As I blogged last week, Qdabra is offering four free labs you can use to learn how to build InfoPath build forms. Let’s get started by building an InfoPath form template for an event (think Evite).

For this lab, you are provided with a sample form template (Event Planning (Beginning XSN).xsn). We will:

• Add the schema
• Modify the layout
• Publish the form to SharePoint
• Create a view in SharePoint

ADD THE SCHEMA

1.  Save Event Planning (Beginning XSN).xsn someplace you’ll be able to find it again.

2.  Right click on the Event Planning (Beginning XSN).xsn from your Lab1 folder, and select Design.

3.  This will open the template in Design mode in InfoPath. You’ll need to re-save the template, since it was downloaded from another location. On the File tab of the Ribbon, select Save As:

    
 
4.  Save the template as Event Planning.

5.  In the main data source, select EventPlanning group.

6.  In the Actions section, select Add Field.
 
7.  Name this Details, change Type to Group, and click OK.

    
 
8.  Select the Details group, and click Add Field and add the following fields (element):

MODIFY THE LAYOUT

1.  The tables have already been created on your sample template canvas. Simply drag-and-drop the fields into their corresponding placeholders. Delete the titles that get included on drag-   and-drop.

     Your layout may look similar to this after having dragged and dropped the Location field and deleted its title:

                    
2.  In the header, enter the form name and replace the logo as desired.

     Your form should look like this:

                   
 
3.  Click File > Save and give your form template a descriptive name.

CREATE A USERLIST

1.  Navigate to your SharePoint site.

2.  Click Site Actions > More Options…

    
 
3.  Click List > Custom List, and enter a name to your custom list (this tutorial uses UserList as a list name). Click Create.

  
 
4.  For the newly created list, Click List > List Settings.

  
 
5.  Click Create column that is located under Columns section.

  
 
6.  Enter UserName for a Column name, and select Yes for Require that this column contains information. Click OK.

   
 
7.  Create two more columns of name FullName, and EmailAddress. Finally all the three columns should look similar to the below layout:

   
 
8.  Go back to the UserList and click Add new item.

9.  Enter data in the fields as shown below, and click Save.

MODIFY USERLIST DATA CONNECTION

1.  Back in the InfoPath form, click Data > Data Connection.

2.  Select UserList data connection, and click Modify…:

3.  Enter the location of your SharePoint site. Click Next:

   
 
4.  Select the UserList list that you created earlier. Click Next:

   
 
5.  Select UserName, FullName, and EmailAdress columns:

6.  Click Next two times.

7.  Click Finish:

PUBLISH YOUR FORM TO SHAREPOINT

1.  Go to File > Publish, and select SharePoint Server (not Quick Publish).

   
 
2.  In the next screen, enter the URL to your SharePoint My Site and click Next.

   
 
3.  Keep the default “Form Library.” Click Next.

   
 
4.  Keep the default “Create a new form library.” Click Next.

5.  Enter a descriptive name for your form library and click Next.

6.  Promote the columns: Event Title and Date, both under Details.

   
 
7.  Click Next > Publish, check Open this form library, and then Close.

8.  You should be directed to your SharePoint library, where you can verify it has been successfully created and that the Event Title and the Date columns appear.

9.  Click Add document to verify that your form opens in InfoPath and review the changes you made when you modified the layout. Close the form.

   
 
After your form has been published once to this location, you will be able to use the Quick Publish feature (File > Quick Publish) for one-click publishing.

ADD A DEFAULT VIEW TO YOUR SHAREPOINT LIBRARY

1.  Navigate to the SharePoint site where you published your form.

2.  Under Library Tools > Library, make sure the Default view All Documents is selected from the Current View drop down.

   
 
3.  Select Library tab > Modify View > Modify View, to modify your default view. 

4.  Uncheck Modified, Modified By, Checked Out To columns, and set Date column position to 3.

   
 
5.  Under Sort section, select Date column to sort by, and select Show items in descending order checkbox.

    
 
6.  Under Filter section, select Show items only when the following is true checkbox, and select Date for Show the items when column drop down, and for the second drop down select is greater than, and set the column value to [Today].

   
 
7.  Click OK to save your changes.

You are now finished with Lab 1. We’ll release Lab 2 Friday, July 9. If you have any questions, feel free to post them to the Newbie Questions forum. Once you’ve complete these labs, you’ll be ready to become an InfoPath master. Learn about our in-person and online options.

Requirements for the free training labs:

• Microsoft InfoPath 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint 2010 (contribute permissions) - parts of the labs can be completed without SharePoint. While most of the labs can be completed with InfoPath 2007, the instructions and screenshots are for InfoPath 2010.