Infopath Questions reguarding text and memo type fields

[Balze]

I have an Infopath form that has 3 pieces of confusing entry. It is a form
that has 2 fields that aren't making sense.

The first (#1) is a repeating table with 6 fields, includes Name, Address,
City, State, Zip, Phone.

The second (#2) is a single text field that has narrative information in it.
This is setup to have paragraph breaks and expand automatically selected.
The people can type all the required text in here and it shows correctly.

The third (#3) is a single text setup just like the #2. This is used to
fill out a quick description of another optional section.

I post these as a submit to a sharepoint site where I "plug" access in to
"harvest" the data so that I can report it in a formatted way. All this
works well!

The Sharepoint site shows all the text for #1 and #3 and there is no
truncation.
The Sharepoint site truncates #2 at 255 characters, which is the only one I
need everything.

When I use Access to look at the linked table, it says that the #1 and #3
are "memo" fields and that #2 is a "text" field. I have tried everything I
can think to get it to give me the correct type of data. Please give me some
clue as to what tells sharepoint whether it is "memo" or "text". I really
need the #2 data out of the form so that I can report the narrative.

Thank you,

Blaze

 

[Adam Harding]

Go into Access and change #2 to 'memo' type in 'Design View' of your table.
the Web service doesn't need to know it is a memo field just pushes the data
into access. It is access that restricts it.

 

[Blaze]

I can't do that, Access is only using "linked tables" there is not "real"
data in Access.

blaze

 

[Blaze]

Correct. I have an Infopath form that submits to Sharepoint. From there, I
use Access to connect to the Sharepoint "Linked Tables" and use that to build
customized reports from. It has worked VERY well, except for this one
strange thing where the #2 I refered to won't show as a memo. Also, the
sharepoint truncates it at 255 characters for #2 but the #1 and #3 are
however long they want to be:?

I worked last night on trying to figure out what caused the issue. I found
that when I used a repeating section, the fields inside of it were memo. So
I thought, great, I have an answer. Nope. It worked until I put the
narrative field in and then it came as text again.....

Grrr... Quit frustrating as once I get this I will have a fully functioning
Infopath - Sharepoint - Access reporting feature.

Thanks for the input.

 

[Adam Harding]

So it then ACTUALLY create the tables in Access and limit it that way.

 

[Blaze]

The biggest reason I don't want to use access is that I want the users to be
able to search everything in their network via web-browser. This application
I am creating is a suite of lists and libraries that allow for easy searching
and retrieval. If I went to Access, every computer would need to have access
(which would get quite expensive) and searching would be near impossible.

Any thoughts?

Blaze

 

[Blaze]

For anyone who requires an answer in the future!

To get a memo field out of Infopath, you must have the fields inside of a
Repeating Section or Repeating Table. The fields HAVE to be setup to "Merge"
in the Form Options to post to Sharepoint/Web-Services. This sets the field
as a "memo" instead of a "text" field. This allows for you to have more that
255 characters.

Another tip would be to turn off the "Show Insert Button and Hint Text" in
the Repeating Section.

I really hope that this helps someone else out there!

Blaze