qForm

Using qForm’s taskpane search

ErnestoM — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 19:48:48 GMT

The QdCatalogBase.xsn InfoPath form, better known as qForm, is included in every DBXL v2.2 installation. Among other features, this form template allows for taskpane search, which empowers users to quickly find documents within their forms. To begin using search, simply enter the desired search term into the Search field in the taskpane and click OK.

Simple Search

Search supports matching based on literal substrings. In other words, you can enter any text that you want to search on but it must be in the order you want to search. For example, if your text contains "John ate an apple", then searching for "John apple" would not match, while searching for "John ate" would.
For special formatting, make sure you follow the order of the text field. For example, if the data string stored in the form is “Smith, John”. The search will be successful if the user entered “Smith, John”, but entering “John Smith” will return no forms.
The date format is a special case. For instance, if the form displays the date field as “10/29/2007”, you will have to enter the search string using the xml format, in this case“2007-10-29”.
Search does not support combination searches. For example, searching for “Smith 2007-10-29” will not return documents with name Smith and date 10/29/2007.
Search is not case sensitive.
Search will search all documents regardless of workflow status. In other words, while qForm’s Catalog view does not display documents with status Closed by default, search operations will include documents with status Closed.

Tip: If you know the DocID (Document ID) of your form, just type that number into the search field and click OK to display that document.

Advanced Search

For more advanced searching capabilities, you are able to select between searching Properties and Data by checking or un-checking the appropriate checkboxes.

“Properties” refers to metadata, namely author, name and description. Even if you have not specified metadata for your form, all qForm XML will contain the following processing instruction: <?QdabraDBXL docid="12345" doctype="DocumentType" name="FormName" author="John Smith" description="Test form" ?>
"Data" refers to the contents of the actual XML document. This is relevant when qForm has been customized to contain other fields.

Note: If the OK button is disabled, make sure that one of the two checkboxes is checked.

How To Localize Your InfoPath with QdCatalogBase

ErnestoM — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 21:28:20 GMT

To ensure global compatibility, QdCatalogBase uses a mechanism for providing localized strings for all labels and other static text in the form¬¬. To edit the values that already exist, you must open the underlying XML and change the text there.

As seen in Figure 1, double-clicking any of the expression boxes on the form will show you where the value is pulled from at run-time. The value of this node changes dynamically based on what language is selected.

Figure 1. Changing the <Form Name> value.

The first thing you will want to do when creating a new form based off of QdCatalogBase is change the <Form Name> value to the name of the form you are developing.

Modify the <Form Name> node

1. From your DBXL installation, download the latest version of the XSN for the QdCatalogBase Document Type to your local drive.
2. Right-click the XSN and select Design to open it in InfoPath.
3. In the Edit view, add three text fields for the following fields: First name, Last name and Telephone, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2

4. From the File menu, select Save as Source Files (or Extract Form Files for InfoPath 2003), and then choose a directory to save the source files to. Close InfoPath.
5. Open the QdLanguageSource.xml file with the text editor of your choice and find the node specified by the XPath on the expression box. In our example, this would be the /LanguageSource/cv_form_name node.
6. Edit the value of all instances of this node, making sure to translate the new value into each of the respective languages.
7. Save and close the file.
8. From the folder with all of the source files, right-click the manifest.xsf file and select Design.
9. From the File menu, select Publish and publish a new version of the XSN to your local hard drive. Save the file and close InfoPath.
10. In DAT, add a new configuration and attach the new XSN. When you open this configuration, the form will show the form name you entered. Save the configuration as SampleDocType.

Add Localized Text in QdCatalogBase

To add custom values you must edit the XSD file to add the node, and then correspondingly add the node and value to the XML file.

1. Edit the QdCurrentLanguage.xsd and QdLanguageSource.xsd files to specify the new nodes, as seen in Figure 3 for QdCurrentLanguage.xsd.

Figure 3

2. Add the new nodes with a blank value to the QdCurrentLanguage.xml file. Be sure to place the nodes in the correct location, as specified by the schema changes in step 2. For our sample form, we have added the nodes seen in Figure 4.

Figure 4

3. Add a copy of the new nodes to each of the defined Language elements in the QdLanguageSource.xml file, as seen in Figure 5.

Figure 5

4. Save all files and open manifest.xsf in Design mode.
5. Add an expression box pointing to the new nodes that were added to QdCurrentLanguage.xml, as seen in Figure 6.
6. Preview the form to make sure everything is working correctly.

Figure 6

7. Publish a new XSN, and upload this into the configuration SampleDocType.

Add Multi-language support

With a few modifications in these language files, we can add multi-language support to our forms.

1. Using a text editor, open QdLanguageSource.xml. The third line of the file contains the beginning of the node: <Language locale="en-US" displayName="English">. By copying this entire node, we can create a second locale. Copy the whole node, until the ending </Language> tag, and paste it immediately below.
2. In this example, we will localize the form to Spanish. Change the locale to “es-AR” and the displayName to Español.
3. In a real world situation, you would have to translate the content of each of the nodes contained within the <Language> node. For the purposes of this example, we will only translate the four that were modified earlier in this form. Change the content of the <cv_form_name> node to Información, as well as the contents of the <cv_firstname>, <cv_lastname> and <cv_telephone>, as seen in Figure 7. Save and close the file.

Figure 7

4. From the folder with all of the source files, right-click the manifest.xsf file and select Design.
5. From the File menu, select Publish and publish a new version of the XSN to your local hard drive. Save the file.
6. From DAT, add a new configuration and upload the new XSN.
7. Save the configuration as SampleDocType.
8. Open the configuration and select Español from the language dropdown, as seen in Figure 8.
9. Click on Add Document.

Figure 8

10. When the Edit View opens, you will see the title as well as the three fields displayed in Spanish.

Figure 9

How to use the template feature in qForm

ErnestoM — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:28:38 GMT

A qForm-based solution allows the user to save a template file which can then be used as a starting point for future document entries. For illustration purposes we will use the unmodified QdCatalogBase.xsn that comes with the DBXL v2.2 installation.

Prepare the Document Type Configuration

1. Open the DBXL Administration Tool (DAT) and click on New Configuration.
2. In the InfoPath Form Template table, click on Click here to attach a file.
3. Attach the QdCatalogBase.xsn form, located in C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\QdabraWebService\install in default installations.
4. Enter a Name in the Document Type Details table and click Save. Click OK in the confirmation dialog.

Fill out the template

5. Click on the Open link under the File Attachment Control.
6. Click on the + Add Document button.
7. Enter any desired values into the Name, Author and Description fields.
8. Click on the Save As Template button in the taskpane.

9. Click Close to return to the Catalog view.

Fill out a new form based on the template

10. When you are returned to the Catalog View, no documents will show. You will need to use the taskpane section called Advanced to select Templates in order to show the template just created in Step 9.

11. There are two icons next to each template. We will click the first icon to create a new Normal document based on this template.

12. Modify the Name, Author or Description field, and then click on the Save button in the taskpane. Note that the DocID field will be updated to a new number, indicating that a new document has been saved.
13. Click Close to return to the Catalog view.
14. In the taskpane, select Normal Documents in the Advanced section. You will see the document you have saved in Step 12.
Modify the template
15. Click on Templates in the Advanced section to once again list the template.
16. In order to modify the template itself, click the second icon.

17. Modify the Name, Author or Description field, and then click on the Save button in the taskpane. Note that the DocID field will NOT be updated to a new number, indicating that a new document has NOT been saved. Instead, we have just modified the template.
18. Click Close to return to the Catalog view. You will see that, indeed, there is only one template listed.

How To Manage qForm’s Client Side Notifications

ErnestoM — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:14:20 GMT

While the QdNotifications Document Type allows DBXL to send server-side emails, a small modification in your qForm-based solution will allow DBXL to send client-side notifications.

1. Open your qForm solution in InfoPath design mode.

a. Open InfoPath, select Design a Form Template, select On my Computer and select your qForm-based solution.
b. Alternatively, you can right-click on your qForm-based solution and select Design.

2. Select File > Save As Source Files. Note the folder (location) where the files are being saved. Close InfoPath.
3. Navigate to the location noted in the previous step and open QdConfig.xml in a text editor such as Notepad.
4. Find the <EmailSettings> node. Change the value of the <Condition> node as to the value desired, noting that the possible values are Never, Always and AssignedToChange. The section, by default, looks like this:

  <EmailSettings>
   <Sender>
    <Application>qForm</Application>
    <Condition>Never</Condition>
   </Sender>
  </EmailSettings>

5. After performing the change, save and close the QdConfig.xml file.
6. Back in the folder view, right-click on manifest.xsf and select Design. The file will open in InfoPath.
7. Select File > Save As and provide a new file name.

How to customize Status values in qForm

ErnestoM — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:45:22 GMT

A solution based on Qdabra’s qForm (QdCatalogBase.xsn) includes Status workflow in the taskpane, consisting of the following values: Saved, Submitted, Reviewed, Approved, Rejected and Closed. These may not be compatible with your needs, but they are easily customizable when designing your solution.

Extract the source files for qForm

1. Navigate to C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\QdabraWebService\install and right-click on QdCatalogBase.xsn. Select Design.
2. Select File > Save As Source Files, and select an output directory for the source files.
3. Close InfoPath.

Modify the language files

4. Navigate to the folder where the source files were saved and open QdCurrentLanguage.xml in a text editor such as Notepad.
5. Find the section that contains the status values, which looks like this:

<tp_status_saved></tp_status_saved>
<tp_status_submitted></tp_status_submitted>
<tp_status_reviewed></tp_status_reviewed>
<tp_status_approved></tp_status_approved>
<tp_status_rejected></tp_status_rejected>
<tp_status_closed></tp_status_closed>

6. Add a new line. For this example, we will add a status value called Proposed, with a line that will look like this:

<tp_status_proposed></tp_status_proposed>

7. Save and close QdCurrentLanguage.xml.
8. Open QdCurrentLanguage.xsd in a text editor such as Notepad.
9. Find the section that contains the status values, which looks like this:

<xs:element name="tp_status_saved" />
<xs:element name="tp_status_submitted" />
<xs:element name="tp_status_reviewed" />
<xs:element name="tp_status_approved" />
<xs:element name="tp_status_rejected" />
<xs:element name="tp_status_closed" />

10. Add a new line. For this example, since we will add a status value called Proposed, the line will look like this:

<xs:element name="tp_status_proposed" />

11. Save and close QdCurrentLanguage.xsd.
12. Open QdLanguageSource.xml in a text editor such as Notepad.
13. Find the section that contains the status values, which looks like this:

<tp_status_saved>Saved</tp_status_saved>
<tp_status_submitted>Submitted</tp_status_submitted>
<tp_status_reviewed>Reviewed</tp_status_reviewed>
<tp_status_approved>Approved</tp_status_approved>
<tp_status_rejected>Rejected</tp_status_rejected>
<tp_status_closed>Closed</tp_status_closed>

14. Add a new entry. For this example, the line that will look like this:

<tp_status_proposed>Proposed</tp_status_proposed>

15. Save and close QdLanguageSource.xml.
16. Open QdLanguageSource.xsd in a text editor such as Notepad.
17. Find the section that contains the status values, which looks like this:

<xs:element name="tp_status_saved" />
<xs:element name="tp_status_submitted" />
<xs:element name="tp_status_reviewed" />
<xs:element name="tp_status_approved" />
<xs:element name="tp_status_rejected" />
<xs:element name="tp_status_closed" />

18. Add a new entry. For this example, the new line will look like this:

<xs:element name="tp_status_proposed" />

19. Save and close QdLanguageSource.xsd.

Note that you should not change existing strings, but instead add new ones with the customized text, as we have done in these steps.

Modify QdConfig.xml

20. Open QdConfig.xml in a text editor such as Notepad.
21. Find the section that contains the status values, which looks like this:

<StatusOptions>
  <Status isClosed="false" value="Saved">tp_status_saved</Status>
  <Status isClosed="false" value="Submitted">tp_status_submitted</Status>
  <Status isClosed="false" value="Reviewed">tp_status_reviewed</Status>
  <Status isClosed="false" value="Approved">tp_status_approved</Status>
  <Status isClosed="false" value="Rejected">tp_status_rejected</Status>
  <Status isClosed="true" value="Closed">tp_status_closed</Status>
</StatusOptions>

22. Add a line within the <StatusOptions> node, above the line for the Saved status, which will look like this:

<Status isClosed="false" value="Proposed">tp_status_proposed</Status>

Note that the isClosed value determines whether documents with that status value will be shown in the Catalog view. For example, documents with status Closed are by default not shown in the Catalog.

23. For illustration purposes, comment out the line for Saved status. It will look like this:



24. Save and close QdConfig.xml.

Save and test the modified qForm

25. Right click on manifest.xsf and select Design. Click on File > Save As and enter a new form name.
26. In DAT, click on New Configuration. Attach the xsn file saved in the previous step and name it. Click Save, and then click OK in the confirmation dialog.
27. Click the Open link under the file attachment control. This will open the Catalog view of your form.
28. Click + Add Document to create a new forms. In the status dropdown in the taskpane, Saved has now been replaced with Proposed.

Deleting Documents and Flow for a qForm

ErnestoM — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:23:13 GMT

When a user deletes a document that was created off of a qForm-based solution, DBXL will still contain data related to the document’s assignment history. This is stored in the system document type called QdEmailFlow. The visual effect of this is easily seen in the Catalog view taskpane: ‘zombie’ users are present even though they do not have any documents assigned to them. There is an advanced customer scenario that depends on deletion: pruning and archiving. This occurs if databases begin performing poorly when there is too much unneeded historical data.

To address these scenarios, DBXL users can turn to Document Deployer to perform the necessary cleanup. After deleting the documents you wish to remove, follow these steps.

1. Copy the Scenario file called CleanupFlow.xml into Document Deployer’s scenario folder. (Click Download, above, to obtain this file.)
2. Launch Document Deployer UI and click on the Custom tab.
3. Select CleanupFlow.xml from the Scenario Path dropdown and click Load.
4. Change the DBXLRoot and DBXLUrl variables to reflect the values for your DBXL instance.
5. Click Run.

You will see a message like this in the Log window:

2008-08-12 05:07:03 Executing action ListFlowDocuments...
2008-08-12 05:07:25 Executing action DeleteFlowDocuments...
2008-08-12 05:07:26 Removing document with id 1...
2008-08-12 05:07:26 Removing document with id 2...
Etc.
2008-08-12 05:07:42 Executing action OutputResult...
2008-08-12 05:07:42 Removed <x> flow documents

When the operation is complete you will see a confirmation message, letting you know that the execution was successful!

How to Use Promoted Properties in qForm

ErnestoM — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 19:21:33 GMT

By default, a qForm’s Catalog view only downloads metadata –specifically the Name, Author and Description fields. This prevents users from being able to see document fields while still presenting basic information as part of the Catalog view. In order to solve the problem of displaying custom fields in the catalog view, QdCatalogBase offers a promoted properties import mechanism.

Promote the field you wish to expose

1. Navigate to C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\QdabraWebService\install and right-click on QdCatalogBase.xsn. Select Design.
2. Select File > Tools > Form Options > Property Promotion.
3. Select the field you wish to promote, making sure to select “first” aggregation. Note: make sure property names do not contain spaces.

Extract the source files for your qForm

4. Select File > Save As Source Files, and select an output directory for the source files.
5. Close InfoPath.
6. Navigate to the folder where the source files were saved and open QdConfig.xml in a text editor such as Notepad.
7. Add an entry to the <CatalogViewMapping> section. Note that the Xpaths should not contain a leading slash (/) or /my:QdCatalog/my:QdForm in them. Be very careful specifying the name/Xpath pairs – most of the issues with promoted properties import come from errors in there. For example, in order to promote the status, with Xpath /my:QdCatalog/my:QdForm/my:field1, enter only my:status. The new line will look like this:

<PromotedPropertyMapping name="PromotedField" xpath="my:field1" />

8. Save and close QdConfig.xml.
9. Right click on manifest.xsf and select Design. Click on File > Save As and enter a new form name.

Add the field into your qForm's Catalog view

10. In InfoPath, open the newly saved form in Design mode and navigate to the Catalog (default) view.
11. Double click on the Author Expression box and change it from Data Source to Text. Enter Field1 in the text box and click Ok. You will see the text Field1 replace the text Author in the form’s column.

12. Double click on the @my:author Expression box and click on the Edit Formula button to the right of the Xpath field.
13. Use on the Insert Field or Group button to change the Xpath from @my:author to @my:status and click OK twice to close all dialogs.

14. Click File > Save and close InfoPath.

Test the modified qForm

15. In DAT, click on New Configuration. Attach the xsn file saved in the previous step and name it. Click Save, and then click OK in the confirmation dialog.
16. Click the Open link under the file attachment control. This will open the Catalog view of your form.
17. Click + Add Document to create a new forms. For the purposes of this example, create various documents with different values in the field1 node. When you return to the Catalog view, you will see each document’s status listed, as shown below.

Additional notes

Property Promotion works for both qForm and Admin Plus mode but not for the Admin mode.
There are some DBXL issues handling non-string data types. This can be remedied by editing the manifest.xsf file manually and changing the type to xsd:string.
In some cases, InfoPath won’t let you promote some properties via UI such as base64 fields. However, it can be done manually by editing the corresponding fields in the XSF.
If you are promoting a default promoted property, such as Status or Assigned To Name, you do not need to complete the first two sections of the above tutorial (i.e. skip steps 1 through 9 in Promote the field you wish to expose and Extract the source files for your qForm sections).

How to Create Nodes in Taxonomy

ErnestoM — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 01:35:16 GMT

DBXL allows you to tag your qForm-based solution with a set of category filters. You can create and manage these category filters by using the Taxonomy Tree feature in DAT. This document will show you how to create category filters or nodes in taxonomy.

Create a Node in Taxonomy

After saving a Document Type in DAT, follow these steps:

1. In DAT, click the Taxonomy Tree tab.

Taxonomy tab is displayed and you will see a text field that will allow you to add a node:

2. Enter the category name that you wish to create as a filter in qForm. You will notice that a Save button and Cancel button will now be displayed:

3. Click on the Save button. The category name you just entered is now saved as a node in Taxonomy Tree. In this example, Company Size is saved as node.

Note that qForm has two reserved names for taxonomy. This means the user will not be able to create categories at the root level called “All Users" and "TemplateState”.

Add a Subnode in Taxonomy

4. To add a subnode, just click on the + (plus sign) icon of the root note you added in Step 3. Another field below the root node will be displayed.

5. Enter a name for the subnode.

6. Click Save. Your subnode is now added.

7. You may continue adding more subnodes as desired.

Verify taxonomy in the Catalog View of qForm

1. Go back to Catalog by clicking the Catalog button in the header.

2. For your qForm-based solution, click the corresponding Open link.

3. Check the Category Filter in the taskpane. This section should now have the category filters you just created above.

Verify your Category Filters in qForm

1. Add two documents by using the + Add Document button in the Catalog view. Before saving each document, tag them using the taxonomy you created.

2. Return to the Catalog view and set the desired filter settings by checking the nodes under Category Filter in the taskpane.

3. After choosing the filter you desired, click the Apply button. The catalog will display the documents according to your filter settings.

Adding Taxonomy to Admin solutions

Note that if you wish to add taxonomy (category filters) to an Admin solution, you will need to add the Taxonomy tree to the Target (Original) Document Type, and NOT the Admin Document Type.

How To Setup Default Sorting and Grouping in qForm

ErnestoM — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 22:46:37 GMT

Setting up a qForm-based solution to perform default grouping and sorting is very simple. There are only two files that need to be updated in the qForm source and the result is a Catalog view organized according to your preferences. For the purposes of this document, we will assume that the file being edited is the original QdCatalogBase.xsn form included in the DBXL v2.2 installation.

Extract the source files for your qForm

1. Navigate to C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\QdabraWebService\install and right-click on QdCatalogBase.xsn. Select Design.
2. Select File > Save As Source Files, and select an output directory for the source files.
3. Close InfoPath.
Update QdTaskPaneData.xml
4. Open the file QdTaskPaneData.xml in a text editor such as Notepad.
5. Locate the TaskPaneData/View/OrderTab node. By default, the node’s contents are as follows:

<OrderTab>
<OrderOptions>
  <Option value="">tp_select</Option>
  <Option value="@my:name">tp_sort_option_name</Option>
  <Option value="@my:author">tp_sort_option_author</Option>
  <Option value="@my:description">tp_sort_option_description</Option>
</OrderOptions>
<SortBy1 isAscending="1"></SortBy1>
<SortBy2 isAscending="1"></SortBy2>
<SortBy3 isAscending="1"></SortBy3>
<GroupBy1></GroupBy1>
<GroupBy2></GroupBy2>
<GroupBy3></GroupBy3>
</OrderTab>

6. Add a line to the OrderOptions node. For example, we will add the following line to the OrderOptions node, which will add the document Status as an option in the sorting and grouping dropdowns.

<Option value="@my:status">Status</Option>

7. Add this value to the <SortBy1> or <GroupBy1>. This will establish the default sorting or grouping when the qForm is opened. Make these two modifications, below, which will result in the documents being sorted by Status and grouped by Author.

<SortBy1 isAscending="1">@my:status</SortBy1>

<GroupBy1>@my:author</GroupBy1>

8. Save and close the file.

Generate and test the modified qForm

9. Right click on manifest.xsf and select Design.
10. Select File > Save As and select a directory and name for the updated form.
11. In DAT, click on New Configuration. Attach the xsn file saved in the previous step and name it qFormSample. Click Save, then click OK in the confirmation dialog.
12. Click the Open link under the file attachment control. This will open the Catalog view of your form.
13. Click + Add Document to create a new forms. Note: Documents need to be assigned via the qForm taskpane in order for status assignments to work. For the purposes of this example, we create four document with the following values:

Result: The documents will be grouped by author and, within the Author groups, sorted by Status.

How to create a qForm-based solution

ErnestoM — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:19:10 GMT

A qForm-based solution will have catalog and search functionality not available in non-qForm solutions. While the Qdabra Upgrade Tool allows you to add functionality to your existing solutions, it is also possible to create new qForm-based solutions from scratch. This document aims to explain the following scenarios:

1. How to use the Upgrade Tool to upgrade an existing solution.
2. How to create a qForm solution from scratch.
3. How to use the Upgrade Tool to create an Admin solution.
4. How to use the Upgrade Tool to create an Admin Plus solution.

Upgrading an existing solution
Having designed a form in InfoPath, you can use these steps below to upgrade your form, turning it into a qForm to gain additional functionality in DBXL.

Running the Upgrade Tool

1. Open the Qdabra Upgrade Tool.

a. A link to the form was installed during the installation of the DBXL Tools. Find it in Start > All Programs > DBXL Tools > QdUpgradeForm. The Qdabra Upgrade Tool will open in InfoPath.

2. Fill out the Upgrade form fields and upgrade the form.

a. Click the button on the right-hand side of the Input Template Form field to browse your local drive and select your InfoPath form.
b. Click the button on the right-hand side of the CatBase Form field to browse your local drive and select the QdCatalogBase.xsn form. This is installed with DBXL, in the following path: C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\QdabraWebService\install\.
c. Click the button on the right-hand side of the Output File field to browse your local drive and select the path and name for the output InfoPath form.
d. Click on the Upgrade button.

Figure 1: Fill out the Upgrade form fields

Verify the upgrade was successful

3. Open the form in Design mode in InfoPath

a. Right-click on the Output File and select Design. The form will open in InfoPath in design mode. This is the first step in verifying the upgrade was successful.

Note: You should remove any Submit buttons in the main view. Because the taskpane has a Save button that submits to DBXL, you do not need a Submit button if you are submitting strictly to DBXL.

b. Save and close InfoPath.

4. In the Database Accelerator Administration Tool (DAT), create and open a new configuration.

a. Click on New Configuration.
b. Enter a Name for the configuration, such as SampleQForm, and attach the upgraded form.
c. Click on Save, then OK when the dialog confirms this action.
d. Click on the Open link.

5. Fill out a sample form

a. Click on + Add Document.
b. Complete the form, filling out all required fields.
c. Click on the Save button in the right hand task pane.

Figure 2

Notes:

• Due to the fact that upgrading modifies the form’s data source, you will need to do one of the following when upgrading a currently existing form into qForm:

o Create a new docType in DBXL and add the mappings from scratch
o Manually update the docType's mapping.

• In case a new version of QdCatalogBase is released, you can use the upgrade tool to update an existing qForm solution.

Create a qForm solution from scratch

You can create a qForm-based solution from scratch, that is, by opening the QdCatalogBase form in design mode and modifying it as desired.

To open the QdCatalogBase form, open the default.htm URL installed with DBXL and click on the qForm link. The URL is located at http://<servername>/QdabraWebService/default.htm.

Figure 3

Create an Admin solution

In this scenario you will design a qForm to manage your existing form. However, form created will not be able to edit the individual documents. There will be two Document Types (or configurations) in the system: the "target" Document Type, which is not qForm-based, and the almost-unchanged qForm that serves as the catalog for the former.

1. Use the Qdabra Upgrade Tool, as explained previously in this document, to upgrade your InfoPath form.
2. Extract the form’s files and edit QdConfig.xml file by setting the target DocType and setting CatalogMode to "Catalog".

a. Right-click on the output (upgraded) form and click on Design.
b. Click on File > Save As Source Files and select a directory to store the source files.
c. Navigate to the folder created in the previous step and open the file called QdConfig.xml in the text editor of your choice, such as Notepad.
d. Find the node Config/Logic/DocType and set its value to SampleForm, which is the name of your original (or “target”) form.
e. Find the node Config/Logic/CatalogMode and set its value to Catalog. Save and close QdConfig.xml
f. Right-click on manifest.xsn and select Design. Select File > Save As, select a location and save the file as SampleFormAdmin. Close InfoPath.

3. Create the Document Types in DBXL.

a. In the DAT, click on New Configuration.
b. Attach the original, InfoPath form.
c. Enter the form’s name, in this case SampleForm.
d. Click Save, then OK when the dialog confirms the action.
e. Click on Catalog to return to the list of Document Types.
f. Click on New Configuration.
g. Attach the upgraded, Admin form.
h. Enter a descriptive name, such as SampleFormAdmin.
i. Click Save, then OK when the dialog confirms the action.
j. Click on Catalog to return to the list of Document Types.

4. Test your solution.

a. Click to Open the document type SampleForm.
b. Fill out the form and submit it.
c. Return to the DAT and click on Refresh. You will see that SampleForm is now listed as having one document, as seen in Figure 4.
d. Click to open the document type SampleFormAdmin. You will see a Catalog view of the documents, where currently only one is listed.

Figure 4

e. Click on + Add Document. A new window will open; this is the original form created in InfoPath, that is, SampleForm. Fill out the form and submit it.

i. If you click on the View icon, you will see a link through which you can open the original form.
ii. If you click on the Edit icon, SampleForm will open, allowing you to update form and submit it.

f. Back in the Catalog view, click Reset in the task pane. When the Catalog refreshes, you will see two documents.
g. Close the form and click Refresh in the DAT. SampleForm is now listed as having two documents. SampleFormAdmin is still listed as having 0 documents.

Create an Admin Plus solution

The Admin Plus solution is more advanced than Admin mode, because it also allows the user to edit the documents belonging to the target (or original) Document Type.

The steps to achieve this will be identical to those detailed above for the Admin solution, noting the following differences:

1. You will set the CatalogMode node to "Full" instead of “Catalog”.
2. To avoid confusion, name your form SampleFormAdminPlus instead of SampleFormAdmin.
3. Even though the documents submitted will still be saved under the target Document Type, you will be able to create new documents from the Admin Plus document type itself. That is, when you click + Add Document you’ll be able to submit the document without seeing the target document type open in a separate window.