Programmatically add a row to a repeating table using an XmlWriter object

Use the XmlWriter object that is returned by the AppendChild method of the XPathNavigator object to add a row to a repeating table.

Scenario

You want to programmatically add a row to a repeating table by clicking a button.

Solution

Use the XmlWriter object that is returned by the AppendChild method of the XPathNavigator object to add a row to a repeating table.

Discussion

The AppendChild method has 4 overloads, one of which returns an XmlWriter object that you can use to create a row in a repeating table.

Before you can get started with writing code for InfoPath form templates, you have to have your programming environment correctly set up and be able to write C# or Visual Basic .NET code. See the following articles for information on what you must have installed before beginning to write code:

• Introduction to InfoPath programming environments
• More than one way to write code: Visual Studio and InfoPath
• Change the programming language of a form template

Once you've got your programming environment set up, you can accomplish the functionality as follows:

1. Design an InfoPath form template as shown in figure 1.
   
   Figure 1. The InfoPath form template in design mode.
   
   with a Main data source that resembles the following figure:
   
   
   Figure 2. The Main data source of the form template.
2. Double-click the Add Row button to open its Properties dialog box.
3. On the Button Properties dialog box, click Edit Form Code to add a Clicked event handler for the button to the form template.
4. Add the following code to the Clicked event handler of the button:
   C#
   string myNamespace = NamespaceManager.LookupNamespace("my");
using (XmlWriter writer = MainDataSource.CreateNavigator().SelectSingleNode(
"/my:myFields/my:group1", NamespaceManager).AppendChild())
{
writer.WriteStartElement("group2", myNamespace);
writer.WriteElementString("field1", myNamespace, "Cell 1");
writer.WriteElementString("field2", myNamespace, "Cell 2");
writer.WriteElementString("field3", myNamespace, "Cell 3");
writer.WriteEndElement();
writer.Close();
}

   
   Visual Basic
   Dim myNamespace As String = NamespaceManager.LookupNamespace("my")
Using writer As XmlWriter = MainDataSource.CreateNavigator().SelectSingleNode( _
"/my:myFields/my:group1", NamespaceManager).AppendChild()
writer.WriteStartElement("group2", myNamespace)
writer.WriteElementString("field1", myNamespace, "Cell 1")
writer.WriteElementString("field2", myNamespace, "Cell 2")
writer.WriteElementString("field3", myNamespace, "Cell 3")
writer.WriteEndElement()
writer.Close()
End Using

5. Save, build, and test your work.

Related InfoPath Articles:

• 4 Ways to programmatically add a row to a repeating table in InfoPath
• Programmatically delete all of the rows of a repeating table in InfoPath
• Programmatically delete the first row of a repeating table in InfoPath