So, I’ve just lost 2 hours over trying to get data into an InfoPath form being used with a workflow. This sort of thing is described here (MSDN) and here (SharePoint Blogs).
I had problems as the file name for the secondary data source has to be called ItemMetadata.xml. I had spelt it ItemMetaData.xml. Why does InfoPath work this way? What the hell is the reason for this? Is this what makes InfoPath so easy to use for workflow development? I mean, I knew about this, but I just made a mistake, and it took ages to track down. Maybe that’s my fault – but I don’t think I’m stupid (mostly), and I wonder how many other folks have been caught out by this also?
Comments from my old blog:
This kind of stuff happens because Infopath is commercial software – and is therefore as good as the price dictates it can be, whereas things like Apache, Samba and Subversion are as good as the developers can make them.
I made the same “mistake”. Glad you wrote this blog item, it hinted me to the solution.
Yeah…happened to me a couple of times, and if you mispell or miscapitalize any word IN the ItemMetadata.xml document, you’ll get at least as much of a headache. And for the record, 2 hours really isn’t that long
Wow…just wow. I’ve spent almost a day trying to find the reason why my values won’t load and guess what…
I’m getting too old for this.
Right there with you Magnus!
InfoPath being XML based behind the scenes, I guess it makes sense that referencing a file would be case sensitive as well. Just a thought.