Browser Forms

Re: Tip for re-binding sections and fields

Hilary Stoupa — Tue, 07 May 2013 22:33:00 GMT

I haven't had to do this yet in IP 2013, but if I recall correctly it is the same in IP 2003 & 2007.

Re: Tip for re-binding sections and fields

AlexK — Tue, 07 May 2013 22:27:42 GMT

No problem Hilary :) I have accidentally done this as well several times and hopefully this will help me remember how to do it properly from now on. This is for InfoPath 2010 though, not sure if it's any different in other versions...

Re: Tip for re-binding sections and fields

Hilary Stoupa — Tue, 07 May 2013 22:18:14 GMT

I am so glad you posted this. Every time I do this the wrong way I bang my head against my desk several times. :)

Tip for re-binding sections and fields

AlexK — Tue, 07 May 2013 22:13:11 GMT

Here's a little tidbit that may save some of you a lot of wasted time (I learned this the hard way):

If you ever need to change the binding of fields and sections for whatever reason (due to sections breaking, data connection changes, field name changes, re-arranging sections, etc.), then be certain to re-bind your sections outside-in, and fields always last.

For example: say you have a repeating section with 100 fields, and that repeating section lies inside a collapsible normal section. For whatever reason you need to re-bind everything to your data fields and folder structure. If you had tried to re-bind the 100 fields first, to your own horror you would have lost every single one of those bindings upon binding the repeating section or outer section they are contained in afterwards, and you would have had to start over by binding all 100 fields again.

The lesson is, bind from outside-in, meaning the top level outermost sections first, then sub-sections inside that, etc. until you have the fields remaining, then bind those. This will save you a great deal of frustration.