InfoPath Dev

Hello,

I have a problem similar to this post http://www.infopathdev.com/forums/p/8501/31064.aspx#31064. I have tried to implement this and other suggestions such as http://www.infopathdev.com/blogs/matt/archive/2006/04/18/Automatically-Populate-Fields-from-a-Drop_2D00_Down-Selection.aspx but nothing works and I have no idea why.

I am trying to use a drop down box to change the contents of a repeating table that has a repeating table within it. The information comes from a read-only data connection and is only used for reference. I do not need to be able to edit this data.

The data describes lists of questions for use in a questionaire. There are multiple sets of questions. Each set of questions contains a list of questions categorised into sub-sections. The idea is that the user should be able to select the name of the question set from the drop down box, then the list of questions in that question set will populate the table below it.

The user interface i am trying to achieve is

< Drop down box - QuestionSetNames>

 Sub Section 1 Heading - (QuestionCategoryName)
  Item 1 - (QuestionID)
  Item 2 - (QuestionID)
  Item 3 - (QuestionID)

 Sub Section 2 Heading - (QuestionCategoryName)
  Item 4 - (QuestionID)
  Item 5 - (QuestionID)

An example of the XML structure i am using is to provide the data is

<QuestionSets xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:my="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/infopath/2003/myXSD/2008-07-30T09:07:55" xmlns:xd="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/infopath/2003">
 <QuestionSet QuestionSetName="Question Set 1">
  <QuestionCategory QuestionCategoryName="Question Category 1">
   <Question QuestionID="Question 1" QuestionVersion="1"></Question>
   <Question QuestionID="Question 2" QuestionVersion="1"></Question>
   <Question QuestionID="Question 3" QuestionVersion="1"></Question>
  </QuestionCategory>
  <QuestionCategory QuestionCategoryName="Question Category 2">
   <Question QuestionID="Question 4" QuestionVersion="1"></Question>
   <Question QuestionID="Question 5" QuestionVersion="1"></Question>
   <Question QuestionID="Question 6" QuestionVersion="1"></Question>
  </QuestionCategory>
 </QuestionSet>
 <QuestionSet QuestionSetName="Question Set 2">
  <QuestionCategory QuestionCategoryName="Question Category 1">
   <Question QuestionID="Question 1" QuestionVersion="1"></Question>
   <Question QuestionID="Question 2" QuestionVersion="1"></Question>
   <Question QuestionID="Question 3" QuestionVersion="1"></Question>
   <Question QuestionID="Question 7" QuestionVersion="1"></Question>
   <Question QuestionID="Question 8" QuestionVersion="1"></Question>
  </QuestionCategory>
 </QuestionSet>
</QuestionSets>

I am happy to give more details if required. Any help or examples of XPath queries to use would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Jamie

 the way i would accomplish this is dynamically get the questions from your database based on the value of the dropdown. you would add a web service call on a rule that gets triggered by the dropdown value change. The webservice would have an input parameter that gets the value of the current dropdown item. hope this helps.

Is there any way to do it with infopath alone? My external data source is just an XML file and I don't have the resources to develop web services, I am not a C# developer.

One thing I tried was to have two data connections:

        Connection A - Gets the data from the external XML file

        Connection B - A copy of the external XML file that does not get refreshed when the form is opened

I used jscript code to select the correct node from Source A based on the drop down list box and inserted the XML into the DOM of Source B.

 The controls on the form are bound to Source B but they do not get refreshed with the data from the new DOM when it changes.

 
Does this idea have any merit? If so, how can I get it to work? If not, what will work?

Thanks,

Jamie
 

I have managed to find a solution, albeit a bit of a work around.  

 It basically uses the idea in this post http://www.infopathdev.com/forums/p/6324/23272.aspx which is to remove the current node and then append the node that i wanted to display. Because I am doing this all with external data sources I had to make an extra data connection which was to act as a "fake" schema. This was just a copy of the XML file I wanted to import with no data in it - this gives the data bindings the right shape (i.e. the form is bound to the "fake" data connection). Then, after deleting node on the "fake" currently showing,  I could query the "real" data connection and append the relevant node onto the "fake" data schema which populated the nested repeating table. The last part of the code refreshed the "real" data connection so that it could be re-queried next time.

 
I had to use a similar technique with a "real" and "fake" data connection to be able to populate the combo box with the correct choices. So in the end 4 data connections.

the code and "fake" schema for those who are interested 

function
msoxd__DummyDropdownList__DropDownListItem::OnAfterChange(eventObj)
{
// Write code here to restore the global state.

    if (eventObj.IsUndoRedo)
        {
            // An undo or redo operation has occurred and
the DOM is read-only.
            return;
        }

// A field change has occurred and the DOM is writable. Write code here
to respond to the changes.

    var DropDownListText =
XDocument.GetDOM("DummyDropdownList").selectSingleNode("/DropDownListIte
ms/DropDownListItem").text
    if (DropDownListText != "")
    {
        var QuestionSetsDOM = XDocument.GetDOM("QuestionSets");
        var objXMLNode =
QuestionSetsDOM.selectSingleNode("/QuestionSets/QuestionSet[@QuestionSet
Name='" + DropDownListText + "']");
        if (objXMLNode != null)
        {
            var DummyQuestionSetsParent =
XDocument.GetDOM("DummyQuestionSets").selectSingleNode("/QuestionSets")
            var DummyQuestionSet =
XDocument.GetDOM("DummyQuestionSets").selectSingleNode("/QuestionSets/Qu
estionSet")
            if (DummyQuestionSet != null)
            {
   
DummyQuestionSetsParent.removeChild(DummyQuestionSet)
            }
            DummyQuestionSetsParent.appendChild(objXMLNode)
        }
    XDocument.DataObjects("QuestionSets").Query();
    }
   
}


<QuestionSets>
    <QuestionSet QuestionSetName="">
        <QuestionCategory QuestionCategoryName="">
            <Question QuestionID=""
QuestionVersion=""></Question>
            <Question QuestionID=""
QuestionVersion=""></Question>
        </QuestionCategory>
        <QuestionCategory QuestionCategoryName="">
            <Question QuestionID=""
QuestionVersion=""></Question>
            <Question QuestionID=""
QuestionVersion=""></Question>
        </QuestionCategory>
    </QuestionSet>
    <QuestionSet QuestionSetName="">
        <QuestionCategory QuestionCategoryName="">
            <Question QuestionID=""
QuestionVersion=""></Question>
            <Question QuestionID=""
QuestionVersion=""></Question>
        </QuestionCategory>
        <QuestionCategory QuestionCategoryName="">
            <Question QuestionID=""
QuestionVersion=""></Question>
            <Question QuestionID=""
QuestionVersion=""></Question>
        </QuestionCategory>
    </QuestionSet>
</QuestionSets>