InfoPath Dev

I've been using this SharePoint web service in my forms to pull active directory info.  Just recently I've started finding that the service is returning outdated data in some cases.  I have a few different corporate SharePoint servers I can use and I'm finding that some seem current while others don't.

Does anyone have any knowledge about how this web service pulls data from active directory?  I know this is probably better asked on a SharePoint forum, but I thought I'd ask here first.

 -Greg

I think that service actually pulls from the SharePoint user profiles (which are imported from AD). You can configure how often the user profiles are updated in the SSP under "User Profiles and Properties"

Yes, the UserProfileService is exactly what it is named - it pulls data from the User Profile Database in SharePoint.  SharePoint populates this database through import connections to AD or whatever other user store you have.  The User Profiles are only as current as the schedule that keeps them updated.  One would assume that this was set to run daily, if not on an hourly basis, but it must not have been set on a schedule in your environments.

Does "UserProfileService.asmx" works in WSS 3.0, if not is ther any alternative?

gmk51080:

Does "UserProfileService.asmx" works in WSS 3.0, if not is ther any alternative?

Only in MOSS, because it's part of the profile database, which is part of the SSP, which is only in MOSS.

warrtalon:

Only in MOSS, because it's part of the profile database, which is part of the SSP, which is only in MOSS.

 So what would be the alternative if i only have WSS3.0 ??

The Qdabra Active Directory Web Service, which does the same thing except that it connects directly to AD (not the profile database), can be used without SharePoint at all, and has more powerful features.  I believe it is quite cheap - you can get it here on this site, which is run by Qdabra.

 Since it seems there are no out of the box feature which will let me populate the list on AD users in Infopath as well as populate information about the current loggin user. And since you are suggesting to buy an application which will let us do this, i would like to ask if there are any available open source webservice or a piece of code which will help us implementing the feature witouht being obliged to buy the QDABRA software .

Thanks 

If there were such a thing, you don't think I would have suggested it?  I find the reply a bit contemptuous and ungrateful after all the time spent trying to help you.  You aren't obligated to do anything, and the ADWS only costs $299 or something.  That's extremely cheap for such great functionality, but I guess if you are using the free version of SharePoint and are trying to do advanced things with it, then I shouldn't be surprised yah?

If you can write the code yourself for less than the cost of $299, then go for it.  For me, that's only 2 hours of my time, so you better be really good.  I know you've already spent more than 2 hours trying to figure this problem out, right?

To be clear, I am not associated with Qdabra or InfoPathDev.com.  I just spend my free time helping people for free, and I give all the free suggestions I can, but when it just can't be done, I propose some low-cost alternatives that I know of.  That's all there was to my suggestion here.

I know this is too late, but try the web service UserGroup.asmx, then select GetUserInfo. Andy Bonner had a blog about this, which is archived here:

http://cs.vbcity.com/blogs/skullcrusher/archive/2008/09/26/get-the-full-name-in-a-web-hosted-infopath-form.aspx

While Andy's blog details how to get the full name, you can see it should also be used to pull email. I haven't deployed this yet, still in the works. I too only have WSS for this client and really wish I could use the eazy-peazy UserProfileService!!!

Nice post. Thanks Rebecca. Never too late since the forum is searchable.

Sorry to bump this, but here is an updated link, to save someone from searching for it.

http://vbcity.com/blogs/skullcrusher/archive/2008/09/26/get-the-full-user-name-in-a-web-hosted-infopath-form.aspx

Rick, I don't think that's the right link.  That's a lot of code to do what can easily be done without code.  That article is using the wrong web method.  If you use GetUserProfileByname, then you can return the FirstName, LastName, PreferredName (full name) all without code.  This is the proper article for getting the current user's profile info (including full name):

 Get the current user without writing code.

This is the article for getting another user's profile info (other than the current user):

InfoPath – Get user information without writing code (extended)

The link you (warrtalon) provided is absolutly the better method (if you can use it.) Also, I'm probably going to use Qdabra to solve my particular problem, as you suggested, since it is way cheaper than MOSS.

But, it is worth noting that the method described in your link will not work for WSS 3.0 because the service isn't available. My intention was only to provide an updated link because the one Rebecca provided is dead. Please don't take that as an endorsement of doing it the hard way.

Ah, i see.  That article is all about getting it to work in a browser form, which requires MOSS Enterprise, so I didn't notice the differentiation.