Install the latest service pack for LiveCycle ES, version 8.0.1 to resolve this issue. If you have installed any of Service Packs 1, 2 or 3 (versions 8.0.1.1, 8.0.1.2, or 8.0.1.3), your LiveCycle ES environment will behave as required. If you have not updated your LiveCycle ES environment, you can obtain the latest service pack from the LiveCycle Developer Center.
The following XML sample illustrates the how the XML structure is affected by this issue without the service pack updates.
Note: This is not a real world example and omits the parent XML structure of (/process_data/formVariable/object/data/xdp/datasets/).
<data> <TextField1>Hello world 1...</TextField1> <SomeOtherField1/> <form1> <MyFormField1></MyFormField1> <TextField1>Hello world 2...</TextField1> <AnotherNode> <TextField1>Hello world 3...</TextField1> </AnotherNode> </form1> </data>
When copying the node form1 from source to target within the SetValue service, you would do the following:
/process_data/formVariable/object/data/xdp/datasets/data = /process_data/formVariable/object/data/xdp/datasets/data/form1
This would append form1 and all its children to the data node in our target. Because LiveCycle ES, version 8.01 removes and appends all the children from the source node, the same copy would be written like:
/process_data/formVariable/object/data/xdp/datasets/data/form1 = /process_data/formVariable/object/data/xdp/datasets/data/form1
- /process_data/formVariable/object/data/xdp/datasets/data/TextField1 will return "Hello world 1...".
- /process_data/formVariable/object/data/xdp/datasets/data/form1/TextField1 will return "Hello world 2...".
- /process_data/formVariable/object/data/xdp/datasets/data/form1/AnotherNode/TextField1 will return "Hello world 3...".
- /process_data/formVariable/object/data/xdp/datasets/data//TextField1 returns "Hello world 1...", "Hello world 2...", and "Hello world 3..." and therefore is more flexible if the exact structure of an XML is not known (for example, when using a relative path).

