Clearing an Option Button in InfoPath

While this is basically a SharePoint blog, I use InfoPath a lot paired with SharePoint. They are pretty amazing together. An InfoPath form template saved to a SharePoint document library can store important data that can be displayed in a report-like fashion, manipulated into views, used to fire workflows, and much more. Additionally, the fact that Microsoft made the licensing all-encompassing for the Office Suite and gave InfoPath browser compatibility ensures that it will be an integral part of the workplace for decades to come. It is a great tool for gathering information from your organization.

However, although InfoPath is a great program, it is not intuitive. In fact, sometimes it is downright annoying. (Although I am sure the same can be said for SharePoint at times, right?)

I was working with a existing form that I needed to modify and I wanted to add some conditional formatting to make certain sections display when the option button selected was "Yes" and to disappear from view when the option button selected was "No." The challenge I ran into was that I could make the section disappear when "No" was selected, but if the user had inadvertently clicked on an option button in the section being hidden, that field stayed populated, hidden or not. Because this information was being sent to a database in addition to being published on SharePoint, I needed to clear the option buttons on the sections being hidden.

Here is the scenario:

OptionButton1 - Yes = True, No = False, No value is set as a default selection
OptionButton2 - Yes = True, No = False, No value is set as a default selection
However, OptionButton2 should be NULL if OptionButton1 is set to False (No)

So I created a rule to change the value of OptionButton2 based on a False value for OptionButton1.

OptionButton Properties --> Rules --> Add
Condition - OptionButton1 = False
Action - Set a Field's value

Field - OptionButton2

Value - ?????

Here is where I hit the snag. The value choices for OptionButton2 only had the following: (blank), TRUE, FALSE, 1 or 0. Choosing (blank) did not work and I didn't want the other options, since I wanted no value whatsoever.

It was a puzzle. The fix? Leaving the "Value" field completely blank. Obvious, you say? Well, it wasn't to me. But it worked like a charm!

Alerts for Email Accounts

Often you will want to have an alert for a distribution list or an email account that is not associated with any particular user. While this may seem straightforward, I ran into an issue with this when I tried this recently and it was due to some issues with how we handle the creation of distribution lists and open email accounts in our environment. Therefore, if you want this to work, you must make certain of the following:

• Ensure your email account is set to "Enabled" in AD. (In our AD, they are disabled by default)
• Once they are enabled, they will need to be granted access to the site and/or document libraries/lists where the alerts are being set.

Once these steps are complete, your email account should begin to receive alerts.