InfoPath 2010 and SharePoint 2010 Picture- Schema validation found non-data type errors

Source
http://www.imason.com/imason_Blogs/b/boyan_tsolov/archive/2008/11/07/solving-infopath-quot-schema-validation-found-non-data-type-quot-errors-for-xsi-nil-fields.aspx


We have a task to assign a picture (SetValue) in InfoPath through code behind in Code Editor. When we set value to Base64 data, we get the following error

schema validation found non-data type

The simplest solution has been identified from the following blog
http://www.imason.com/imason_Blogs/b/boyan_tsolov/archive/2008/11/07/solving-infopath-quot-schema-validation-found-non-data-type-quot-errors-for-xsi-nil-fields.aspx

The problem
If you try to programaticaly set/remove values of fields in InfoPath, you might have come across the following error message:
"Schema validation found non-data type errors"

Values that are non-string (DateTime, Time, Date, Boolean, Whole Number, Decimal) cannot be blank (Empty String). If a value is set to the emptry string you will get the error above, because the empty string is considered a string and you are trying to set it to a field that is non-string. When one of these non-string fields is blank, it has an attribute "xsi:nil" that is set to "true". As soon as you type a value in this field in InfoPath the attribute is cleared.

The Solution
Therefore, if you are trying to set values programatically you need to clear the "xsi:nil" attribute, or set it to "false". And if you are clearing the value of such a field, then you need to place the "xsi:nil" attribute back in, or set it to "true".

Other blogs on the internet say that clearing the value and setting the xsi:nil attribute to true is very simple, however the snippets of code they offer do not work.

• This is because a nil field looks like so:
• After you type something, it looks like so: 123
• If you try and add the nil attribute in you will get the "Schema validation found non-data type errors" error when you load the form.

The solution is to follow the steps below, depending on what you need to do with your field.

• If you are going to try and programatically edit a field that is non-string, then you have to remove its "nil" attribute
• Now you can change its value

Code (as on all other blogs and articles, this piece was taken from http://blogs.msdn.com/infopath/archive/2006/11/28/the-xsi-nil-attribute.aspx):

//Create a Navigator object for the main data source

XPathNavigator xn = this.MainDataSource.CreateNavigator();

//Create a navigator object for the field (node)

//where we want to set the current date value

XPathNavigator xnfield1 = xn.SelectSingleNode("/my:myFields/my:field1", this.NamespaceManager);

//Check if the "nil" attribute exists on this node

DeleteNil(xnfield1);

//Create a new dateTime object for the current date

DateTime curDate = new DateTime(DateTime.Today.Year, DateTime.Today.Month, DateTime.Today.Day);

//Set the value of field1 to the current date in the

//correct format: yyyy-mm-dd

xnfield1.SetValue(curDate.GetDateTimeFormats().GetValue(5).ToString());

public void DeleteNil(XPathNavigator node){

if (node.MoveToAttribute("nil", "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance")) node.DeleteSelf();

}

Clearing a non-string field:

• If you are going to programatically erase the value of a non-string field, then you have to re-construct the XML node to what InfoPath expects and add the "nil" attribute. This code is slightly different from dooke's Sharepoint place blog.

Code (slight change from dooke's code):

public static void InsertNil(XPathNavigator node)

{

if (!node.MoveToAttribute("nil", http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance))

{

string result = string.Empty;

int endIndex = node.OuterXml.IndexOf(">");

result = node.OuterXml.Substring(0, endIndex) + " xsi:nil=\"true\" />";

node.OuterXml = result;

}

}

This code will reconstruct the 123 to which will clear the field.
In my particular case, I wanted to clear the field, no matter what it was (string or non-string):

private void ClearAllFields()

{

 XPathNavigator node = xNav.SelectSingleNode(xPath, xNameSpace);

if (node == null)

return;

try

{

     // try this as a Date, Integer, Boolean node, set the nil value

   InsertNil(node);

}

catch

{

// if it is a string, the nil value won't work, so just set it to empty

node.SetValue(string.Empty);

}

}

public static void InsertNil(XPathNavigator node)

{

if (!node.MoveToAttribute("nil", http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance))

{

string result = string.Empty;

int endIndex = node.OuterXml.IndexOf(">");

result = node.OuterXml.Substring(0, endIndex) + " xsi:nil=\"true\" />";

node.OuterXml = result;

}

}