SharePoint Integration

Re: Duplicate fields on Form library after publishing

George.Gergues — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 20:03:12 GMT

Well, first why does this happen and when : - This will happen if you are publishing the Forms (both forms ) as content type normally this is the case with any administrator deployed forms. the WSP installer job will create a content type from site columns that make up the any fields your promote at the form level. This will happen if you are using this particular content type(s) at the library level , this will also happen if you have one or more forms in that library that use that content type ( Note that deleting this item does not unlink it from the content type , you will have to remove it from the reccle bin and all other ref.) Note that if you want to reuse the fields across multiple form on the same site you need to do the following. here is a sample aaa and bbb content types/forms have the following aaa : FirstName , LastName Country bbb : FirstName , LastName ,Country ,Phone Simply deploy the one with the most fields first and when deploying the second form , Under promote fields, you pick the ones that already exist , on the site. Best of luck.

Re: Duplicate fields on Form library after publishing

srujank.p — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 19:16:30 GMT

Hi, I have a similar problem, please somebody help me.

I have "AAA" infoPath library with "aaa" infopath for published as content type. and "BBB" infoPath library with "bbb" content type.

"aaa" and "bbb" Infopath form templates have 50% column with same name (E.g. Publish, Submit, Review etc..).

One of our users saved one Infopath form (which uses "bbb" content type) in "AAA" library accidentally. Then, "AAA" started displaying all columns of "BBB" content type. I am unable to delete any of these columns using any other techniques.

So my problem is, I am unable to identify correct Infopath from (from the 50% duplicate columns) and write a workflow on it or create views on it. Can somebody tell me how can I delete these unused columns?

1. I can create a new library and move over the forms to new library But, If any other user copies any infopath form again, I am sure the result is same, and I will have dupliicate columns. and creating a new form library and moving the forms doesn't work for me.

2. I don't understand why a document library displayes unused columns from from a content type which doesn't exist in the library (Even though, I don't have any documents with 'bbb' content type which was not enabled in "AAA").

Re: Duplicate fields on Form library after publishing

MisterChris — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:26:30 GMT

I'm running into this as well. To fix an earlier issue with Invalid Signatures I began publishing form revisions as 'Content Types', which raised this issue of 'random duplicating columns.'

First, does anyone know what's causing Infopath to do this? Any way to keep this from happening?

Second, I've already published multiple versions to the same folder as separate 'Content Types' which has created as many as 3 duplicated versions of 5 fields promoted. How do I disassociate the form versions from each of these fields and reassociate them with the latest one (or should I go back to the earliest, and how would I tell which is which? Does it display in the column list in arrival sequence? Will deleting the unused columns cause any issues with the previously published forms?

Third, to keep this from occurring, Lozzi recommends closing the manifest (.xsf) and opening it with an XML editor. I'm probably going to expose how n00b I am at this, but Infopath creates an .xsn file (which I understand is a 'packaged' file of several different contents, but I don't know how to depackage it.) I can find and view the GUID on the server, but how do I get to the XML (much less edit it) when Infopath seems to be the only software that reads this file?

Fourth, one of the columns I promoted does not appear to be editable in Datasheet View, so I cannot even populate the earlier versions with the correct information by hand. I suspect that has to do with the check-box when publishing (Allow users to edit this column in Datasheet View) duh, but how do I change those from Read-Only so that I can edit the previously published ones.

Re: Duplicate fields on Form library after publishing

George.Gergues — Fri, 07 May 2010 18:38:23 GMT

I think I found the answer but thanks anyway. and that where I was going initially ..

but as I have over 200 fields , mapping will be paint full but doable.

good luck to you all

-George

http://www.delphi-ts.com/blogs/lozzi/post/2009/06/03/Duplicate-site-columns-in-MOSS-from-InfoPath-Forms.aspx

David's Ramblings on Development

Thank you David ,

I am coping the content just for reference .

Duplicate site columns in MOSS from InfoPath Forms

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June 3, 2009 18:37 by David Lozzi

It appears my customer and I are on the cutting edge of InfoPath development with Form Services. We are CONSTANTLY running into issues and bugs. I try my best to post what we find to help anyone else running through the same issues. This issue is a doosy.

Our scenario is this: We have 3 server farms setup, one for development, one for staging and testing and one for production. We are creating InfoPath forms in Visual Studio 2008 and each have loads of codebehind (handling loading, saving, webservices, etc). We publish the form, with several promoted fields, to Dev first and make sure it works, then publish it to Staging, then after rounds of testing it's released on the Production server. The promoted fields are almost assigned to existing site columns. This works great, in theory.

The issue is that once in a while, for no explained reason, whether publishing to any of the three servers, if I were to add a new field to a form, or modify the schema a little, that's when it hits the fan. The magic that is the InfoPath Publishing Wizard will decide to create a new site column for a promoted field that was already assigned to a site column! YES, it's true!

So for example we have a field in every InfoPath form called FX Form ID. Walking through the wizard, I make sure the FX Form ID field is bound to the correct site column. After the wizard is complete, I deactivate the current form, upload the form and the reactivate it. I take a look at Site Columns in Site Settings and I now see TWO FX Form ID FIELDS! Grrr...

I pulled up SharePoint Manager 2007 (awesome tool for analyzing exactly what is going on in SharePoint) on the server and took a look at the list of fields for the root web. Sure enough, there are two of the same field. They are exactly the same except for the Ids and Internal Names are different, each their own unique GUID.

Unfortunately, there is no easy way to remap the existing data and fields into a single column. I'd bet there is a way in the SQL tables to do it, but that'll void any support from Microsoft, and probably make matters worse. What you can do is moving forward, make sure it doesn't happen again.

The Work Around

Working closely with a Microsoft SharePoint Architect (as soon as he get's a blog I'll point you to it), we figured out a workaround. It works great, just very tedious. Here's what you do:

1. Close the mnifest.xsf design view and open it in XML editor (right click and select Open Wth)

2. Search for the field name, in this example Form ID. You should see something similiar to this towards the end of the file.

<xsf:field name="Form ID" columnName="{81BDA8CC-A286-405F-8A3B-E5ADB18D9FFB}" node="/my:myFields/fxformstate:FormState/fusionx:FormID" type="xsd:string"></xsf:field>

3. Now search for the columnName value, the GUID, in this same file. You should find something like this.

<xsf2:fieldExtension columnId="f765018d-6b66-4b03-8408-2d6a1f8f0060" readWrite="yes" columnName="{81BDA8CC-A286-405F-8A3B-E5ADB18D9FFB}"></xsf2:fieldExtension>

4. Note the columId value and open SharePoint Manager 2007 on the SharePoint server.

5. Expand the website then Fields (or if you want to see what existing forms are using, expand ContentTypes then the form name, then Fields).

6. Find the field and note the Id. Does it match the columnId value from the manifest file? If so, then you're fine, go get a coffee.

7. If they do not match, then InfoPath thought better of using the existing column and wanted to use another. Or if your columnId is blank, ="", then it wanted to create a new one. This here is the mystery, why did InfoPath decide the field you selected wasn't important enough, I don't know.

8. Copy the value from SPM and replace the value in the columnId in the manifest file.

9. Close the manifest file and open it normally in VS, allowing the design view to appear. You can now publish the form. When publishing, DO NOT modify the field in the Column list. This may overwrite the value you entered in. Continue through the publishing wizard and upload to MOSS.

If all goes well, the new content type or the upgrade should use the same column as selected. To verify, open SharePoint Manager on the server, expand the website then Content Types and find your form name and check the ID of the Field.

I hope this helps!

Duplicate fields on Form library after publishing

George.Gergues — Fri, 07 May 2010 17:59:58 GMT

Hello .

Here is the problem I am having
I have a form library that host 2 content type based forms , , they both had the same field set (Name and guids)

after publishing the first timer , things worked fine the fields are promoted to site columns and live was good.

after a few month a request came in to make some UI changes and then after publishing the form again , looks like the form library has twice as much columns ,

looking into this , I have found that the library is having duplicate name (that is column name ) for each field . some related to the content Type and others only related to the Library itself(Library columns )

what can I do to keep both in sync , single set of fields without loosing the data in the columns

thanks