Newbie Questions

Re: Summarize a Repeating Table/Section

thoughtdream — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 10:56:58 GMT

I've only recently taught myself Access, as well as InfoPath, so I also fear the time involved in self-learning how to coordinate between InfoPath, SQL, Sharepoint...but I do well with reverse engineering examples.

If I do move into SQL I may totally end up redoing the work process. I have a mega-form due to cross-view data sharing...but if I move into SQL and can achieve across-form integration I may split things up. Of course, that would only work if I figure out how to do it (ie. use 'reference #' as the common instance to pull details from Form B into Form A for data integration. Form B being filled out by the customer and Form A being the user's project management view).

Hopefully when all our computers migrate to Office 2007 my abilities will substantially increase.

Appreciate the assist.

Re: Summarize a Repeating Table/Section

Clay Fox — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:21:06 GMT

Welcome to the forum.

Probably best practice is to look at storing your form data in a database. InfoPath is not a real good reporting tool, since that is not what it was designed to do.

I have done a similar summary type view but maybe not quite as complex as yours. I have since then replaced it with a web report from the backend data as it performs better and has more options for individuals or other departments who want to see it a bit differently. Also you do not have to load the form and increase the complexity and overhead of your form to accomodate users who want to see the dashboard view.

With a database and SQL reports you can not only aggregate and score within each form but then you can see across multiple forms. You can quickly create real-time dashboards of the information or people can export it to Excel for manipulation. It may even allow you to reduce the complexity of your mega form if you had this aggregation capability.

If you would like to see an example you can send me an email.

Summarize a Repeating Table/Section

thoughtdream — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:41:52 GMT

Newbie and loving it. I figured out a bunch of stuff thanks to multiple forums (date calculations, push form dates to a sharepoint calendar) and hope to learn even more here.

I have a multiple view form, but that's besides the point but just note I am talking about just one ultra-mega form. In one view is a repeating section. Within the section is a repeating table. The view is of Risk Assessments. What I want to do is summarize overall risk ratings contained in the repeating section.

The user would enter a Risk Assessment and populate information and a repeating table. A risk rating would then be given by the user.

The user would then insert another section and perform the same operation, perform a new risk assessment in terms of some different viewpoint (ie. Risk in terms of schedule...risk in terms of cost...etc).

This will lead to multiple Risk Assessments in relation to the Repeating 'RISK' section.

I now want to create basically a 'managerial' view (because of course managers don't care about details), where there is a just a summary. I just want a list of:

(1) Title, Risk Assessment Viewpoint (txt), Probability, Consequence.

(2) Title, Risk Assessment Viewpoint (txt), Probability, Consequence.

(3) Title, Risk Assessment Viewpoint (txt), Probability, Consequence.

etc...etc...

The variables presented above live in the repeating section, outside the repeating table (with the exception of title, that exists outside of anything repeating which isn't a big deal to deal with).

My end hope is not only to create a Risk Summary view within the form but push the information to a Forms Library (SharePoint) so I can create a view showing the same information, just outside of the form. Note I do want the information both inside and outside the form if possible. I just don't completely understand how to pull information of a field that is within a repeating table.

I am currently in InfoPath 2003 but should be migrating soon to 2007. I would appreciate advice on how to perform in both, or just a simple '2003 stinks, wait for 2007 and do this'...

Thanks in advance!