Newbie Questions

Re: Multi-selection list box need to populate another field with those choices

Hilary Stoupa — Fri, 22 Nov 2013 19:46:42 GMT

Here is a thread that describes what I'm talking about for hiding while emailing: http://www.infopathdev.com/forums/p/24141/83663.aspx#83663

The things I know that turned out to be the most important to me when working with InfoPath are:

You can have multiple controls bound to the same field, even in the same view (you know this one now too!) - the data and controls are separate things.
Rules fire when a field changes - I see a lot of people put a rule on a field to try to change that very same field - generally this is not what you want.
You can't save data in secondary data sources - if you want to save the changes someone is entering into a form, the controls need to be bound to the main data source fields
Be wary of default values - they may update and overwrite data the user has entered into the form, and generally you don't want that
Don't worry about getting a little messy - drag your secondary data sources onto the form so you can see what's going on - I see people working blind a lot, where they are making guesses as to what the contents of a secondary data source might be. There is no reason to not know - just put the data on the form and check it out. Clean up before you publish.
Query fields are used to indicate what data you want returned to the form. Set query fields and then add an action to run the query to return only the data you need (not all data connections have query fields, but if they are there, do use them).

That's some of the big stuff. If you are interested in any training - the company I work for has a good 101 class - http://www.qdabra.com/webstore/p/57/infopath-101-training - I'm not sure when the next class is happening, but it may be a good fit for you.

Re: Multi-selection list box need to populate another field with those choices

Siren7 — Fri, 22 Nov 2013 19:26:36 GMT

Wow I think that worked! I dragged the same multi-select check box right next the existing, user selection one and made the new one a Read-only bulleted list. The new bulleted list changes when the user make selections in the other one. I just started learning InfoPath so I'm not real familiar with operating the conditional formatting to hide the multiple selection box when the user saves the completed form and when it gets emailed to us. But I will investigate this further! Thank you! Would you have any other tips for a beginner?

Re: Multi-selection list box need to populate another field with those choices

Hilary Stoupa — Fri, 22 Nov 2013 16:35:46 GMT

One thing that sometimes is confusing about InfoPath is that you can have multiple controls bound to the same field. Just go to your data source task pane, find the repeating field that is bound to your multi-select list box, and drag it onto your form - it will probably give you a selection of controls to choose from - you could just go with bulleted list or something for now. Preview, select some stuff, and you should see a bullet for each selected item. You'll probably want to hide any bullets that are blank and disable the user's ability to insert / delete that control. You could also add a helper field and some conditional formatting to hide the multi-select when the form is being emailed - then the email recipients won't have to see the multi-select at all.

Multi-selection list box need to populate another field with those choices

Siren7 — Fri, 22 Nov 2013 16:14:07 GMT

Hi everyone, I'm new to InfoPath (running 2010 version). I've created my form already (modified a really ancient Word form we'd been using since 1997). I have a multiple selection list box with 140 possible choices. It is going to solve our problem with users entering whatever they feel like. Problem is, when the form gets emailed to us after the user completes it, it's kind of a pain to scroll back through the list and figure out what was selected by the user. The 140 choices are just text - names, actually. I want a quick way to see the user-selected choices in a second list box right next to the multi-select list box it or something. It'll also help the user see what choices they made for extra verification.