InfoPath Dev

Hello all,

I'm setting up my first InfoPath 2003 form and have come across a lot of limitations where I didn't expect there to be limitations (i.e., the limitations are related to things that I considered very simple in concept). Here are the latest two scenarios:

1. I have a 'Signoff' form field that is connected to a receiving data connection to a Contacts list on a SharePoint 2003 site. The Contacts list has a calculated 'Full Name' field that concatenates the first and last names. Now I expected that I would have access to the Full Name field through the data connection, but that is not the case :(. It seems like custom fields that are added through SharePoint are not included in the data connection, which makes my life a lot more difficult because I am not able to populate the Signoff droplist with full names. I was hoping that I would at least be able to use the concat() XPath command to create the full name for the 'Value' and 'Display name' fields in the list properties, but that is also not possible. There's gotta be an easy way to do something this simple, right?
2. On my droplists I like to populate the first line item with "Select...", but when I auto-populate the list with a data connection from a SharePoint form library, the list's first line is blank. This makes the UI inconsistent.... is there a way to force the first line to be "Select..." when you're using a data connection?

Thanks,
Tom

 Hi again

To treat things the other way around and answer point 2 first as I think about answering 1.

Easiest way is to double click on the control for the drop-down box and go into the "Advanced" tab.  Then add the placeholder Select...  It will not appear in the list but will remain their until something is selected.

Okay, 1;  If i understand correctly, you are trying to concatenate a multiple list field before then displaying it in an InfoPath drop-down.  This is a step too far for InfoPath, what I would recommend is to perform the concatenation in another web service and present that to InfoPath.  As an addendum InfoPath only uses concatenate on a single items, not lists.
 

Cheers 

Hi Adam,

I don't have my work PC here, but I will try your suggestion for #2 on Monday. Regarding #1, the concatenation is already done on the SharePoint side (via a calculated field that concatentates First Name and Last Name), but the calculated field is not included in the data connection that is used to populate the droplist. It seems that the limitation is that a receiving data connection excludes all custom fields created in SharePoint.

Tom

Understood about the calculated field.  What I was trying to explain is that as the custom field does not fire into the data connection create a differenct data connection (web service) that  does the concat and link that to your form as a new data connection, that would work fine.

I hope this helps 

Hey Tom.

Is the calculated field in your default view?

The data connection does not return all fields only what is in the view. If a field is not in it you will not get it in your secondary dom.

Just wanted to check.

Clay Fox:

Hey Tom.

Is the calculated field in your default view?

The data connection does not return all fields only what is in the view. If a field is not in it you will not get it in your secondary dom.

Just wanted to check.

Hi Clay,

Yes, the calculated "Full Name" field is in the default view.

Tom

adamrharding:

 Hi again

Easiest way is to double click on the control for the drop-down box and go into the "Advanced" tab. Then add the placeholder Select... It will not appear in the list but will remain their until something is selected.

Hi Adam,

I just checked the drop-down box properties and don't see the "Advanced" tab. Maybe this is only available in InfoPath 2007?

Tom

I was finally able to resolve #2 by extracting the source files (File menu / Extra Form Files) and modifying view1.xsl in the following ways:

1. Manually added <option>Select...</option> below the <select> tag.
2. Removed an extra <option/> tag that was somehow introduced into the code (InfoPath 2003 bug?) that is creating the empty list item.

I hope this helps someone else who also wants their drop-down lists to begin with "Select..." instead of an empty list item when populating the list with a data connection.

Tom

for problem number one why not just use the concat function that infopath has.  I have done this with a database connection which stores last name and first name seperate, but on a form I just simply have a text box that is for name, after querying it displays first and last name.  Maybe that will work, unless I missed something in your original post.

barmatt80:

for problem number one why not just use the concat function that infopath has.  I have done this with a database connection which stores last name and first name seperate, but on a form I just simply have a text box that is for name, after querying it displays first and last name.  Maybe that will work, unless I missed something in your original post.

I had the same line of thought, but unfortunately you cannot use the built-in concat() function in this context (dynamically building a "full name" drop-down menu from a data connection that only provides the first and last names). If you have a work-around for doing this, please post it here. For now I've created an XML file with the full names and using the file as a data connection; it's not as optimum as creating a data connection to our global addressbook, but good enough since the full names won't be changing that often anyway.

Thanks,
Tom