InfoPath Dev

We are currently working on a form that will handle the approval process.  Basically, employee enters their ID and it self populates with information for that user (currently pulling this from SQL, but would like to pull from Windows Active Directory).  But, at the bottom we wanted a pull-down menu that will show the manager by default.  But, if the manager is out on leave, we want the ability for the user to select from the drop down list an alternate manager for approval.

1. How can we setup so we can query and filter out information from Active Directory (besides going through the Sharepiont Web Servcies)?

2. How can we create a dynamic drop-down list from active directory basing it on the employee id?

 Any pointers would be appreciated (web links, etc).

Thank you in advance...

Hi Davidy,

1. You can also use our Active Directory Web service (ADWS) to do this. Use the employee alias and filter out the information that you want using rules to set values in your form from the secondary data soruce using filters. See Task 4 in our Getting Started Tutorial (http://www.infopathdev.com/files/folders/installation_and_setup/entry29943.aspx).

2. For dynamic drop-down list, do you want to show more than one employee in the list, or do you want to allow people to type in an id or alias to get the employee information? Our ADWS supports querying by alias but not by id.

For IP2007, you can use the Contact Selector control. Here's a link with some initial info from "Bleak": http://www.infopathdev.com/forums/p/8156/31274.aspx#31274. Search for InfoPath Contact Selector from Google for more info.

Hope this helps!