InfoPath Dev

Hi Guys, Im sorry for bombarding with the questions this evening.. I am creating a form for my workplace, and it will have a number of workflows. The form will be an employee probation form which will be filled in initially by the manager, submitted to the employee for review and acceptance, sent to the divisional head for sign-off and then to both the employment services department for updating the employment confirmation date (in employee file) and also to the HR department for review & placing on the employees personnel file. I am still in very early stages of designing the form, and since this is my first form, I'm looking at all the things I may need.. I currently have this setup that it will submit to a sharepoint library, however I would like it to submit to the library AND email to the next stage in the workflow each time. I am concerned that if I submit to the forms library in sharepoint each time, that it will create a new record rather than updating the current.. Is it possible to update the current record rather than creating a new one? Also, can you advise how I create two workflow items - to submit & email to the next person in the list? Ta! Jami

As you mention, you will need SharePoint Workflow here. You do not want nor need multiple submits, nor do you need to email the entire form.  My first question is - will the users in the email process (the "next person in the list") need to edit the InfoPath form and put something in it, or are you just routing for let's say approval?  Also, SharePoint 2007 or SharePoint 2010?  InfoPath 2007 or InfoPath 2010?

You may wish to use an Out of the Box SharePoint Approval workflow, if the users in the list are usually the same or similar.  You would either manually kick it off for each InfoPath form, or kick it off upon creation of a new InfoPath form.

You may, instead, wish to use a SharePoint Designer workflow.  Gives you much more flexibility as to who to send the emails to (you can get an approver out of a SharePoint list for example, gets a little muddy, but can be done).  Designer workflows also allow you to change the email that gets sent rather than just stating that they have an approval task.

Sort of off topic, but a question you asked:  In general, if you want to update a current form and not create a new one, create your OWN Submit button.

• Create a field called FileName
• Create a Form Opening rule, setting that file name to some concatanation of fields and words - example:
  concat("Probation Form - ", userName(), " - ", now())
• Make sure when you set the File Name you use the Now function in part of the name to capture a date and time - making a pretty much unique file name (can anyone submit 2 different forms in the same second??  :-)
• Make sure that you have a CONDITION on setting the file name - only set the file name if it is Blank.  (That way, it sets it the very first time the file was opened and not again)
• Finally make a Submit Data connection, and use the FileName field as the name of the file.  Make sure you check the checkbox to enable overwriting of the form. 
• Use that Submit action in the Rules of the button that you place on the form.  Optional - close the form after submit.