InfoPath Dev

Hi,

I have two question for the guru of infopath on infopath functionnality that I misunderstand:

Why when you take an external XSD or XML for make your infopath form this schema is locked in design Mode? Why you can't move , add, change the type of one field (string to date for example)?

Is there anyway to disable this or he has a reason? Can you explain me why?

Other question why you can't give a schema when you link a webservice as secondary datasource why the schema is created by infopath and It's only based on one query of him? an example is not caracteristic of all the return of this Webservice! Ok you can manualy change this schema but it's not very useful!

I Hope you will understand and you can give me some answer !

Thanks a lot for all your help!

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Thierry

Every moment hesitated is a moment gone for life!!! Think about it

Hi Thierry,
You have asked some great questions. The schema editor in InfoPath was called CME (Content Model Editor) during V1 and SP1. The CME is limited in the kinds of schema it can edit. If you create a schema from within InfoPath it is marked as a CME schema. If you import a schema it is labeled as non-CME. Because CME can't edit everything it preserves the original imported schema. This is very important when you have a schema that you need to support from an external application. That is why CME refuses to edit those schemas in the same way as internally created schemas (which are by definition, CME compliant). This is explained in our book.

To edit an external schema, make sure it is extensible by adding xsd:any nodes at the bottom of sequences in the schema. A good example of external schemas that *are* editable in the CME are the schemas that ship in the Samples. These were all developed outside of CME but they are also extensible so you can add elements. When you add an element, CME creates a separate xsd file and imports the original. CME has limitations like my: namespace and not supporting references.

For web service derived schemas, they are fixed because if InfoPath allowed you to change them, they would not be valid for the web service and hence break the functionality. You'll need another layer of abstraction. Use an xsl internally (via code or merge forms functionality) to allow for an added mapping.

I hope this terse answer helps ...

Patrick Halstead [InfoPath MVP]
InfoPathDev

Hi Patrick,

Thanks for your explanation!

I understand now ! Sorry first time that I have read your book it was in english and I have not all chapter very good understand so now I have the french version and it's more explicit for me! But I think That I need to read one more time all your book!

What I say about webservice it that you can't give a schema of it you have to give an example value who not always represents all the possibility of the webservice return! You can manually change him by yours but sometimes that make an error! It's because Infopath doesn't support WSDL?

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Thierry

Every moment hesitated is a moment gone for life!!! Think about it

Hi Thierry,
Yes, InfoPath has a hard time with certain kinds of WSDL. Sorry I can't write more now.

Patrick Halstead [InfoPath MVP]
InfoPathDev

Hi Patrick,

That's not!

Thanks a lot for all your explanation!

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Thierry

Every moment hesitated is a moment gone for life!!! Think about it