The Repeating Section Control

The repeating section control fulfils a similar purpose to the section control described earlier, but it has one very important additional property ”it can repeat an arbitrary number of times at the user 's option.

This repeating property can be extremely useful. Many conventional forms, both on paper or onscreen, collect repeating information. The traditional approach has been to provide a fixed number of sections or rows to allow for common situations. However, providing six rows is wasteful for a user who requires only one row and frustrating for the user who requires eight rows. The repeating section provides a way to collect exactly the required number of repeating pieces of information, in a way that minimizes unused space and avoids frustration in situations in which an unusually large amount of data is relevant.

SHOP TALK
WHAT THE HECK DO I DO WITH THAT?

The repeating section is a very useful InfoPath form control, and it's one of the controls that make InfoPath forms truly dynamic. However, don't forget that many of the users who will have to fill in your forms might never have seen a repeating section or anything quite like it. "What the heck do I do with that?" might be one of the more polite versions of initial user reaction.

The purpose of using InfoPath in the first place is to improve the quality and completeness of business data you collect in forms. Be sure to take time to introduce InfoPath to your users. Depending on the size of your business, it could mean spending a short time looking over users' shoulders and explaining unfamiliar form controls, or preparing some formal introductory material. Also, after the initial user training is done ”it needn't be complicated ”make sure that you have a process in place to ensure that new recruits also have access to materials to familiarize them with InfoPath.

Use of the repeating section control in design mode is straightforward ”either simply drag the repeating section to the desired place on the form area (if no data source is defined) or drag a repeating component of the data source to the form area (when an appropriate data source is defined). When no data source is defined, the form designer adds the desired range of other form controls inside the repeating section control.

The initial design of the repeating section control can be frustrating if you don't appreciate the need for repeating components of the data source, which correspond to form controls inside the repeating section control. If the W3C XML Schema document that applies to the form template indicates that a field can occur only once, for example, InfoPath will not allow you to insert a repeating section control for that component of the data source. Available properties for a repeating section control are similar to controls described earlier in this chapter and raise no new issues.

If a repeating section is used to collect data for which a total or other summary value is to be created, for the typical case the expression box containing the summary value should be placed outside the repeating section control.

If the repeating section is unfamiliar to users, it makes sense to provide explicit instructions to users in the form template, along with brief user training to show users how to use the repeating section control effectively.