Wednesday, February 11, 2009

InfoPath properties and SharePoint columns

I just hate it when there's no logic explanation!

Had an InfoPath form, published to SharePoint, needed to add some new fields, created the matching Site Columns, promoted the fields to the new columns, republished - everything looked good on our TEST server and then I did the same thing in our PROD environment: NoGo.

Yes, the form was published ok. The resulting xml documents had the changes, but the SharePoint Site Columns didn't reflect the changes. I searched logs, checked for misspells, googled for a day - nothing! It all looked correct, but it didn't work. (Actually not quite correct cause the columns where now properties of the ListItem and therefore didn't belong to the document).

Finally I found a fellow blogger that in turn had found some other bloggers and to make it short, here's the link: http://arichterwork.blogspot.com/2008/03/infopath-property-promotion-woes.html

All credit goes to these guys, but let me just sumerize the workaround (it's not a solution, nor an explanation):
  1. Using Central Admin, Applications, InfoPath, you need to deactivate the faulting form from all of the Site Collections it has been activated on.
  2. While deactivated, upload a new version of the form.
  3. Reactivate the form to the Site Collections where it is needed.

This made my InfoPath fields or properties work and I got the reflecting values on my SharePoint columns.

It looks like this bug occurs when you have republished your InfoPath form several time, but I really hope it will be fixed soon.

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