Data Connections Links
I am trying to put together two data connections for a custom site in SP.
Here is what I am trying to accomplish.
The organization is currently using a Word Document Template to register strategies, action plans and swot analysis associated with each business unit in terms of a comprehensive strategic plan for the next 5 years.
Each business unit was required to complete the information contained in this Word template. Part of this information includes: Division or department, strategy description, theme (education, economic development, etc.), expected results, evaluation process, etc. For each strategy outlined, the form also requires the action steps that will support the strategy, including: what will be done, timeline, resources needed, etc.
In order to accomplish this in SharePoint environment, I came up with two potential solutions:
1. Replicate the Word template in InfoPath and publishing the necessary data fields to SharePoint form library (this sounded like the perfect solution and it actually worked pretty well until I was informed of a particular reporting requirement -- senior management wants to see the strategies that will be executed in 2009, then the ones in 2010 and so on. The problem with the InfoPath form is that each piece of information associated with each strategy is captured through a repeating table within the form, therefore the data cannot be selectively extracted out of each row in the table.
2. Configuration of 3 custom libraries in SharePoint: one for registering strategies, another one to register action steps associated with strategies and the last one to register the data fields for the swot analysis.
I am confident the approach or solution # 2 will accomodate current and future reporting needs. However, the following seems to be a challenge for me in SPD to make this work:
a. The custom library containing the action steps associated with each strategy must have a data connection configured to automatically populate the division or department information plus the corresponding strategy, so the following relationship can be established:
Custom Library 1 (Strategies) - contains division or department + strategy
Custom Library 2 (Action Steps) - must contain the steps associated with department+strategies registered in Custom Library 1.
In order to do that, I will need to configure a data connection from CL1 to provide a row to CL2 based or filtered on the division or department.
In other words, every time the user needs to enter a record in CL2, it will need to point to CL1 data, grab the existing division+strategies and display them in CL2 somewhere in the receiving fields in CL2, so the user can go ahead and select which division or department+strategy the action steps to be entered will be associated with.
Your help will be highly appreciated
Thanks.
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