InfoPath Dev

Hi there --

Here's my situation.  I have an InfoPath form published to a SharePoint (WSS 2) site form library.  The purpose of this form is to allow project managers to provide monthly reports on the progress of their project.  Among other things, the form contains a Report Date field (which defaults to Today) and a drop-down which they use to indicate which project they are reporting on.  In order to allow them to be able to go in and correct typos, etc., I have checked the box that allows Overwrite.  In order to ensure consistency in document naming -- and thus allow for grouping in the library views -- the submitted form is given a name automatically based on the project name field and the report date field, i.e., "XYZ Upgrade Project - 07-20-2007."  So far so good, that all works fine.

The problem is that the PMs insist that they be able to open last month's form, make a few changes, and submit.  That would work fine, EXCEPT they almost always forget to change the date.  In that case the new verson just overwrites the old, because the name doesn't change.  Even when they do change the date -- and thus the document name -- when they are asked if they want to save the form they opened originally, they click Yes.  So, they end up with one document for this month (i.e., "XYZ Upgrade Project - 08-21-2007") and a NEW version of last month's form ("XYZ Upgrade Project - 07-20-2007") with this month's data.  I even have a banner at the top of the form saying that the must change the date and click NO when asked about saving last month's form, it still happens.

I could just turn off the Overwrite feature and thus have multiple copies with the same name, even generating new copies for typo fixes, etc.  I'd like a more elegant solution, though.  Any ideas?  I've thought of various things, but either I can't find what I think I need to make the solution work, or it doesn't work like I think it should. 

I'm not conversant in XML, so far what I've done has been by trial and error.  I do have a developer I can call on if I absolutely have to, but I'm hoping there's a solution I can do on my own! 

Hi FunnieGrrl,

Great post! This is a relatively common problem. Here's what I would do:

1. In the InfoPath Designer, create a separate view called "Read-Only"
2. Copy the controls from the first view into this new view (switch to Default, click on view, ctrl-a, swich to Read-Only, ctrl-v)
3. Add a banner to the new Read-Only view "READ ONLY - to edit, click here" where "here" is a button
4. Change all fields on the Read-Only view to be read-only. Double click, select properties, check read-only.
5. Add rules for the "here" button
• Sets the date field value to o today's date (use Today() function)
• Switches to the Default view
6. From data connections click Submit Options
7. Add a submit to SharePoint
8. Specify to close the form after submit
9. Add a button to your view and have it call Submit

That should do it. If they are still prompted to store the original form, it is likely because you haven't changed the name correctly. Are you setting the name in the form or from SharePoint?

Hi Patrick --

Thanks so much for your response.  I love the solution!  I have one problem though ... in step 4, I do not find "read only" as an option in the Properties/Display Tab of controls that are drop-down, dates, etc.  It is there on the text fields, but not on the others. Am I missing something?

Hello

In the read only view, for the controls like Dropdowns, Date Pickers  which does not have Read only Option , Change the controls to Expression boxes. This will store the same data from the first view as read only

Thanks!  Worked like a charm.