I'd like to clarify Paul's response. (Sorry Paul:-)
1. Fragments
It depends on how you are using the forms containing the fragments:
- If you're using XDP format,
the fragments are refreshed immediately whenever the form is rendered.
- If you're using PDF format, the fragments are ONLY refreshed the next time you open the form inside of Designer.
2. Deleting fields
If you're using an XML schema in your form (highly recommended) the element will still exist (although it will of course be blank) even if the field bound to it is deleted. (I'm 99% sure of this, but you should check.)
In addition, I'm reasonably sure (although again, please check) that if you use an XPath expression to reference an invalid location, you just get null returned - it does not throw an exception. So I don't think your process will stall, but it may not execute as you'd expect.
All of this should be reasonably easy to verify by building some simple test cases.
Howard
http:/www.avoka.com