Forms in Sharepoint: lookup field auto-update capability on entering data?

  • Thread starter Thread starter TSchaeffer
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TSchaeffer

Hi all,

I'm looking to design a form for sharepoint that will have a number of
fields that are lookup fields. For the lookups, I would like the user to be
able to enter in a value that does not exist in the lookup's source list of
values (in addition to choosing from what's already there) and if a new
value is added, have it be added to that lookup's source list on submitting
the form.

I have a feeling that this functionality might be available in Infopath but
am not sure. Is this the case? If so, could anyone suggest a
site/book/lesson that would walk me through this? If not, any suggestions
on where I could go or what I would need to do to find this functionality?
I spoke with our developer who didn't sound very upbeat about this being out
there.

Any thoughts or suggestions appreciated. Thanks in advance.
TS
 
InfoPath does not offer this functionality out-of-the-box, so you will have
to write code for it. It *can* be done, though.

You would have to maintain a separate list of the items that do not exist
somewhere (either in the Main data source of the form or in a secondary data
source) and then on submit, persist those items to your data store. Or you
could do something like in this article:
http://enterprise-solutions.swits.n...ly-type-and-add-new-item-to-dropdown-list.htm
 
Was it really necessary to send this question to so many newsgroups?

Even if we accept that it is both an InfoPath AND a SharePoint question,
there is absolutely no need to post it to more than one SharePoint
newsgroup.

..general for instance is for questions that don't fit in any other
SharePoint newsgroup so it's obviously not something that you add in if
you are posting to any other SP newsgroup.

..development_and_programming is for Programming questions. Is this a
programming question ? No, it's not.

Think next time please and *select* - don't just hammer every newsgroup
in sight.

Mike Walsh
WSS FAQ http://www.wssfaq.com / wss.collutions.com
I regret that private e-mail questions will not be answered
 
Hi,

I am sharing a tips with you.

First of all we need to know a little on SharePoint lookup fields before proceeding further. Lookup fields are the reference fields created in any SharePoint list or library which provides a mapping between columns from another list i.e. it is just like a foreign key which helps build relationship between lists.

While developing custom solutions there is often a need to retrieve data from a list or update data in a list but it's a bit different when the task is performed for a lookup field. Generally lookup data are stored as ID - Name pair separated with some special characters (i.e. ID;#Name).

In this tip I will try to provide some code samples in VB.Net which will help retrieve / update lookup data of specific list. To illustrate the things I will be using a "Contacts" list which will be having "CompanyName" as a lookup field from "Companies" list.

Hope you find this tips useful and of assistance. Please visit this link for more detail:

Thanks,
Bijayani
 
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