Cannot Retrieve Value from InfoPath 2010 Person Picker Control - sharepoint

I'm having a problem with the Person Picker control in InfoPath 2010. I enter a name and it is resolved and displayed on the control. So far, so good. Now I'm trying to retrieve the value of AccountId provided by the control. It works when I preview the form locally but when I publish it to SharePoint (this is a browser-enabled form) the AccountId is coming back as blank.
Below is the XPath I'm using. (I tried adding an index, as in "Person[1]", but InfoPath didn't like that either. Besides, I've limited the control so that only 1 user can be entered.)
/my:myFields/my:ApproverGroup/my:Analyst/pc:Person/pc:AccountId
Same result if I try to get DisplayName or AccountType--works in preview but not when I publish. And I'm publishing to my local SharePoint Server (same machine I'm developing on).
Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

I figured it out. Turns out a postback is required before the data source will reflect the value entered in the People Picker control. Why this is I don't know, but it somehow primes the control to work properly. This postback can be done once on form load and then the People Picker will work after that. So my next problem was looking for a way to force a postback on form load. Also, the People Picker inexplicably does not include a "Postback settings" property as, say, a textbox does. I resorted to enabling the postback setting to "Always" on the first textbox on my form, hoping the user will enter a value there before scrolling down to the People Picker control. It's a terrible hack, but the only workaround I have so far. If anyone can provide a better answer here please do so.

Related

UpdatePanel does not trigger in SharePoint 2013 Visual webpart

Unable to understand why does Update Panel does do the soft post back (partial post back).
Nothing happens on page after the dropdownlist selected Index change.
tried to ref :http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff650218.aspx
Would be thankful if any already cracked up the isse for SharePoint 2013.
request is processed on dropdown change without any exception but does not reflects UI
you should check your trigger, perhaps you dont have it, or its not referencing the control properly
take a look here, and if you need, make a post over there
https://sharepoint.stackexchange.com/questions/110432/sharepoint-2013-webpart-timer-not-tick/110436#110436

SharePoint 2013 KnockoutJS Lookup columns

I have a basic knockoutjs project loading data from a SharePoint 2013 list scenario. Getting data and displaying data is easy, the problem that I'm running into is on the edit mode displaying the proper control. Everything should not be a textbox. This means the people picker control to dropdownmenus to calendar controls.
MSFT has some pretty good documentation on using the client side people picker control here"http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/jj713593.aspx
The problem that I have is calling this control inside my viewmodel.
Setting the value of the control doesn't look difficult courtesy of this blog post: http://www.sharepointcolumn.com/sp2013-setting-people-picker-value-in-newform-aspx/
I attempted to looking into computed values, but that doesn't seem to work. Does anyone have a blog post that I skipped over? The closest related post that I can find: http://yetanothersharepointblog.wordpress.com/2012/12/11/working-with-sharepoint-lookup-columns-in-knockout-js/
Lastly since it seems that I'm the only one doing this, does anyone think that I should not be reinventing the wheel with my forms and should just link each item to the appropriate SharePoint list item in edit or display view? I suppose that would be easier.
From a SharePoint Professional to another, I would highly recommend you to do that.
Just redirect the user to the item edit/display item page an let SharePoint take the leash of how to handle UI form elements.
Because, assume that you implement your custom form, what if the user decides to add one more site column to the list? Will you update your code to support another field?
From my personal experience with the beast I've come to the conclusion that structural implementation over already existent functionality tends to go wrong.
Also, if you have some kind of listing of items custom made and you want to provide editing, try to do something opening a pretty SP.UI.ModalDialog, its elegant and you use the sharepoint to do the work for you.
But it's just an advise.

Customizing the "Upload Document" Form in SharePoint 2010 based on Content type

When you click on the name of a library, go to the documents tab, click on "upload document".
An upload form appears that is created using the dialog framework. The 1st choice on the form is content type.
I need to instead launch a custom infopath form that will allow me to dynamically populate a 2nd dropdown box on the page after the content type (still 1st) dropdown is populated.
I feel like I'm really grasping at straws here. At this point I could use a reference to a relevant section of a book, a link to a relevant post or even just the correct terms to put into a google search. What is the correct name for that form?
I found this which seems to teach you how to insert a customized aspx form: http://microsoftsharepointandbeyond.blogspot.com/2009/10/customizing-ootb-sharepoint-forms.html
But I'd really like one that uses Infopath instead.
Any advice or direction you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
I'm pretty sure doing this with infopath is not possible, the forms are bound to a (codebehind) class in the SharePoint object model, which handles the actual upload (add to list, set field values etc. etc.).
A custom aspx page would be possible though, exactly as the post you mentioned descibes. I agree with the post's author that an HttpModule would be best, because:
editing the OOTB upload.aspx in the 14 hive would make your environment unsupported (i.e. if anything brakes, MS will have you revert your farm to a supported state before they come and help you.
The next time you install an update for sharepoint, your changes could be overwritten.

Hyperlink to Document Library by Id?

In Sharepoint 2007, when linking to a folder or file in a Document Library, the url is long and cumbersome. Is it possible to link by the ID field?
e.g., http://domain/path/doclib/Forms/AllItems.aspx?ID=275
Whats the problem with http://domain/sites/whatever/Lists/Announcements/DispForm.aspx?ID=1&Source=http%3A%2F%2Fmoss2007dev%3A20000%2Fsites%2Farcnet%2FLists%2FAnnouncements%2FAllItems.aspx
If you remove the Source parameter your left with Whats the problem with http://domain/sites/whatever/Lists/Announcements/DispForm.aspx?ID=1. The only problem you'll have then is that the cancel button will not necessarly return you where you came from. (The cancel button would send you back to the default view as far as I know..)
On the other hand you could sneak in some code which does the redirect from a view or actually opens the document.
I know you asked specifically about 2007, but SharePoint 2010 has a cool new Document ID feature that will allow you to refer to any document in the Site Collection using the following format:
http://[sitecollectionurl]/_layouts/DocIdRedir.aspx?ID=[documentID]

Saving a document to SharePoint brings up "Web File Properties" dialog with incorrect metadata

Situation:
A custom "Master Document" content type inherits from Document
The "Master Document" content type has five additional choice fields
There are five custom "Document Template" content types that inherit from the "Master Document" content type
Each of the "Document Template" content types uses a different Word document template (.dot) file
Each of the "Document Template" content types have been added to a document library
Problem:
I click on a document in the library
Document opens up in Word 2003 for me to edit
I make some changes and save
A box pops up called "Web File Properties". The window contains all of my custom metadata properties and the ContentType field. The ContentType field is set correctly to the current content type. The other fields are reset to their default values. This same window can apparently be opened by going to File -> Properties
This window by itself would be fine except for two reasons:
It includes the ContentType column
All of my custom metadata properties are visible but are reset to their default values instead of whatever values were previously selected. This means, every time the user wants to save the document, they have to remember what properties were tagged and set them back.
Question:
Can I disable this Web File Properties box?
If no... can I get the fields that show up to be populated to their correct values?
If no... is there a way to disable my fields from displaying in this window?
If no... is this a SharePoint page that I can modify?
***Edit with some more information***
It looks like this only happens in Office 2003 and looks like it affects Choice fields. If I create the same column as a Lookup field, it seems to work.
Edit again
Looks like if the lookup field is a multi-select field then it will not show up in the Web File Properties box at all (single select lookups still work).
edit 10/14/2009
Link to the KB Article mentioned below by Brenda:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971500/
This is more of a workaround rather than an answer but I figured I might as well put it here in case it helps someone else.
It seems as if these issues with the Web File Properties box is specific to Office 2003. The issues I reported above seem to be fixed in Office 2007.
If you want to get it working in 2003 and you have choice/lookup fields in your Document content type, here is the summary:
Single select Choice fields DO NOT work
Multi select Choice fields DO work
Single select Lookup fields DO work
Multi select Lookup fields DO NOT work
FYI - I want to CORRECT my previous post. The fix DID FIX my problem after I deleted my internet cache. Works PERFECT now. Here is the KB you need: KB971500 I can email you the fix if you can't find it. The notes in the document do not describe the problem exactly as I would have, but it was the fix for my case.
bhartson#lbrealty.com
We have the EXACT problem. I've opened a case with Microsoft back in February and they were able to finally duplicate my problem.
I have been kept informed and told that my fix would be available with the JUNE cumulative upates. I just received a specific hotfix from my Microsoft rep and applied it and it still did NOT fix my problem. I am hoping he gave me the wrong one and has the real one to send me.
Thanks for your post. I'm may try some of your suggestions above but I just want Microsoft to fix this. We can't upgrade to Office2007!
Thanks.
man, this was really killing me, I spent an entire day recreating document libraries and all sorts of content-types and variations of my excel template before I figured this was a bug... At least MS has a little hotfix request thing now... they're going to send it to me I guess :\
I didn't test this in excel/office 2003 and really botched a presentation of our little workflow... embarassing... always test with the app & environment people are going to use!!!
thanks for the KB article number

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