How do you make InfoPath require data elements bound to MDB fields

[Spencer]

I have designed an InfoPath form which submits data to a Microsft Access
database. Nearly all of the fields are required, and I've set the "required"
attribute in Access.

Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be a way to get Access to require the
corresponding data elements. InfoPath does not import the Access data
fields' "required" states into the corresponding elements (under dataFields)
in the data source. What's worse, the data elements, once created, do not
let you set the "Cannot be blank" checkboxes in their Properties dialogs.
Neither can you change the similar checkboxes in the controls' Properties
dialogs. (you can't create an "unbound" control when the main data source
comes from Access)

Of course, because the fields are set to "required" in Access, there's a
safeguard against actually submitting missing data into the database. But
the form doesn't give you the visual feedback for a required field. The user
only finds out that a field is missing when he or she tries to submit, and
the error messagre comes from the Microsoft Jet engine and isn't particularly
user-friendly.

 

[Greg Collins]

Use custom validation on each field to ensure they cannot be blank.

 

[Spencer]

Wow. That's a ton of work, although I'm sure that's what you've got to do.

Yet there's that "field cannot be blank" checkbox sitting out there
uselessly.

Is there a reason for it?

Is this a known issue?

 

[Frederik Van Lierde]

It is not a ton of work as you have to go to the datasource, and set
required field to true for the fields

Frederik Van Lierde
http://BlueInfoPath.wordpress.com ¦ http://www.SilverSandsAssociates.com
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