InfoPath Dev

I created a form in IP2010 to populate an Access DB (2010) which handles some calculations (I couldn't get to work in a SP list) and eventually publish the findings in a Sharepoint page.  Because there are 50 or more potential questions where comments could be collected I am trying to hide each group of questions using a Optional Section Control and hide it with conditional formatting and put a text box within the control that feeds the DB field, so you users don't have to go through a long form every time.  The first attempt was a form to input to the DB.  Two problems I have come across so far, one when I try to insert any control I am forced to choose one of the DB fields.  I then insert the text box control within and choose the same DB field (which I know has to be bad).  I can preview the form but when I try to click on the link to show the hidden text box I get the following message "The attribute 'Chapter_2-2' on the element '{http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/infopath/2003/dataFormSolution}dataFields' is not defined in the DTD/Schema.".  Second attempt was a blank form with a data connection to a SQL DB since Access isn't supported from Web Browser form 2007.  Now when I preview the form and select the link for the conditional formating the item dissappears.  Tried changed the background color assuming the white on white was an issue but same thing.  New to this and not sure if I am heading down the right direction or should be taking a different approach.  Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.

Hi:

I'm sorry, but I'm not quite following your question.

It sounds like you want to create an InfoPath form that submits to an Access database -- You also mention browser forms? Browser forms have to use web services to submit to a database, per this Office Online article.

But why do you need to submit to Access or SQL? What are the calculations you need to do? It could be they could be handled in the InfoPath form, no need to submit to a DB at all.

I think first you might want to try to outline your requirements, it may help people help you find solutions.

Good Morning Hilary - appreciate the quick response.  This is the original requirement.  The stakeholder would like a list by entity showing the total responses by category, total of all categories then showing a total of categories for all entities.  They are capturing a survey for 5 entities that comes in via PDF, the answers are remarks.  There are 80 questions broken out by category, however not all questions will be answered, so the list would need to count only the columns with remarks and show this in the list view.  They would also like to be able to drill down into the various counts and review the remarks.  I couldn't come up with a solution to accomplish this in SharePoint so the thought was to use Infopath as the end user data entry point to a database and publish the various query views in SP lists.  For the form, since there are so many questions I wanted to break it out by section and use optional sections with conditional formatting to hide to the controls so the form isn't too long.  What do you think is the best way to approach this?     

Okay, so you have someone who will fill out the forms for each response? You say these come in via PDF?

It sounds as if the form does NOT have to be a browser form, is that correct?

If it doesn't have to be a browser form, you can either base your form off a database (I'd suggest SQL rather than Access -- there is a free SKU if cost is an issue) or you can buy or build a web service (I'd be remiss if I didn't point out we sell an excellent one here.) Building off a database means the DB has to be designed before you create your form, and it creates a tight coupling between the form and the DB that can be challenging to work with, however, if you do that, InfoPath will be able to use its built in Submit capabilities. I'm having a bit of trouble envisioning what the DB design would need to be like for this -- I've gotten spoiled with submitting to web services, I'm afraid.

You can use conditional formatting or optional sections to decide what to show or hide in your survey.