You may be familiar with SharePoint workflow, but have you added workflow to an InfoPath template? InfoPath workflow is easier to use because it's handled in InfoPath instead of requiring the user to complete certain actions in SharePoint.

Users can easily see the state of the form and you can add custom conditional viewing to switch views based on the user role (e.g. a private Comments section in a Manager's view).

During this lab, you will modify a Timesheet form template to pull user information from Active Directory, submit to SharePoint, and pass the SharePoint link in the notification email.

Retrieving the Users' Active Directory Information

If you go to Data > Data Connections, you'll see the pre-configured data connections that use Qdabra DBXL's Active Directory Web Service methods to retrieve the users' information.

And if you go to Data > Form Load, you will see a rule that populates the user info:

We're basically setting the fields in our form to the values retrieved from the Active Directory web service methods and using filters to specify which Key to use.

Add the Submit Data Connections

Start by modifying the starter template to add data connections that submit the form to SharePoint and through email.

1.       Open the Starter Template XSN (included in this lab) in InfoPath Designer.

2.       Save the template on your local machine by going to File > Save As and saving it with the name Timesheet.xsn

3.       Add the data connection to submit to your SharePoint library.

a.    Go to Data > Data Connections > Add > Create a new connection to submit data > To a document library on a SharePoint site

b.    Enter the name of your document library, such as http://training.qdabra.com/personal/<<username>>/

c.    For the File Name, click on the fx button and insert the formula:

If you click on the Verify Formula button, you should see the following:

d.    Click OK in the Insert Formula dialog.

e.    Check the box ‘Allow overwrite if the file exists'.

f.    Click Next, leave the default data connection name, and then click Finish.

4.       Add an email submit data connection.

a.    In the Data Connections dialog, click Add > Create a new connection to submit data > As an email message

b.    Click on the fx button next to the To field and select the emailto field which you'll find under the my:actions group in the main data source.

c.    Click on the fx button next to the Subject field and enter the formula:

concat("Time Card: ", tc:week/tc:weekOf, " - ", tc:employee/tc:name/tc:singleName, " has been ", my:actions/my:status, " by ", my:actions/my:modifiedby, ".")

If you click on the Verify Formula button, you should see the following:

d.    Click OK in the Insert Formula dialog and then click Next.

e.    Make sure that the option ‘Send only the active view of the form and no attachment' is selected.

f.    Click Next, leave the default data connection name, and then click Finish.

5.       Click Close to exit out of the Data Connections wizard.

Add the Rules that Trigger the workFlow

In the Employee (default) view, you'll see a Submit button. This button will have rules that will set the form fields' values that are being used in the workflow, such as who modified the form, whom is it assigned to after the form submits, which email address should it be sent to, etc. Same goes for the Approve and the Reject buttons which you'll find in the Manager view - they have rules that trigger the workflow.

Since the form also has a Form History section for tracking purposes, you may find other rules that set the history data. These have already been added in the form so we can concentrate on implementing the logic that is associated with the workflow.

Start by modifying the Submit button:

6.       In the Employee view, click on the Submit button.

7.       From the Home tab > Rules section, click Manage Rules to display the Rules taskpane.

You will see the following pre-configured rules:

8.       Add a rule that sets the metadata

a.    In the Rules taskpane, click New > Action.

b.    Name your rule ‘Set Metadata'.

c.    Move the rule up so that it's the third in the set, i.e. after the rule ‘Warn: Need Hours'.

d.    Set the modifiedby field:

i.    Click Add > Set a field's value.

ii.    For the field, select modifiedby under the my:actions group:

iii.    For the value, click on the fx button and select singlename under employee > name

You can also just enter the following XPath in the Insert Formula dialog: tc:employee/tc:name/tc:singleName

iv.    Click OK to close the dialogs.

e.    Set the assignedto field:

i.    Click Add > Set a field's value.

ii.    For the field, select assignedto under the my:actions group.

iii.    For the value, click on the fx button and select singlename under employee > name.

iv.    Click OK to close the dialogs.

f.    Set the emailto field:

i.    Click Add > Set a field's value.

ii.    For the field, select emailto under the my:actions group.

iii.    For the value, click on the fx button and select emailAddressPrimary under company > contact. You can also just enter the following XPath in the Insert Formula dialog: tc:company/tc:contact/tc:emailAddressPrimary

iv.    Click OK to close the dialogs.

g.    Set the status field:

i.    Click Add > Set a field's value.

ii.    For the field, select status under the my:actions group.

iii.    For the value, enter the text Submitted

iv.    Click OK.

h.    Set the notes field:

i.    Click Add > Set a field's value.

ii.    For the field, select notes under the my:actions group.

iii.    For the value, enter the text Submitted to Manager

iv.    Click OK.

You should now have the following Submit button rules that set the metadata:

9.       Add a rule that submits the form:

a.    Click New > Action.

b.    Name your rule ‘Submit' - this will be the last rule in the set.

c.    Submit to SharePoint:

i.    Click Add > Submit data.

ii.    Select your SharePoint Library submit data connection from the drop-down:

iii.    Click OK.

d.    Set the done field:

i.    Click Add > Set a field's value.

ii.    For the field, select done under the my:actions group.

iii.    For the value, enter 1

iv.    Click OK.

Notice the conditional formatting in the Submit button:

This means that we want the Submit button to be disabled if the value of the done field equals "1" which we set after the form submits to SharePoint. This will prevent users from clicking on the Submit button twice which may result to double-submits.

e.    Submit via email:

i.    Click Add > Submit data.

ii.    Select your email submit data connection from the drop-down.

iii.    Click OK.

f.    Close the form:

i.    Click Add > Close the form.

ii.    Uncheck the box ‘If changes have not been saved, prompt the user to save.

iii.    Click OK.

You should now have the following Submit button rules that submit the form:

Next, we will add rules in the Approve button:

10.    Go to the Page Design tab and switch to the Manager view.

11.    In the Manager view, click on the Approve button. You will see the following pre-configured rules:

12.    Add a rule that sets the metadata.

a.    In the Rules taskpane, click New > Action.

b.    Name your rule ‘Set Metadata'.

c.    Move the rule up so that it's the second in the set, i.e. after the rule ‘Warn: Need Notes'.

d.    Add the following actions:

13.    Add a rule that submits the form:

a.    Click New > Action.

b.    Name your rule ‘Submit' - this will be the last rule in the set.

c.    Add the following actions:

Finally, we'll add rules for the Reject button:

14.    In the Manager view, click on the Reject button.

15.    Add the same ‘Set Metadata' rule that runs after the ‘Warn:Need Notes' rule.

16.    Add the following actions:

17.    Add a Submit rule which is the last in the set, and then add the following actions:

18. Save your changes to your XSN.

Create the Form Link

We will add a hyperlink control that links to the form in SharePoint. The link will be included in the notification email so that users can click on it to open the form.

19.    In the Manager view, you'll see a small section at the bottom. Place your cursor below the label ‘Click here to open this time card:'

20.    Go to the Insert tab and click Hyperlink.

21.    In the Insert Hyperlink dialog, change the Link to and the Display options to Data Source.

22.    Insert the formula:

The formula is a concatenation of the form location in SharePoint, e.g. http://<YourSharePointSite>/<YourSharePointLibrary>/<FormFileName.xml>

Recall that we've set the form file name to this formula on SharePoint submit:

Publish the Template to your SharePoint Library

In order to access the form template and submit forms, you need to publish it to a location where users can access it from, such as a SharePoint form library.

23.    Go to File > Publish and then select SharePoint Server.

24.    Enter the URL to your SharePoint site.

25.    Leave the default to Form Library and then click Next.

26.    Select ‘Update existing form library' and select the SharePoint library you created earlier - that is, where you've set your forms to submit to.

27.    Click click Next twice, click Publish, and then click Close.

Test by submitting a new Timesheet form assigning it to your manager. Your manager will receive the form via email and will see a link where to access the form.

The manager will then open the form via the link and will decide whether to approve or reject. Approving goes to HR and rejecting goes back to the original submitter.