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I'll use an example of an expense statement to illustrate what I'd like to do.
Let's say my SP site allows you to manage expense statements.
You go into the site and see a list labeled My Expense Statements.
You select one of them and an InfoPath designed form opens which shows: a) Your name b) date of travel c) a list of the itemized expenses incurred during the trip (date, amount, reason, etc).

So far my attempts at creating such a form have come up short.
I created a custom list, added the Name and Date-of-travel columns, and laid them out on the form using InfoPath.
I'm thinking (was hoping) I'd be able to insert a repeating table to display all the expenses incurred during the trip and which would allow the user to add, modify, delete rows as needed.
But, in InfoPath Designer the Controls group does not contain any repeating controls. No repeating table, no repeating section, etc.

I've searched around online and have seen several videos of people adding repeating tables to a form.
There is obviously some difference in what's going on in these videos and a disconnect in my understanding of the relationship between SP lists, InfoPath forms, repeating tables and the rules as to how they can be arranged.

What am I missing? Thanks.

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The default "storage location" for InfoPath forms is the Form library. You should create the Form library (instead of the custom list), go to Library settings -> Advanced settings -> (Edit Template) and open the InfoPath template for the library.

There you will be able to design your form, and add all of the fields that you want (repeating fields among others). You also have the option to "promote" some of the fields to library columns, so when the form is submited SharePoint will extract the values for those fields and automaticaly update the columns in the library.

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  • A couple of questions: 1) I assume that I first need to create a Form Library for my site ... yes 2) After I create the form library then I design my InfoPath form template ... yes? 3) How do I then get to the point, as described in my post, where I see a list of completed expense statements (My Expenses) that someone can create, view, edit, delete? I'm missing the connection between the form template in the form library and how they end up displayed in the list? Thanks for the feedback. I'm starting to connect the dots. Am going home for the evening so it may be tomorrow before I respond
    – BobL
    Commented Feb 6, 2017 at 23:25
  • Answers: 1) Yes; 2) Yes; 3) After the user creates new form (new Expense statement) and submits it to the SharePoint, the new row will appear in your library. That row will have all the data inside the xml file (infopath form), and all of the columns that you promoted will also be visible in the library. Users will also be able to edit previously created forms in the infopath.
    – Damjan Tomic
    Commented Feb 6, 2017 at 23:30
  • Hello - thanks for your help. I now understand that InfoPath forms are probably the way to go with repeating data. I do wonder if I can filter the list of forms one sees in the form library by Permission Groups. Will have to do some research as I'll only want certain groups of people to see certain forms. Reading several posts comparing InfoPath forms with list forms makes it sound like a list should be used if I want to filter by Permission Group. I'll experiment and see what I can find.
    – BobL
    Commented Feb 7, 2017 at 3:54
  • You have a couple of possibilities for filtering. You could set item level permissions to submited infopath documents, or do some filtering in the code (javascript of code behind if you have on-premise SP) based on the value of some column(s).
    – Damjan Tomic
    Commented Feb 7, 2017 at 9:35

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