Newbie Questions

Re: Display name from DDL

Matt Faus — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 02:08:07 GMT

If you have a Many-to-one relationship from Display Names to Values I'm afraid you are going to have to do tricky things to get the correct display value.

As a general rule of thumb the names/values should be unique.

Re: Display name from DDL

newbE — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 23:15:59 GMT

ahh great, I did get this to work using secondary data sources. To get the secondary data source I created a form with a repeating table with two columns, one for displayname, and one for value(thanks Matt Faus for this info in another post). Then opened the form and filled it out with all the data I needed, then saved it as an XML.

The filter option worked great, but only if I did
MainDOMRepeatingValueField = New2DSValueField

rather than
New2DSValueField = MainDOMRepeatingValueField

The only thing that I don't like is that if the value is the same for two different DisplayNames, when selected in the form they won't stay on the Displayname that was selected. To get around this I've been giving each displayname a unique value and creating an extra column with a hidden textbox, then using filters to populate the value of the textbox to whatever I want based on the unique value of the original drop down list. Is there any other way of getting around this so I don't have to do so much extra work?

Thanks for all your help Matt!

Re: Display name from DDL

newbE — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 18:14:53 GMT

thanks for the info. Do you have any suggestions for creating the secondary data sources? And I also want to clarify.. In the second drop down list that is being populated from the drop down list in the repeating table, it is important that it retains both the value and display name. I need the value to filter specific data and populate other fields in my form, but I also need the display name to show because that is what the end user will see and need to understand.

Thanks again for all your help.

Re: Display name from DDL

Matt Faus — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 15:00:39 GMT

Hi newbE,

This is a great question and after looking at your form file, you are on the right track, but it is going to be a little more tricky than what you had thought.

First, you need to move your drop-down options to a secondary data source, and populate both drop-downs from this list.

However, on the second, filtered drop-down, you need to use a data filter whenever you are setting the entries in the properties dialog box. The filter would be something like:

New2DSValueField = MainDOMRepeatingValueField

In general, it is much easier to work with drop-downs if their options are stored in a secondary DOM. If you need a more detailed instruction set for this process, there should be a HowTo coming out at the end of the week that might give you some insight.

Display name from DDL

newbE — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 21:19:17 GMT

I've created a repeating table with a DDL in it. The DDL is populated with alot of things.

Elsewhere in my form I have a DDL that will look up values in the forms data source,(the repeating table DDL). This works almost exactly how I want it by showing only the things that were added in the repeating table rather than the huge list of things. The problem is it shows the values and not the display name.

Is there a way to get the display name to show in the drop down, while keeping its value?

Here is a test3.xsn of what I am trying to do if this isn't making sense. Thanks!
http://www.solarlogic.net/test3.xsn