Browser Forms

Re: Error when trying to open a form in Sharepoint

mklauss — Tue, 06 Oct 2020 20:54:54 GMT

I am still waiting for the powershell guy to test out your suggestions Hilary and will reply back when that is done and we can test it out.

Re: Error when trying to open a form in Sharepoint

mklauss — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 23:21:26 GMT

I was just reading up on xml whitespace and it s very interesting. Thank you for testing it and for the information, I think you have found the cause and solution. I will ask him to try that out and see what happens.

Re: Error when trying to open a form in Sharepoint

Hilary Stoupa — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 22:53:45 GMT

Okay, so I tried this approach:

$xml = New-Object System.Xml.XmlDocument
$xml.PreserveWhitespace = $false
$xml.Load("C:\Users\Hilary Stoupa\Documents\~Temp\2020-09-22T09_02_19.xml")
$xml.PreserveWhitespace = $true
$xml.Save("C:\Users\Hilary Stoupa\Documents\~Temp\TST2020-09-22T09_02_19.xml")

Basically, setting preserve whitespace to false, loading the doc, then saving after setting preserve whitespace to true, and that seemed to do the trick. Maybe worth having the person who wrote the script try this approach on a file or two and see if that addresses the issue. Here's a Stack Overflow reference: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8160613/powershell-saving-xml-and-preserving-format/8160878#8160878

And here is info on Xml.PreserveWhitespace: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.xml.xmldocument.preservewhitespace?redirectedfrom=MSDN&view=netcore-3.1#System_Xml_XmlDocument_PreserveWhitespace

Re: Error when trying to open a form in Sharepoint

mklauss — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 22:51:00 GMT

Oh ok that is a good suggestion as well thanks.

Re: Error when trying to open a form in Sharepoint

Hilary Stoupa — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 22:43:29 GMT

I don't think the error stems from the address replacement. I think it has to do with something in the way the file is re-saved from PowerShell. He might want to look into Xml.PreserveWhitespace - I'm wondering about setting that to false before loading the XML and then setting to true before re-saving might help with this. I'm going to test with that sample file you sent me and see.

Re: Error when trying to open a form in Sharepoint

mklauss — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 22:21:42 GMT

Okay thank you, more learning for me. I was thinking about removing the group but I have just run a test and think I have it isolated now. I submitted a new request which sends it to Sharepoint. I checked and was able to open up the form that resides in Sharepoint just fine. When the script ran and deleted the address I tried to open it again and it failed with the error. I haven't heard back from the PowerShell guy about whether he was able to replace the address with a period or something else yet but I am curious if replacing the address with some other character will fix the issue also.

Re: Error when trying to open a form in Sharepoint

Hilary Stoupa — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 22:09:21 GMT

A template is an InfoPath form - the form itself, the XSN file that you work on in InfoPath Designer and publish. I had thought you were talking about removing the group from the schema in the XSN.

Re: Error when trying to open a form in Sharepoint

mklauss — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 22:00:56 GMT

Hmmm, I've never tried to bind a section to another group or field before. That sounds interesting. Maybe I'm misunderstanding your post or the definition of a template but the data that is deleted is only in a completed form that is published on Sharepoint. The inconsistency is driving me nuts also since I think I have it fixed and then it errors out again. I didn't publish the form until after I started getting errors again today so I'm not sure what if anything changed. The PowerShell script runs once to delete the address from the form stored in SharePoint right after it is sent there. That made me think of a new test to try, if I open up the form before the script runs which is withing 5-10 minutes after it is sent to Sharepoint and then after the address is deleted if it will make a difference. If it is that the script is causing the error by deleting data and messing up the form then I will have to look at other options. Thanks again Hilary, I appreciate your time and your insight.

Re: Error when trying to open a form in Sharepoint

Hilary Stoupa — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 18:45:59 GMT

Well - that's why I was asking about whether the form is in production. You don't have to have a specific group for the section - you can bind a section to another field or group in the schema. But, in InfoPath Forms Services (browser) forms my experience has been that deleting a field or group from the template actually causes additional schema validation errors. I guess what I'm not understanding is the complete inconsistency of the issue. I.e. - yesterday, you opened some XML files successfully. Without changing (or republishing? I'm not sure from your answer whether you republished the form between checking these files yesterday) the XSN (InfoPath form) the XML files won't open today. I don't understand if the PowerShell script that changes your files runs on all files - that is, did the XML files you successfully opened yesterday get touched at all by the PowerShell script? I guess if you are already running a script on all these files, you could just have it remove the submit element entirely, and bind that section in the form to something else...

Re: Error when trying to open a form in Sharepoint

mklauss — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 18:32:05 GMT

Oh ok I get it and yes, the form is set to automatically update the form and the template. I have published the form without any changes to see if it will resolve the issue but it doesn't.

I suppose I can delete the section and just move the button and text to the form itself without a section if that will resolve it.

Re: Error when trying to open a form in Sharepoint

Hilary Stoupa — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 18:02:06 GMT

By versioning I mean in the form template, the XSN, under form options > Versioning, is the template set to upgrade existing forms? Have you published the form again between being able to open certain forms yesterday that you can't open today?

Re: Error when trying to open a form in Sharepoint

mklauss — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 17:52:32 GMT

Good questions Hilary and I will try to answer as best as I can. The forms are set as browser-enabled and they open using the server default. The form is set to use Web Browser, not filler. I do not use versioning on the form and the PowerShell script has been running for almost all of them. There was a process change to include the address which then created the opportunity to use the PowerShell script to delete it after the ticket was created but I can open up some of those. The error seems to be sporadic with forms. I just checked and the ones that I was able to open up yesterday no longer will open and I get that same error message now.

Re: Error when trying to open a form in Sharepoint

Hilary Stoupa — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 16:41:01 GMT

You are opening this in the browser, right? and submitting in the browser? Your initial post makes it sound like you were using Filler for a bit - is that the case? And you said this is only happening on "older" forms? Do you have the form template published with the versioning set up upgrade existing XML? Oh - and I guess the next question is - are these all forms that have been updated by the PowerShell script you mention?

Re: Error when trying to open a form in Sharepoint

mklauss — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 16:36:35 GMT

Thank you Hilary. That is very interesting and I have looked over other forms that I have used a submit section with and I don't have a problem with them in fact the one I just looked at had it all in one line (and no carriage return I'm guessing since I don't have access to Notepad ++ or a way to see the characters). I have no idea why this form then has a carriage return after the first <my:SubmitSection> or how to keep it from happening. It's a simple section with a submit button and some text above it. Do you know what could be causing the carriage return or what I should look for?

Re: Error when trying to open a form in Sharepoint

Hilary Stoupa — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 01:41:32 GMT

The whitespace is in between the open / close tags for Submit. If you open the XML in a text editor, you can see a carriage return. In this screenshot, I've got it open in Notepad ++ and am showing all symbol characters. In my tests, if I removed the carriage return, the schema validation error went away.