Newbie Questions

Re: Dropdown field showing as . in function... driving me nuts!

Jimmy — Thu, 17 May 2012 18:10:28 GMT

Don't worry about it. There's so much available in InfoPath that it's easy to overlook some things. I don't think I noticed that particular button until a while after I had started using it. :-)

Re: Dropdown field showing as . in function... driving me nuts!

Jen B — Thu, 17 May 2012 17:06:52 GMT

I love you... feel like an idiot, but love you for your help. Didn't see that there. Used it and I'm in business! Thanks for your patience with me!

Re: Dropdown field showing as . in function... driving me nuts!

Jimmy — Wed, 16 May 2012 20:35:26 GMT

There should be a Filter Data... button in the Insert Field or Group... dialog. That's the Filter Data that I'm referring to.

Re: Dropdown field showing as . in function... driving me nuts!

Jen B — Wed, 16 May 2012 20:15:02 GMT

Thanks Jimmy... I actually was using the select field button to insert the email field into the formula. Based on your recommendation to click on Filter data, it sounds like you have me working out og the properties dialogue box from the SPAnalyst1 field rather than from the rules section...
I was using rules (which in 2010 isn't in the properties dialogue box) to try and set this up, is there something I'm missing that I should also be doing in the properties dialogue box??

And, yes, the SP field "Name" is showing in the data connection as the display of TItle... which I know can be changed, but can't remember how....

Sorry... I feel like I'm being a total moron by not being able to figure this out and can't seem to find instructions to follow in any of my books or in any blogs/forums that actually works or have clearly defined steps.

Re: Dropdown field showing as . in function... driving me nuts!

Jimmy — Wed, 16 May 2012 18:40:57 GMT

I can't explain the Email/Emails mystery, but I can say that . isn't going to work in this case. To clarify, . refers to the context node, but within the brackets, the context node is emails, so . refers to emails in this case.

Rather than setting up the brackets yourself, I suggest using the Select field... dialog to select emails (or email, whichever it is), then click the Filter data... button to set up a condition where Title = SPAnalyst1 (is title the same as Name?). That's more likely to get you the correct formula. Could you give that a try?

Re: Dropdown field showing as . in function... driving me nuts!

Jen B — Wed, 16 May 2012 18:10:52 GMT

Thanks Jimmy... not completely surprised I didn't know that.

I tried the formula as is, but alas it isn't working. I'm basing it off of another formula from an IP form that works the same way. Apparently something is not correct... here's what I've got:

1. Data connection pulling back ID, Name, Email, Group and Status

2. Dropdown using that connection to populate. Filtered to only show people in a particular group with active status. Dropdown is to choose the person's name - field name is SPAnalyst1.

3. I want to populate the text box (SPAnlsEmail) with the email of the chosen name. I am selecting the dropdown, clicking rules, action and selecting 'Set a field's value'. For the field, I select SPAnlsEmail and then I click to enter the formula.

4. The formula I'm basing this off of was @Email[@Title = AssignedTrainMgr] The first interesting thing is that, when I go to select the email field from the secondary data source, it shows up as emails.. not @Email and no where have I called that data emails... the column name in the sharepoint is just Email, the data source list shows it as Email... where is this emails coming from? I enter the bracket, choose Title from the secondary dropdown then = (separated by spaces) and lastly choose SPAnalyst1.

Ends up looking like this emails[Title = .] Which looks nothing like the original formula, yet I seem to have followed the set up.

What am I doing wrong? Is there a better way to go about this?

I've read a gazillion posts, but they either don't write up the process with all the steps or, when I try the formula, it - again - doesn't work. Normally, I grasp these things quickly, so this is becoming rather frustrating.

Thanks for the help!

Re: Dropdown field showing as . in function... driving me nuts!

Jimmy — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:28:50 GMT

I don't think there's anything wrong here. . is the XPath symbol for the current field.

http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath/#path-abbrev

Dropdown field showing as . in function... driving me nuts!

Jen B — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:16:51 GMT

I started to get a headache trying to find an answer to this issue in the forum... my apologies if it is answered somewhere else.

Being a newbie, I wanted to test some things before putting them in my form. Of course, I hit a hiccup.

I have a sharepoint data connection providing name and email of individuals. The first field is a dropdown to choose the name of the individual based on their group and status (SPAnalyst1). Works great. I want to populate a text box with the individual's email based on the name chosen. So, I selected the dropdown field and started to add a rule to set the textbox's value.... field is my HOWEVER, when I choose the field SPAnalyst1 to add to my formula, it shows up as a period (.). What is going on?!?!? Help please...