InfoPath Dev

Hello, New to the board here.. Using InfoPath 2013, I have a fairly complex form with a ton of conditioning rules (mainly if this field is not equal to this hide this section). With this being a complex form I can see the people that will be using this form changing their minds on certain selections. So if I want to change my mind on question 1 from choice A to choice B, but choice A has dependent fields that are filled in - those fields don't go away as they should when choice B is chosen. Please advise.. Thank you in advance

 What does "don't go away" mean? The fields don't hide correctly? Or you were expecting the field values to clear? You may need to add rules to clear the fields - so, on question 1, have a rule that clears these fields, then have the logic that if question 1 = A, reset the fields accordingly. Does that make sense?

Correct. So if I change question 1 from choice A to choice B my thought process would be that the dependent fields for choice A hide whether or not anything is selected because the rule sates "if question 1 is not equal to A hide this field". I was leaning towards your answer just because I can't find anything else, but I'll have to go through and make a rule to clear those fields on 35+ sections. Please advise Thank you for getting back to me!

So - you are saying you don't think your conditional formatting is working correctly, I think - that you are hiding each field? Wouldn't you just put the fields in a section and hide the section? Can you attach your form under the Options tab in a reply so I can take a look & maybe understand the issue a little better?

Well I think it is working correctly, just not they way I want it to. So you're saying I might have to make rules clearing the field when it is supposed to be hidden, right? I have attached the form under the options tab. Thanks for the help!

Okay - so, I'm sorry to be slow - can you clarify what currently happens and what you expect to have happen? I see you have conditional formatting on the various sections, and I'm assuming that works as anticipated - so what is the part that doesn't do what you expect?

So if you go to the "MethodGroup" and you select "Check" the "CheckGroup" shows. Select "Payable to" from the "Check" drop down, and now the "PayableToGroup" is visible. Go back to "Method" and select a different choice. The "PayableToGroup" is still visible, but the "CheckGroup" is not. I get that it's doing what I tell it to, but I guess I was hoping for a way to deal with the dependent fields other than making a new rule for every instance like that in the form just to clear the value. Also, if you have any other suggestions based on what you've seen in this form please let me know. Fairly new to InfoPath but I will be creating a lot of forms that will look similar... After you reply to this I'm going to edit that post and take down the form, so if you don't mind save a local copy of that. Thanks.

I went ahead and took the form down for you - I'd grabbed a copy already. I get what you are saying now. Can you put the various sections dependent upon (for example) the Check group into the Check section? So that when you select Check from MethodGroup and the check section shows, all those groups (that hide or show based on the selection of "Check") are together? Does that make sense?

Thank you! And yea that does make sense, but the data would still be in the background (xml). We're looking at doing something with this form for front office people and then when they're done capturing the data from the customer they will be able to hit a "print" button and we're going to be using C# programming to pull the xml data into a word template with disclosures and wording that we don't want on the form itself. Not that this would be THAT big of a problem for the data to still be there, but it might turn into something down the road. Kind of just a best practice. So it looks like I'm going to have to bite the bullet and just do a rule to clear any data in the fields, unless you have any other ideas.

Nope - I know it is a drag, but it just the way it all works. So, you'll just have to add rules to clear these fields, I'm afraid. It is boring, but easy, and will be done faster than you think. :)

Will do! Thank you so much for the quick feedback.

Ok now I'm having problems with the clearing rules. Which field do I put the action rule on? The field that drives the dependent field, or the dependent field itself. I've tried both and both are not working. Right now I have an action rule on the "CheckGroup" saying "Condition: Check not equal to "Payable to" set a field's value: PayableTo = "". Is this right?

 Rules fire when the field they are on changes. So - for example - you might put a rule on the Method field to clear the Check field every time it changes. Then you could put rules on the Check field to clear its dependent fields... make sense? I wouldn't even bother with conditions. When Method changes, clear Check. When Check changes, clear the fields that depend on it, and so on.

Ok, yea that makes sense! I also think I was trying to set it to the section the field was in instead of the field itself. That makes a ton more sense now. Thanks again!