Prerequisites: To create an MSI in Office 2003, the SDK needs to be installed.
There are a lot of times when we want someone not logged into the domain to be able to edit a form which needs to be submitted to SharePoint. This can be solved in the following manner. Let's say that "User A" is a person who works inside the domain and therefore has access to submit to SharePoint and "User B" is a person who is working outside of the domain. The steps would be:
- User A will create an MSI of the solution.
- Creating an MSI on Office 2003 machine (Needs SDK installed – see above).
- The SDK contains a tool called regform.exe that creates an MSI.
- For help on command used to create the MSI, the InfoPathDev Regform Command Line Generator Form can be used. See picture below for details on the form:
Figure 1. The InfoPathDev Regform Command Line Generator Form
- Once all details are entered, click on Build to generate the command that needs to be run to create the MSI.
- Creating MSI on Office 2007 machine.
- There is an option in the Publish Wizard (available when File -> Publish is clicked) called As An Installable Form Template which will create the MSI.
- User A will then install this MSI on their machine.
- Then User A will open the installed the installed form in design mode.
- In the InfoPath window, they will then go to Tools -> Form Options.
- In the form Options window, go to the Security tab and uncheck the Automatically determine security level based on form's design (recommended).
- Then select the Restricted radio button and click on OK.
- User A will then click on File -> Send form as attachment and send this form as an attachment to User B. Please note that this will require Outlook or Outlook Express to be set up on the machine.
- User B will then save the XSN sent and open it on their machine. Please note this is important, as it will put this solution in InfoPath cache of this machine. This step will have to be done on all machines that User B wants to use to edit the InfoPath XML files.
- Now both User A and User B can edit the same XML files. When User A wants to send a file over to User B, they will send it via email.
- User B can then open the XML file directly. If the InfoPath cache for some reason was cleared or if this specific solution was removed, User B will get an error and can get past that error by doing Step 8 again.
- User B will make any edits that they want and send the file back in email top User A.
- User A can now open the file and submit it to SharePoint.