InfoPath Dev

Hi All, 

I'm researching the feasibilty of InfoPath at the moment and just hoping you can answer a few questions. My main aim is to create a system that is as fully functional offline as it is online (I appreciate the data may not be up to date however) This is how I see the design of a system working but could do with confirmation that this will work....Your forum is really good and I've gleamed this info so far from it :-) 

InfoPath (2007) forms created in C# Development Environment.

Sharepoint created for the database lookups layer (e.g. datatable that InfoPath can read from to populate list boxes etc.), can I host local XML files containing data instead, is this even a good idea? I presume that at this point C# can load the sharepoint \ XML file data into datasets then I can perform queries using ADO.net's functionality. Sharepoint is hosted remotely, but I can create a local version for offline working (that'll be updated when I go online).

When complete, the forms are saved onto the computer in XML, at present I'm not sure how to get this data out, however I would expect you have to programatically create an import program? I will be linking to Oracle on the database side.

Am I missing anything?

Many thanks, Tim

Hi Tim

Good to see your thoughts on using InfoPath I can confirm first off that all you say is possible but not maybe in the way you thought.

I utilise local .xml files for standing data (this need not be SharePoint but any online resource) in my forms and it works a treat, bloats the form a little but speeds it up.  Refreshing the .XML from SharePoint would be a development question that I cannot help with but fundamentally i would see no issue with it.

Submitting the form wise I would suggest submitting to a web service (This provides other benefits as well as a direct link from Infopath to a Database introduces some limitations) so it just goes into holding until such time as the web service can be connected to, you could script an app that check if online then forwards the form.

So, in summary everything you say is perfectly possible and there even is some resource for planning offline submission here:-

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa944801(VS.80).aspx , addmitedly it is 2005 and you might have to update the references for the new DOM in 2007.

I hope this helps

Adam

Thanks Adam,

Hope you don't mind me clarifying...

I could forget about SharePoint as I only needed it to keep the data up to date. How do you keep the XML up to date, is there a custom program to download \ update this? Do you load your XML into ADO.Net? I ask as I would potentially want to load up a number of datasets and use the query tools in ADO to get information out.

The web service answer if very useful, however what do I do if I'm offline? Are these stored temporarily then sent as soon as you connect? I work with a system that would require a quote so they'd send the web form off, then connect back in the office and pick the data back up. This part is confusing me a little....

 Cheers, Tim

Anyone got any other input?

 Cheers, Tim