InfoPath Dev

I took over this project from someone no longer working at our company, and have taught myself a little bit about sharepoint and infopath development. In Infopath 2010, I am trying to promote a property to a form (via File/Form Options/Property Promotion/Add...). That works as expected, and I can publish my form (as I have done successfully before without the property promotion), but the new property does not show up as I expect: in Sharepoint Designer, when I open the document library, click Edit List Columns, click on Show Read-Only, I do not see my new field (which I assume will be read-only). I have tried as others have suggested to deactivate, publish, activate which also did not succeed. A possible problem is that I do not know how a promoted property gets transferred to a Document Library or List - is this configured somewhere, either in the form or the library? Also note that I have renamed the .xsn file when I publish.

 The promoted property should be added to the library when the form is re-published to the library. You can also promote the property as part of publishing. You should, under the library settings, see the new column in the columns list. You should not have to use SharePoint Designer to see the new column.

Thanks Hilary. "Should", but in my case does not. I have tried promoting the property though publishing, yielding the same result. In which application can I see the new column ("under the library settings, see the new column in the columns list")? Your reply did not solve my problem, and my main suspicion is that the form template and/or the library are not configured correctly. I have un-zipped (un-cabbed) the .xsn file, looked through the manifest file, and did not see it referencing any Library or List, as I would expect - so how does Sharepoint know how to update the Library/List structure when you promote a property and publish?

In your web browser, navigate to the library where you have published the form. Open the Library Settings from the ribbon. Does your new field show in the columns list? EDITED TO ADD: You are publishing this directly to a library, right? This isn't a list form, or a content type?

Hi Hilary, I went to Library Settings and did not see my new field. Yes, I am publishing to a SharePoint Library (from Infopath, File/Publish, the second option).

 Promoted Property SharePoint info is in the manifest here: xsf:xDocumentClass/xsf:extensions/xsf:extension/xsf2:solutionDefinition/xsf2:listPropertiesExtension/xsf2:fieldsExtension/xsf2:fieldExtension

If I recall correctly, the columnId is populated after successful publish.

The form field info is here:  xsf:xDocumentClass/xsf:listProperties/xsf:fields/xsf:field

It sounds like you are doing this correctly - I've not had this happen before, so I'm really not sure what to suggest. Maybe try publishing a copy of the form to a new test library and see if your new column is added? 

I looked at the xpath you mentioned. Something weird: The last 12 entries under xsf:xDocumentClass/xsf:listProperties/xsf:fields/xsf:field have GUIDs for columnName but not for columnId. Also at least one redundant column, and some columns exist in the xsf:xDocumentClass/xsf:listProperties/xsf:fields/xsf:field path but not the other. ... ... I will continue to look into this, deactivate/publish/activate, etc., and publish to a new test library as you recommended.

Hi Hilary, I am curious about one other thing. Infopath does not seem to know about my Document Library except for the Submit data connection. So when will it add the new field to my document library, when the form template is uploaded (and what magic would cause that to happen) or when I first submit a new form?

I'm sorry - I don't know what this means. Do you publish the template to the library? If so, that is how InfoPath "knows" about the library. The publish location should show in the lower left corner of the designer when the form is opened in Design mode or in the File menu. When you say "the form template is uploaded" I am confused as to how you are updating your form template after you make changes - is this an admin approved browser form?

Thanks for your continued help Hilary. I am publishing the form template to a Sharepoint Library (in File/Publish/the second icon in IP 2010). Yes this is an administrator-approved form template (I have never tried the other choices). I specify a shared network location for the form. Then (in the wizard) it lets me configure the fields that will be available as columns, and the parameters (I don't have any configured). Once it is published to the shared file location, in Sharepoint Central Admin (on the server) I upload the form template. Note that the form becomes a site-level form, that is, it exists at address http:///FormServerTemplates/Forms/All%20Forms.aspx. Will this work or do I need to publish it a different way? Edit: Hilary I tried publishing as a form library and now my missing field is showing up. Thanks so much for your help.

So, then your library is set to use content types. Are you 100% certain your library is using the content type you've updated by uploading the template to Central Admin? Maybe create a new library and activate the content type there to see if your promoted property is in the new library.

Hilary, Once I tried publishing as a form library, my missing field started showing up. I guess this is the workaround - if you normally publish an administrator approved template, if you have any promoted property changes, you should also publish as a form library. Thanks again!