InfoPath Dev

Hello everybody! I'm having an issue with my infopath form, and I hope you guys can clear it for me if possible =) First of all, I should clarify that there are several restrictions for me (company-wide) which reduces the tools that I can use to solve my problems. 1. I can't use code. I should be able to find workarounds only with rules. 2. Infopath is my only option. The stations in which I have my form running have no office software (and we don't have powerapps yet) A little bit of background: I work in a manufacturing plant of a big player in the automotive market. The code restriction is due to company policy on data security and I have no power to change it (for now). So to my problem: I have a form that is supposed to be opened and help my team "track" the pieces that they are producing. This is a contingency plan, given that the proper software that will do this with integration to our databases is still being developed. To solve this issue, I created a form that the operator scan the pieces and my barcode reader is set to "tab" and then "Enter" to submit the information and change views (the view change is for the cursos to be in the field which will recieve the information again). So far i have sucessfully created an environment in which I can keep track of the amount of pieces that are being produced. HOWEVER, our client wants the pieces in sequence, and I have to find a way to guarantee that, not only I am producing the amount of pieces requested, but i'm also producing them in the sequence that my client asked. This control should only be visual. What I tried to do was when my operator scanned the piece, it would compare this string with a table (linked to sharepoint) that has the sequence of the day, and would format my item in the repeating table to green (screening that the piece was manufactured). the problem is that I need this conditional formatting to stay green, and soon after I erase the string from my field (to scan the next piece) the conditional formatting disappears. Another idea that I had was to perform a "lookup" in the repeating table which has the information from sharepoint and change another field to "OK" if it was a match to that specific string. My problem with this solution was that when he found a match, he would reduce the repeating table to only that particular string (and I need it to stay with all the elements visible at all times) There is a basic image with the UI of my form attached. I can provide additional information as well. Thanks in advance for any help =) and sorry if I misspelled any word, english is not my native language =(

Any chance I can see your form template? I understand so much better when I have a form I can poke at. :) You can attach it under the Options tab in a reply.

Hi Hilary, thank you for your time. I attached my form.

Ok, I understand a bit better now. Yeah, the issue is that you really need a way to store in your form's main data source the items that have been done - is the data in the SharePoint list re-used from one form session to the next? That is, if I scan item 112233 in the form today, might I need to do it again tomorrow?

Hilary, The string "peca_scan_dach" is unique (as it refers to one specific car to be manufactured by our client). I have a routine that every morning at 6am my engineering assistant will update the values in the sharepoint list that the form will take the information of. This number can vary (we may produce 40 cars in a day or we may produce 80, depending on the complexity of the car itself). therefore, the trick that i used is that every morning after the updates he will create a new form and the form's name is the date (so i have a database of every day as my routine is daily). to store the items that i have done maybe i'll need a repeating table with auto increment that will add items done that day? i'm yet to understand how to develop such a table without code. tks

Yeah - so if you will fill out one form a day, you might be able to use default data for this. In an InfoPath form, under the data tab in the ribbon, you can open the default data pane. From there, you can add instances of a repeating group or field. I think that you may need to do that here - just add the highest number of rows you think you'd ever need for a given day.....You'll also need a helper field in your repeating section, so that when you scan an item you can determine which row to add it to.... then you'll have the data stored in the form and will have something to compare to the secondary list. I will try later today or early tomorrow to implement something similar in your sample form to better show you what I mean. :)

Ok Hilary! thanks a lot! that's exactly what i'm looking for!

So, the attached sample is pretty rough, but hopefully gives you some ideas. Save it locally, right click and select preview. Enter a value in the scan field that is present in the table that I've got showing data in it (sort of a pretend list table, since we can't connect to each other's data sources) and you'll see the row is highlighted green and the main data source table displays a row. I've only got 16 default rows in there, but that seemed like plenty for a sample. :)