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

I'm sorry. I can't post my form to a public place. Even if I could share it, I think it highly unlikely that someone would have time to carefully examine the form (it contains 1000's of objects and has 80,643 lines of XML). Besides, the answer is figuring out what happens during the original layout, that doesn't happen with initiation of a new instance? That is, understanding the form processing better will help to determine where to look to find the cause.

Just now, as an experiment, I added a button that has the following script:

     xfa.form.remerge()

The button adds a new instance of mySubform. Wow! that is not what I was expecting. I was hoping it would remove the unwanted instance of mySubform.

Hope that provides a clue for someone. Any suggestions are much appreciated

Thanks,

Stephen

OK--I figured it out--however, I still don't fully understand it.

Thanks! kjaeggin for your question: "did you or did you not reproduce this with a simplified version of your form?" I had tried some simplifications, using "Inactive" presence--but that didn't flesh out the problem.

I started deleting parts of the form one subform at a time--testing after each delete -- until the behavior went away.

Here's what I found:

mySubform had a sibbling and a child subForm with the same name and I was using the default "use Name" data binding for each one.

So, I had:

     Parent.mySubform.sameNameSubform

     and

     Parent.sameNameSubform

The problem goes away if

     the data binding for either sameNameSubform is changed to "None"

     or

     the name of either one of the sameNameSubform is changed (so they have different names).

I really appreciate the help!

Cheers!

Stephen