InfoPath Dev

I need to develop a solution in InfoPath (InfoPath Form Services 2007 browser based forms) that submits to a SQL server rather than SharePoint Forms Library. I have looked at a few of the tutorials / doco etc on this site but so far it doesnt look all that simple.

In a nutshell, I want to create an application that opens an InfoPath form in a browser, launched from a MOSS 2007 site, and submits a load of fields to a SQL table (At this stage no repeating fields are required). Can someone direct me to some clear and concise documentation that describes how to achieve this using DBXL or someother way (hopefully using some examples) and describes exactly what the minimum product I require to make this work.

Please note.. I have looked at some of the documentation on this site and it doesnt seem like something that would be as straight forward as I would expect, even using this DBXL product. The organisation I work for has an adversion to using / buying / installing 3rd party products, so I must put a very strong case forward for a particular solution before it will be approved. Therefore I need to see in black and white that I can easily achieve what I am trying to do before I will get the go ahead.

Thanks in advance

Chino.

Hi Chino,

If you're using the browser, you will need to either buy or create a Web Service since there's no way to do SQL submits out-of-the-box. DBXL has been around for 7 years and is used by hundreds of organizations. It's simple and gives you a one Web service for all of your forms. That means it saves you a lot of money and time since you can use it over and over again. It's loosely coupled which means that it supports standard service-oriented-architecture (SOA) models - and that's good because it lowers your maintenance costs down the road. You can change the schema and the submit process won't break. The mapping is in a data file so it's easy for an admin to change after hours and update all forms. The product is inexpensive - sold via a server license not CALs.  There's a great Getting Started guide that comes with the install. After installing the free trial you should be up and running in less than an hour.

Send me email if you want a quick demo or help. We developed the Web service to fill the gap since there's no way to do this out-of-box.

Hi Patrick,

I would love a quick demo... At this stage all I require is something that I can show / describe to my manager how the product works but, more importantly, how I will achieve this specific task using DBXL rather than getting our dot.net guys to build a web service for me. The key here is seeing exactly how to get a form to write to a sql table..

 Eample InfoPath 2007 Form (browser)  -

Name: Joe Blogs

Department: Information Services

Date: 08/16/2011

Description: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat

When someone clicks on Submit I would like the data captured above to be entered into a SQL table. Approximately 600 people will be using this system and entering data on a monthly basis. The database will grow quite large over time and therefore we feel it would be best to store it in SQL rather than a SharePoint forms library. We would also like to leverage SQL Reporting Services. 

Thanks heaps.

Chino.