InfoPath Dev

I am working with InfoPath 2007. It is a requirement that we do this by email as opposed to using SharePoint

I have create a form with a repeating section that holds information for provisioning users. The user's information is populated from a SharePoint list and there are drop downs for some additional options.  The submitter completes part of this information and submits the form via email for approval. The approver forwards the email to Provisioning who needs to add more information and possibly change user entered information.

Here is my problem:

If I submit the Active view with the email my drop down lists become text fields but can be edited.

If I submit using the form data as an attachment, any manually entered fields are fine but all the look up fields are blank.

I know there has to be a way to keep both the data and the drop downs in one email.

Thoughts?

Hi BJ,

Before the form is submitted as an attachment, you'll want to make sure that the loop up fields have been copied into the main data source. Since the secondary data sources won't be available, having the data in the main data source is the solution.

Hope this helps!

How would I do that?

Thanks

You'll just use rules. So if the user selects item #5 from a dropdown, the dropdown actually stores the 5 and not the display name. You would need a rule on that dropdown to set the value of another field whenever the value of the dropdown changes.

That way you'll have the dropdown (storing the ID to the look up field) and the new field (which stores the actual display name and not the ID).

Ernesto,

I mis-spoke in my original post, it isn't the look up fields that are blank my dropdown lists work when submitting as an attachment.  It is the ones that have been auto populated in a repeating section from a SharePoint list. 

I tried creating an Approval view with a repeating section that houses corresponding fields then creating rules that would copy the values from the Submit view to the Approval view.  Then added a rule to the Submit that would change the view before submitting.  Unfortunately, that didn't work either.

Still looking for a solution if anyone has suggestions.

Thanks

I think this is still a matter of making sure that you are storing the values in the main data source.

Anything stored or linked to the secondary data source won't be available over email.

Hope you can figure this out!