Dynamic Forms in Infopath

[rworks]

We are trying to make a form for employees to fill out. We need the
form to be "Dynamic" meaning that the questions asked are depending on
a drop-down list the user selects. What we would like to do is to have
a table of questions and possible answers/selections, and the form
would query the database, select the questions and answers, then
populate the form dynamically based on the drop-down list selection
made at the top.

Then when they submit the form, their answers would be inserted into a
different "answers" table. Is this something that can be done with any
type of ease, or would this be better performed with an online form
using PHP or something like this?

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Steve

 

[Franck Dauché]

Hi,

It depends how far you want to go. Here are some options:

1. You could play with sections and conditionnal formatting. Based on the
content of a drop-down, section with show/hide. Giving the user the feel of
being "dynamic". But the number of controls on your forms could grow out of
control...
2. You can have a set a pre-formatted nodes where questions are stored as
attributes and answers as node value. This way, you can call Web Services on
the fly, populate your "questions" by overwriting the attributes.
3. You want to build a real Dynamic form, where your schema is generic and
your questions/answers are built at runtime! Patrick Halstead developed some
dynamic forms like this. You can contact him through:
http://www.infopathdev.com/about/default.aspx

Hope that it helps.

Franck Dauché