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Tips & Tricks for Developing InfoPath Solutions

Tips & Tricks for Developing InfoPath Solutions. David Coe Application Development Consultant Microsoft Corporation. Agenda. Choosing InfoPath (or not) Programming Models in InfoPath Developing a basic form Publishing Forms Directly Using Forms Services Advanced Forms

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Tips & Tricks for Developing InfoPath Solutions

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  1. Tips & Tricks for Developing InfoPath Solutions David Coe Application Development Consultant Microsoft Corporation

  2. Agenda • Choosing InfoPath (or not) • Programming Models in InfoPath • Developing a basic form • Publishing Forms • Directly • Using Forms Services • Advanced Forms • The data’s there, now what? • Programming against InfoPath forms (‘cause it’s just XML)

  3. Audience • People Interested in InfoPath • Developers • Administrators may find this a bit boring (or scary) • But there’s some for you too • Assume some experience with InfoPath, SharePoint, and Form Libraries • Not a “how to” talk

  4. What it’s Good for • Simple or Complex User Input • Nice for tracking threads, repeatable items • Reviews, travel requests, task/time tracking • Attaching documents to sheet • InfoPath is XML, so a lot can be automated • No programming needed for many forms

  5. What it’s not Good at • Difficult to save data beyond form (services are best option) • Capturing history outside of specific document (ie, 12 months of reviews) • Connection management can be admin burden for Forms Services

  6. Sample Applications • What do sample applications look like?

  7. demo Sample Applications

  8. Programming Models • COM & Scripting Object Model • JScript/VBScript (XDocument) • InfoPath 2003-compatable Managed Code Object Model • Not available for browser-based forms • InfoPath 2007 Managed Code Object Model • Subset available for browser-enabled forms • InfoPath Managed Code External Automation Object Model

  9. Developing a Basic Form • Straight forward, no code, no repeating • Easy to pick up

  10. Developing a Basic Form • Start from scratch • Customize a sample • Start from XML or web service

  11. demo Basic Form

  12. Publishing a Form • Save your template • Publish to SharePoint, e-mail, network share

  13. demo Publishing the Form

  14. Publishing to Forms Services • Simply configure to display as web page • Require administrative approval if: • Form contains managed code • Full Trust required • Data connection needs to be managed • Form is enabled for mobile display

  15. demo Simple Publishing in Forms Services

  16. Advanced Form Development • An advanced form contains repeatable regions, complex relationships, code behind, etc. • Starting from XML/XSD document

  17. demo Advanced Form & Forms Services

  18. What do I do with the Data? • So you’ve captured all your user input … What do you do with it now? • Whether the documents are in the file system or in SharePoint, you can parse them however you like

  19. Two Samples • Parsing data from the File System • Parsing data from SharePoint

  20. File System Sample • All InfoPath documents reside on the file system • XSD generator to generate XSD from InfoPath doc for use with XmlSerializer • VSTO in Excel • Excel loads and parses documents • Generate pivot tables and charts

  21. demo Excel Parsing InfoPath

  22. SharePoint Sample • InfoPath documents reside in Form Library • Need to be able to parse the XML from the documents in the SharePoint library

  23. SharePoint Sample • Need: • 1000s of opportunities across the district identified in SDPs • How can we plan for all of these and try to have local resources handle the requests? • Provide a steady burn over 12 month period to level out margin

  24. How I Did It • Small WinForms app • SharePoint List Service / CAML to get URL of InfoPath docs • Use WebClientDownloadString(url) method to get the XML from InfoPath • Use XPath to parse the document • Dump data into Excel document

  25. What Else is Interesting • It is possible to downgrade a form from MOSS/InfoPath 2007 to WSS/2003 • Outside vendor developed form and site for my customer in MOSS/InfoPath 2007. • My customer only had WSS and InfoPath 2003 so we needed to downgrade. • Wasn’t that bad.

  26. Additional Resources • InfoPath Team Blog • InfoPath Developer Portal • InfoPath 2007 Document: Developing InfoPath 2007 Managed-Code Solutions • Guide to InfoPath 2007 Developer Documentation • Microsoft Office InfoPath Portal • InfoPath 2007 Sample: Training Labs

  27. © 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This presentation is for informational purposes only. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, in this summary.

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