InfoPath Dev

I've installed OFS on a server using the single machine option and, as per best practices, created a separate SSP to host the Forms web application. In order to use UDCs, which I need for cross-domain data connections, I have to create a Data Connection Library (DCL). The problem is... only the original site that was set up automatically when I installed OFS will allow me to create a DCL. When I go to create a library for any other web application (such as the one I set up specifically to host IFS), the list of library types that I can choose from contains only: Document Library, Form Library, Picture Library, and sometimes Wiki Library. Only the default website lists Data Connection Library. Why is this? Is there something I can do to get the DCL option to show up in the list of libraries for other web applications?

Hi MylesRip and welcome to our forum,
I'm not sure - I haven't seen this before. Have you tried "converting" a regular Web service or SQL data connection into a UDC connection? Maybe pointing to a site and converting will automatically create one.

Thanks for the reply!

I recently tried to set up OFS and used it with some success talking to a SQL Server database with a simple form that had no code behind it. (I loaded it as an administrator, not a user, even though in that case, it wasn't necessary.) Then I created a more complex form in VS2005 that uses web services and has code behind it. It worked fine on my machine running it from within Visual Studio, but when I tried to deploy it to OFS, things got progressively worse. It eventually refused to run even in VS2005 on my own machine and I had to create a new project and move files over, one at a time, to get it working again. The error messages I was getting at that point were too vague to be helpful.

So... Figuring that I had probably messed up a few things in OFS because of all of my experiments, I completely uninstalled OFS and reinstalled it from scratch. I am now in the process of very carefully setting everything up, one step at a time. So far, I have done everything according to the deployment documentation for a standalone OFS setup. Unfortunately, the deployment documentation stops short of providing recommendations on the best way to organize your web applications within SSPs, etc.

At this point in redoing everything, I have not tried to deploy any forms to OFS. I'm just trying to set up the environment in preparation for deploying the form which uses web services and which will require a UDC. I created a new SSP and called it "Forms SSP". I set up a web application associated with this SSP and configured IFS support on it. I did not explicitly create a site or site collection within this web application because it created one automatically (/ssp/admin). This site does not show an option to create a DCL. I would not expect to need a UDC handy just to set up the initial DCL.

Sorry for the long post, but maybe something I included will tip you off to what I might have missed. Thanks again!

The original web application within the new SSP ("Forms SSP") that I created is identified as the "Administration site host". Since the automatically generated web application on the original, default SSP that is identified as the "Administration site host" also didn't allow for the creation of a DCL, but the other automatically generated site on that (original) SSP did allow it, I reasoned that each SSP must have a special "Administration site host" web application that has limited capabilities (no DCLs). So I tried creating a new web application. It showed up under the default SSP, so I transferred it to the "Forms SSP" and created a site collection (based on the "blank" template) within this new web application. Voila, it allows me to add a DCL!

Please let me know if my theory is wrong. If it's right, it sure would have been nice if the deployment documentation had mentioned something about the special limitations of Administration site host web applications.

I hope this information is useful to somebody out there!