InfoPath 2010 Button Properties & Submit Options

Question

You can only add "Action" type rules when you:  1.  Add a Button to an InfoPath 2010 form, 2.  set its Button Properties "Action:" value to "Submit",  3.  Select the "Submit Options" and choose the "Perform custom action using Rules".  Why can't you also add "Validation" type rules?

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Cheryl

Answer 1

There is really nothing to validate about a button. I suspect you want to have fields show any validation errors if the button is pushed. If you set the validation on the fields they will not permit the submission and the error hints will show up so you will get this effect.

 

there are other tricks you can use. you can set a hidden field value when a button is pushed and then set validation rules on that hidden field or on other fields that rely on the value of the hidden field. this can be used to create an effect where a button push triggers validations.

Answer 2

I use the Validation rules to Disable the Submit Button until all of the Required Fields have been filled in.  I know this is not necessary, but believe it's a good practice and avoids the ugly error message that is generated when someone tries to submit a document when a required field is not filled in. 

I also use the Validaton rules to Hide the Submit button after the list item or a document has been filled in and submitted.  After an item or document has been created and is re-opened in the List or Library that it resides in, the Submit button re-appears as a valid/active option and we don't want that.

I would like to be able to set up these validations on the Submit button, but Validation rules are greyed out when the Button properties "Action:" value is set to "Submit".

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Cheryl