InfoPath Dev

I must be missing something here. Although I am a newbie I have learned a lot of the ins and outs of basic Infopath, but there is one issue that has me stumped. First the (long) setup:

I have a SQL server table of Company each of which has a Status. The choices for Status is a separate table of standard choices with a PK of idStatus. Company has a column, idStatus (an integer)which is the FK from the Status table.

I want to make a repeating Infopath table of Company filtered by Status. The "Status" box in the table is from idStatus and is an integer field. So, I make the Status box an expression box and have it display the Status from a secondary Office datasource (based on idStatus = idStatus). I made a dropdown list for filtering based on Status. I populate the values/Status types either manually or by looking up on the secondary Status datasource. I put a rule in to the dropdown to do a database lookup after choice.

When I view the form, I choose a Status from the drop down and voila - only companies with that status are shown, and they each have the right status listed.

Here is my problem:

1. I want to "Show All" and "Show Blanks"

I found, under filter for repeating tables, a help file that addresses exactly this: Example: Include "Show All" and "Show Blanks" options in a list box filter

This help file doesn't work in this setting. My dropdown, bound to idStatus won't let me enter words as values. I can't find the name of the dropdown list to address in the filter.

IF Status was simply a text box, I think I could get it to work. But when it is from a separate, linked SQL table I am having trouble finding a way to "Show All."

Can anyone help?

Hi pbelic and welcome to the forums!

For the Show All option you could use the default blank value of the drop-down to show the correct rows. This would only change your conditional logic slightly - you'd now have 2 conditions instead of one as shown below.

Hide Control WHEN:
this.Status = StatusDropDown AND
StatusDropDown is not blank

I'm not sure of the best way to do Show Blanks - maybe a button that sets the value of a secondary DOM node, or a checkbox that displays them. Another idea is using Greg's HowTo on adding drop-down values with code, but you probably don't want to add code for this if your solution currently does not have any.

http://infopathdev.com/howto/tutorials/default.aspx?s=Lists