3

Symptoms:

You develop a browser-compatible InfoPath form with managed code for business logic.

You use ContactSelector ActiveX control to look up and resolve users from the SharePoint site Users lists (UserInfo table in the Content database).

You then validate list of resolved users and copy some of them to another node in the primary data source. The field displays copied contacts as a concatenated string.

Your logic works when tested in the rich InfoPath client.

Resolved contacts are not copied when tested with Internet Explorer. IE does more postbacks than other browsers. In my case only third request contained the lookup token for contact resolution.

Resolved contacts are copied multiple times in a single postback (even before you are prompted for resolution) when tested with Firefox and other level 2 browsers. When you begin resolving for the first time you are presented a picker window for the first empty node, which you have to delete. The first occurrence of a given contact is never resolved automatically, while the second and others usually are.

FireFox

8;_0_;aabc78a4-2c90-4eb4-b907-efdde6081724;9d08e01d-9d57-4e85-ad88-e7e177dc85e4:ver:1.0.0.69;0;;http%3A%2F%2Fspdev%2FFormServerTemplates%2FtrySZ.xsn;http%3A%2F%2Fspdev%2FFormServerTemplates%2FtrySZ.xsn;http%3A%2F%2Fspdev%2FInForms%2F;http%3A%2F%2Fspdev;http%3A%2F%2Fspdev%2FInForms%2FForms%2FAllItems.aspx;1;1;0;2;1;633988049367884000;;+age6upPf7USGkrCI/yi9kTSjvA6i5NVYPoOO9r4ST0zr2dYVKtUP1eB1ZbMDExztOK7lNa+8W8IF3Jt+yuSyQ==|633988049367728266 18;V1_I1_CP2;;T%252F%252F0%252F%252F%253B_sdja_%252F%252F0%252F%252F 

[4,["\n     \n  sdja",["\n      \n  sdja","","",-1],[true,[["","",0,"",0,[]],["sdja","",0,"",1,[["John Doe","CONTOSO\\sdja",1,"John Doe",""]]]],false],false,false,false],-1,false,false],[5,["\n       sdja\n  ",["\n      sdja\n  ","","",-1],[false,[["sdja","",0,"",0,null]],false],false,false,false],-1,false,false],

Internet Explorer

8;_2_;0387bf44-e9a8-48eb-bf89-a31736034aee;9d08e01d-9d57-4e85-ad88-e7e177dc85e4:ver:1.0.0.69;0;;http%3A%2F%2Fspdev%2FFormServerTemplates%2FtrySZ.xsn;http%3A%2F%2Fspdev%2FFormServerTemplates%2FtrySZ.xsn;http%3A%2F%2Fspdev%2FInForms%2F;http%3A%2F%2Fspdev;http%3A%2F%2Fspdev%2FInForms%2FForms%2FAllItems.aspx;1;1;0;2;1;633988006159329000;;k1ayFO2PmR324jVtDEih3Z9aMGrEduuo5q/4JVt5AH0kw6Sd6ynEw5wmqck1Q+GkXniEM+OuLjXrDUC9rIAlQw==|633988006210373259 18;V1_I1_CP2;;T_sdja_%252F%252F0%252F%252F 

[4,["\n     \n  sdja",["\n      \n  sdja","","",-1],[true,[["sdja","",0,"",0,[["John Doe","CONTOSO\\sdja",1,"John Doe",""]]]],true],false,false,false],-1,false,false],[5,["\n      \n  ",["\n      \n  ","","",-1],[false,[],true],false,false,false],-1,false,false],

Contact Selector

Information about the control can br found on the InfoPath team blog:

Using the Contact Selector Control

I can add that it is rendered in the browser (Firefox) as HTML table, div and span elements handling events with functions declared in Core.js for all ContactPicker controls.

<TABLE><TBODY>
<TR>
<TD vAlign=top><BUTTON style="FONT-STYLE: normal; FONT-FAMILY: Segoe UI; FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-WEIGHT: 400; TEXT-DECORATION: none" id=V1_I1_CP2_AddressButton onfocus="return (ContactPicker.OnButtonFocus(this, event));" title="Add contacts from address book" onclick="return (ContactPicker.OnShowAddressBookClick(this, event));"><NOBR><IMG style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: middle" alt="" src="http://spdev/_layouts/inc/contactPickerSelectNames.png?rev=azqd2BNDQfZJX%2Bi5rXdMhQ%3D%3D"> <SPAN style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: middle">Кому: </SPAN></NOBR></BUTTON></TD>
<TD style="WIDTH: 100%"><SPAN onmouseover="return (LeafControl.OnMouseOver(this, event));" onmouseout="return (LeafControl.OnMouseOut(this, event));"><SPAN id=V1_I1_CP2_SignIcon></SPAN><SPAN id=V1_I1_CP2_ErrorTip></SPAN>
<DIV onkeydown="return (ContactPicker.OnKeyDown(this, event));" id=V1_I1_CP2 class="h_ m_ " onfocus="return (ContactPicker.OnFocus(this, event));" onmouseover="return (ContactPicker.OnMouseOver(this, event));" onmouseout="return (ContactPicker.OnMouseOut(this, event));" onclick="return (ContactPicker.OnClick(this, event));" viewDataNode="3" scriptclass="ContactPicker" maxlines="4" name="V1_I1_CP2" alt>
<DIV ondragover="return (ContactPicker.OnEditBoxDragOver(this, event));" oncontrolselect="return (ContactPicker.OnEditBoxControlSelect(this, event));" onblur="return (ContactPicker.OnEditBoxBlur(this, event));" hideFocus style="OVERFLOW-Y: auto; HEIGHT: 15px; WORD-BREAK: break-all" id=V1_I1_CP2_RecipientsList onactivate="return (ContactPicker.OnEditBoxActivate(this, event));" class=hideChildAnchors onfocus="return (ContactPicker.OnEditBoxFocus(this, event));" title="" ondrop="return (ContactPicker.OnEditBoxDrop(this, event));" tabIndex=0 contentEditable=true onmousedown="return (ContactPicker.OnEditBoxMouseDown(this, event));" maxHeight="60"><SPAN class=recipientResolvedUser tabIndex=-1 contentEditable=false ownerid="V1_I1_CP2" displayname="John Doe" objectid="CONTOSO\sdja" objecttype="1" realname="Djaarbekov Stanislav M." orgindex="0"><SPAN tabIndex=-1 contentEditable=true>Doe John Jr.</SPAN></SPAN>; <SPAN class=recipientResolvedUser tabIndex=-1 contentEditable=false ownerid="V1_I1_CP2" displayname="Mary Kay" objectid="LITWARE\mar" objecttype="1" realname="Mary Kay" orgindex="1"><SPAN tabIndex=-1 contentEditable=true>Mary C. Kay</SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="DISPLAY: none" id=V1_I1_CP2_NCEContactPicker>
<DIV style="OVERFLOW: auto" id=V1_I1_CP2_NCERecipientsList 4?em?></DIV><INPUT onblur="return (ContactPicker.OnEditBoxBlur(this, event));" style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; WIDTH: 100%; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px" id=V1_I1_CP2_EditBox onfocus="return (ContactPicker.OnEditBoxFocus(this, event));" title="" tabIndex=0></DIV></DIV></SPAN></TD>
<TD vAlign=top><BUTTON id=V1_I1_CP2_ResolveButton onfocus="return (ContactPicker.OnButtonFocus(this, event));" title="Resolve names" onclick="return (ContactPicker.OnResolveAllClick(this, event));"><IMG style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: middle" alt="Resolve names" src="http://spdev/_layouts/inc/contactPickerCheckNames.png?rev=ReirwPoq%2Fu%2BOSZA9X276Gg%3D%3D"></BUTTON></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
|improve this question
  • I would like this question to be tagged with 'infopath' 'forms-services' and 'browser-compatibility'. Please let users create new tags. – Alexey Krasheninnikov Jan 11 '10 at 11:22
  • @AKrasheninnikov: Unfortunately it isn't technically possible to do that. That functionality only becomes available for your own questions when you reach 250 reputation. Right now I recommend flagging a moderator and we'll add the tags for you. Thanks! – Alex Angas Jan 11 '10 at 22:59
2

Hopefully I am not being too obvious ;)

With InfoPath you get multiple events each time you make a change to the underlying XML document. For example for a change event two events are raised, one for deleting an xml node and then again when inserting the xml node.

I see from you post you mention that you are copying xml nodes in the primary data source when a user has been selected. So maybe the reason that IE does three postbacks is to handle the following:- 1st postback is the when a user has been selected by contact selector 2nd postback is when the code deletes the xml nodes 3rd postback is when the code adds the xml nodes

Does that go anywhere to helping understand whats going on?

Regards Simon

|improve this answer
  • Simon, thanks for trying. Actually, Fiddler shows two postbacks BEFORE the user changes anything on the form. The third one sends the user's changes to the server. And this one is much like the first one Firefox pushed down the lane. Both postback (Postback.FormServer.aspx) requests are then followed by the requests showing the peoplepicker (ResolveRecipient.aspx). IE has ONE, Firefox has TWO for one contact - it first tries to resolve the empty group. Then both browsers do two similar postbacks. I'll add the detail to the end of the question. – Alexey Krasheninnikov Jan 13 '10 at 14:21
  • I'm getting an impression that some other event blocks the logic in the case of Internet Explorer. I've been playing around with similar forms with no code at all and they exhibit the same behaviour unless your logic (rule) begins processing after the DOM changes have been finalised. Compare the two situations: you attach the rule to a changing field/control vs. you attach the rule to a separate button. First one fails, second does something. Your comment, Simon, is more relevant to Firefox's duplication of records in the destination subtree. That is almost obvious ;-) – Alexey Krasheninnikov Jan 13 '10 at 14:38
0

You use ContactSelector ActiveX control to look up and resolve users from the SharePoint site Users lists (UserInfo table in the Content database).

Firefox does not officially support ActiveX

Could have something to do with it I guess

|improve this answer
  • Captain Obvious to the rescue... Nope. I think if it were the ActiveX support, Firefox wouldn't let me use the ContactSelector at all, but it does. To my understanding, the problem is on the server side. The requests have only subtle differences in cryptic viewstate fields, but responses behave as though it were an ill-posed problem IYKWIM. – Alexey Krasheninnikov Jan 11 '10 at 11:52
  • Captain Obvious to the rescue? Nice way to express your appreciation to people spending time trying to help you out. – Jaap Vossers Jan 11 '10 at 12:13
  • I'm sorry, Jaap, don't take it personal. The ActiveX control is used in supporting environments (rich InfoPath client) and rendered as HTML+JavaScript in browser forms, so it really isn't the root cause. – Alexey Krasheninnikov Jan 11 '10 at 13:24
  • Despite not supporting ActiveX, Firefox actually performs MORE data modifications than Internet Explorer. – Alexey Krasheninnikov Jan 11 '10 at 13:28
  • It's cool. I did not realise the ActiveX control was rendering html. I thought it was an ActiveX control that would be loaded in the browser (like an embedded Windows Media Player) – Jaap Vossers Jan 12 '10 at 9:56

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