InfoPath Dev

I'm still confused on how the xml file is being updated. Below is the new hire form workflow.

H/R initiates the new hire form. Email the form to the hiring mgr as an attachment using the new employee name as the attachment name. I have added a rule to close the form so it prompts the user wants to save the form. If the user save the form using the the same attachment name to a network folder, how then can the hiring mgr update the master xml when he open his email attachment to fill out since there's no linked to the saved xml. This is really confusing me.

Next in the process is the hiring mgr fills out the new hire requirements and emails the filled-out form to different departments. Now, each department fill out their responsible section on the form and email it back to the hiring mgr saying that their task is complete.

How can H/R print the completed form when the saved file was not being updated? Do we need Sharepoint for this?

In this case you are using form-based email workflow. There isn't a codeless way to automatically save the file to a shared location and then send the next recipient just a pointer to that file.

The reason why InfoPath asks to save the file after that submit is that is to be sure the user is notified that they haven't saved their own copy of the form.

Essentially, you should ignore the save version and only be working with the version sent around in email. Your HR person needs to be the last person on the email workflow chain to get that final copy.

If you have SharePoint you could save the file there but still the email from InfoPath will send a copy of the file.

In Office SharePoint 2007 they provide out=of-the-box workflows for exactly what you're trying to do (routing, email notification, etc). That would solve your problem without having to write code, but of course you'd have to buy that product.

Again, you could write code to work around the issue partially, but it still requires telling InfoPath where you saved the file before sending the email so the email can contain that path.