Handling of Multi-page Section Occurrence During Field Mapping

Previously, if a section became a multi-page section due to overflow of a text area, each page of that section would have been seen as a new occurrence within the form. This made it infinitely difficult to map fields embedded within the flowing text as the mapping rule needed to know the section occurrence. Now, these overflowing/multi-page sections are treated as the same occurrence.

For example: If you have one section that overflows to three pages, the three-pages of that section will now all be treated as "occurrence=1". If another section with the same name appears later, it will be considered the second occurrence.

In this way, xpath statements that utilize occurrence indicators will find the proper section when field mapping of data occurs.

Here is a more detailed example.

Assume multiple occurrences of a section are triggered to match the number of matching Coverage nodes found in the input XML.

<Data> 
<Coverage>Coverage is prolonged beyond its original term, such as for a travel insurance policy when a return date is delayed. 
</Coverage> 
<Coverage> Protection is added for specific risks not typically included in a standard policy, such as from explosions, hail, or vehicle damage. 
</Coverage> 
</Data> 

It would not be unusual for this type of data to be mapped into a multiline text (MLT) field on this type of section. This field will grow to accommodate the text and might split to create a new page if the position of the section is near the bottom of a page and grows too large.

The Xpath mapping of this field might look like this: \Data\Coverage[****]

The four asterisks [****] is a placeholder where an occurrence value will be substituted. The actual occurrence used will depending upon whether you have indicated this to use the form set, form, or section occurrence within the form.

Because there are two sections, you might expect the two mapping to resolve like this:

\Data\Coverage[1] – on the first occurrence 
\Data\Coverage[2] – on the second occurrence 

This is now the expected behavior whether the first section overflowed to a subsequent page or not.

In prior versions, the second section would have remained empty if the first section overflowed the page. This was because the counting occurred like this:

[Coverage Section with MLT field] 
Coverage is prolonged beyond its original term, such as for a travel insurance 
<new page> 

[Coverage Section with MLT field] [cont]
policy when a return date is delayed. 
[Coverage Section with MLT field]
Protection is added for specific risks not typically included in a standard policy, such as from explosions, hail, or vehicle damage. 

When the original section overflows to a new page, another copy of that section is inserted to allow the continuation/overflow. Depending upon the amount of data, it is possible that a single MLT field might span any number of pages.

By strictly counting the section occurrence then, the prior versions would have seen this as three occurrences of the section [Coverage Section with MLT field]. That means the second mapping of data would have incorrectly used the Xpath: \Data\Coverage[3], which would have resulted in no data being returned.

It is for this reason that the overflow/occurrence mapping of multi-page sections has been changed to look for the independent sections that triggered and not rely upon a strict count of the sections. This allows the functionality to use the correct Xpath \Data\Coverage[2] when mapping data occurrences.