InfoPath Dev

Sorry if this has been asked many times... 

I have a scenario where we have a large static XML files (say 50MB - so not crazy big) and much of it is repeating nodes with 20 or 30 elements.

Ideally I would like a tool half way between access/excel.  Something that can treat the data like a search/edit/add new 'row', but also allow the flexibility of excel (And I guess access) to do logical semantic validation of changes.

Finally, I need to output it back in the same format.

Am I looking at the right or wrong tool?  My gut feel is that this is the wrong tool, but I really want to be incorrect. :)

 Joe

Hi Joe,

InfoPath can handle large XML files but can it handle yours? Easy to find out. Just start InfoPath Designer and create a form from an existing XML. Specify the XML of your file and see if the Designer can load it. If it can, drag and drop the data source into the view. Go to Preview in the Designer and specify the XML file that you want to edit. If it loads and allows you to edit. Try to File->SaveAs it back to a different location. If that works, publish the InfoPath form template locally or to your server. You may have to use the PI Edit tool (or manually modify) your existing XML file to tell Windows that InfoPath can open it - involves just adding a PI to the top of the file. I'd say you can figure this out in <10 minutes.

InfoPath will support semantic validation and it will save the XML in the same format. The key question though is whether it can handle your XML's schema. InfoPath does a good job on 99% of the schemas out there, so my guess is that it will work. If you have a formal XML Schema Definition for your XML, that would be better (select to design a form from that instead of the XML) since inferring the schema from the XML does not always result in the schema that you want.

Hope this helps,

Thanks! I'll check it out.  Most of the docs that describe it sort of show scenarios about pushing form instances up to a server - which makes sense.  So I wasn't sure this was a scenario the product targetted.

 Joe