InfoPath Dev

Hello,

I have an InfoPath form wherein a user must first identify their Company with a choice field (Company A or B); Then once they have selected the company, another field (GL Account) should then filter to allow users to select GLs associated with that company from the SharePoint list. The SharePoint list has three columns: Company; GL; and description. Not sure why this is not working. Any assistance is appreciated.

Thank you!

Jen 

Any chance I can see your form? You can attach it under the options tab in a reply. Generally speaking, to implement a cascading dropdown, the second dropdown has a filter on the data selection. One thing that sometimes trips form designers up is that the first dropdown is storing something other than what they expect - it may be displaying Company, but storing the ID - so in that case, the filter may be incorrectly configured on the second dropdown. Sometimes it is useful to just display the text value of the dropdowns on your form so that you can see what is actually in them.

 Hi Hilary - absolutely. I have attached the file for your review. I will also digest your response to see if I can fix this thing as well. Thank you!

So - in your SharePoint List - what does the Company field look like? Is it exactly the same as the values for your radio buttons, including case? I see the value of the buttons is all upper case.... I had misunderstood and thought this was cascading dropdowns, but your Company field is a radio button. :)

 Hi Hilary, Sorry for the miscommunication. Yes, the Company is a radio button, and the selections are all exactly the same, in upper case ("KFCU/KFIS" and "APOLLO"). These were all working just fine once upon a time, and I didn't make any changes to the configuration - it just suddenly stopped working and I am not sure why, and I haven't been able to restore the functionality.

  

Here's another copy of your form with a test area added at the bottom - it has a repeating table bound to the Invoice GL data source. It has conditional formatting on the rows to highlight them if they match the selected Company in the form - save the file locally, right click and select Design. Preview the form, and try both the company radio buttons to verify the right rows highlight - this may help us figure out the issue.

 Hmmm...something is amiss...maybe with the description??? When I select the companies, the corresponding block of GLs highlight, which indicates the company piece is working. However when I select the GL, the description does not always align... hmmmm...

Both KFCU/KFIS and APOLLO have a GL "271001-0000"

 For KFCU/KFIS, the description should be MARKETING, and for APOLLO, it should be "Referral Fee". Yet, no matter which company is selected, the Referral Fee is displayed in the description.

So maybe it has something to do with the fact that this particular GL number is used twice/not unique...but why would it not display the corresponding/correct description?

I have a rule on the InvGL field called "SetGLDescription" which sets the GL Description field and the Value field is a formula. Maybe the issue is with this field, rather than the invoice GL field?

Ok, maybe I'm confused too. So, your GL dropdown does populate correctly? It is just that the description is not getting set?

 Hi Hilary - according to the hidden table you set in the form, it appears that when the company is selected, the corresponding invoice GLs is highlighting. which is why I'm thinking the invoice GLs actually is working. However, there are a couple GLs in particular wherein I know both companies share the same number, but different descriptions. When I play with those GLs, no matter which company I select, the APOLLO description is the only one that displays...so this is why I am now thinking maybe its the description field?

Sorry, I must not be being clear. Do your dropdowns in the GL column display the correct options? Ohhhhhh, I see what you are saying. You know what? I think you just need a second filter on your SetGLDescription rules - you need to compare on title AND on company.

Here's a copy of your form w/ this change made on the rule on GL1.

 Hi Hilary - Sorry, I had to step away to pick up the kids!

So GLs 1 - 12 are separate fields from InvGL, so the condition to display results if GL1=InvGL would never be possible.

Essentially, an invoice approver can allocate 100% of an invoice to a single GL and cost center (InvGL) OR they can split the amount of the invoice amongst up to 12 different cost centers (GL1-GL12).

The SharePoint list has the 3 columns. We want to first filter the InvGL choices available to the user based upon the company selected, so it either allows users to select from KFCU/KFIS GLs or APOLLO GLs. Then once the list is filtered, once they select the desired GL for that company we want the selected GL to automatically populate the description field with the corresponding description from the list.

From what I can see, the list has 28 GLs which are shared by both companies, 7 of which have unique descriptions to them for each company. So while in most cases the filter failing and displaying the description associated with the GL, including the 21 GLs wherein the GL number and description are the same for both companies, it IS an issue on the 7 GLs for each company wherein the descriptions are not the same.

So, if I can't add an additional filter on the SetGL rule, I wonder what it is going to take to get this working.

And I am MORE concerned that it once worked, and spontaneously stopped working. 

The same type of logic/rule is applied to the InvCC and description fields and those are working...I'm going to SEE if I can somehow replicate the rules there...

Thank you SO much for trying to help me figure this out! 

My screenshot was from your own rule - I only added the company filter. Can you try the form I attached and see if the rule to set the description for the first row in your table of GLs works correctly when you select a GL that is the same between the two companies but has a different description?

Hilary - you are a SUPER HERO! I never would have figured this out. This filter stuff is still a little advanced for me. THANK you for helping me with this. I guess I didn't understand what you were saying at first. So I still messed up a couple times because I didn't know how to get into the area to add this second condition on the filter. But once I did - it worked! I'm telling you, I want to be just like you when I grow up - you're absolutely amazing! Thank you for being patient with me. I will be going through my form to apply these changes to the other fields. Enjoy the remainder of your week!

I knew you could get this. :)