1 / 27

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

scarlett
Télécharger la présentation

Tips & Tricks for Developing InfoPath Solutions

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  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.

More Related