radiology,” “Surgery” or be able to check them all) and an optional “Comments” which is just displayed, but not store a director name as I would lose data consistency by people typing in any old name of how they knew the director instead of a name from Active Directory. (AD)

I wanted to go get the name (display name) from AD using the “GetUserInfo” webservice method at retrieval and simply display it in the dropdown as the display field, with the director’s userID as the value.

However, since I’m having trouble with selecting directors based on categories, I’m thinking about going ahead and adding a name field on the director info list so I can spend more time on selecting the directors based on categories which, btw, is another entry in the forum because I don’t understand the double eval (http://www.infopathdev.com/forums/p/30977/105635.aspx#105635) which would probably what I would have to do for this solution as well. I definitely need to learn the double eval.

Thanks, 

Ray

 

P.S. I have created workarounds for both of these so I will be able to meet the deadline. They aren't very pretty, but they work, so I'm not stuck on this one thing.

That being said, this topic is no longer an emergency issue to get a solution to.