Problem with Subform Instances at First Opening

Question

Hi All,
I have a large, complex form that has several subforms that I need to have zero instances the first time the form is opened. Most of those subforms that I set the initial instances = 0 on the Object pallet do exactly that--they behave and open with zero instances! However, I have one subform that always starts with an instance (1 instance instead of zero instances). I really don't want to work-around this, as I have done in the past when this has heppened. I want to solve it.
I have tried
Unwrapping the subform and the re-wrapping in a new subform
Manually editing the <occur/> element in the XML for the subform.
repeatedly trying different things in the Object pallet--the initial count checkbox always reverts to unchecked and the count to blank--I actually see it un-checking itself and removing the "0", right after I return to Design View from the Preview. This even happens after I have manually set the values in the XML. I double-check the Object pallet to see that my edits are reflected there (they are) and then... upon returning from Preview, it reverts and my <occur/> edit vanishes.
I have looked for scripts that might be causing this--without any luck.
I have encountered this sort of thing before and finally gave up and used the "presence" property as a work-around. The subforms don't always get utilized by the user and they should only exist when the user needs them. I will be exporting the XML data out of this form and exporting a lot of empty elements just presents another problem I'd like to avoid.
Any suggestions are most welcome. I hope someone knows of a solution--I have spent way too much time on this.
Cheers,
Stephen

Answer 1

Hi,
Thanks kjaeggin and Bruce,
I have the checkBoxes unchecked and the occur element is <occur min="0" max="-1"/> .
Actually, this is the way the checkBoxes and XML have been all along and the results are what what I have previously described.
One of my attempts to fix this was manually adding the "initial" attribute to the <occur/> element (by directly editing since it won't stick in the Object pallet)
     <occur min="0" max="-1" initial="0"/> that the edit reverts to <occur min="0" max="-1"/>.
Also I have tried
     <occur min="0" max="1" initial="0"/> this is what I really want (max="1") and it reverts to <occur min="0" max="-1"/> as well
And
     <occur min="0" max="1"/> reverts to <occur min="0" max="-1"/>
The documentation for scripting the "initial" property of an object says:
     "This property should be used only for printed and static forms."
This doesn't make sense to me because static forms don't have repeating containers, so why would you need/use it?
Finally, to rule out that there is a script or property within mySubform causing this, I have set the presence property for all the subforms contained within mySubform to Inactive (Exclude from form processing) leaving only a single static object to be rendered if there is an instance of mySubform. (Bruce, I am not sure you have this on LCD 9. It is in ADEP Designer 10 and is supported by the target version). The result is the same--I see the first static object GrandParent.Parent.mySubform.staticObject but when I add a GrandParent I see GrandParent.Parent.nothingElse -- the added GrandParent doesn't have a mySubform. So it only misbehaves when the form is first opened, not when a GrandParent is added.
I have removed global bindings from the few objects in mySubform that have them--no change. I have commented out the 1 script in mySubform that runs at form:ready--no change. I am going to look at scripts outside mySubform that get values from objects within mySubform, to see if somehow that is where the answer is. I would think that scripts would impact new instances of GrandParent, as well. I've looked at all other form:ready scripts and none interacts with or get values from mySubform.
I think I may just have to settle for a work-around. Sure would like to know whats going on here, though.
Thanks,
Stephen