InfoPath Dev

The scenario:  Our users normally work off-site and “disconnected”. They will open a client-only InfoPath Form. It is a time-log form, of sorts.

When they have filled in the form, they will queue it in Outlook’s Outbox to be sent to their supervisor during some future connection to the main office (usually a matter of a few days). They will do this via InfoPath’s Menus:

File -> Send to Email Recipient

Within Outlook’s framework the user supplies the Addressee “To” line. During this phase of the process the user conveniently has Outlook’s Global Address Book available via the “To” button.

Supervisors eventually collect the emailed forms and ultimately work with them offline.

The problem: “Send to Email Recipient” spawns an Outlook session where the user supplies information for “To:”, “CC:”, “Subject:”, and “Introduction:”, as needed. I want to pre-populate the “Subject:” and “Introduction:” lines with data from the form. I have found no way to intercept that menu command – “Send to Email Recipient” fires no “event” for InfoPath to intercept. Once Outlook starts, InfoPath is no longer the controlling process. I need but can find no programmatic control over these Outlook items within InfoPath.

I have investigated the Submit Options extensively and have not found the solution there, either. The Submit Option requires a valid “To” address be supplied essentially at form design time, or be fabricated from information within the Form itself. Outlook’s Address Book is not available to InfoPath. The Submit Options would be ideal except the resulting run-time dialog is read-only and cannot be altered (probably, again, because Outlook’s address book is not available to InfoPath.)

My environment: IP2007, VSTA, VB. It’s important to know that SharePoint is not part of this equation. All work must be accomplished off-line except for the occasional e-mail contact.

I am beginning to think this particular problem has no solution in the way I hope. Perhaps setting up a local database populated with email addresses via a web service… the local database could then be a secondary data source for the form. What would anyone advise at this point, if anything?

Hi Tom,

Two things come to mind ...

1. Use Active Directory Web Service (like you hint in the last paragraph) and populate a field in the form. Then, an Email Submit adapter will do the trick.
2. Use the Outlook Contact ActiveX control to select the user. This will require that all users install the ActiveX control, but it works with IP2007

Have you looked at hte following blog: http://www.infopathdev.com/blogs/mel_balsamo/archive/2009/05/19/using-e-mail-forms-to-communicate-with-external-users.aspx ?

Happy trails!

Hi Patrick --

Please tell me, how may I thank you? Perhaps I can talk to your boss to see if I can get you a big raise?

I've been struggling with this issue for a couple of weeks now, only to wind up totally frustrated. Your response got me searching additional paths. I googled "Outlook Contact ActiveX Control" (I didn't know there was such a control) and within a very few moments found this site:

http://blogs.msdn.com/infopath/archive/2007/02/28/using-the-contact-selector-control.aspx

This one page provides the exact solution I needed with easy to read step-by-step instructions (including pictures!). The value collected in the ActiveX control can be "captured" in an Infopath text box, then provided to the Submit Option "To:" line via the Fx drop-down. The perfect solution to my issue. And it's all completed within 24 hours of my original post!

Regards, and Thank You Again..

...Tom

Doh, I use the contact selector all the time but did not know it would meet your offline requirements.  I will have to test that myself.

It meets my requirements in the following way:

User's must fill-in the form (a time-card-like application) and send it to their supervisor. For this they MUST be on-line. The contact selector does not work off-line, but that's ok for my needs. So -- user fills in the form, perhaps saves it, and calls it up later when on-line to fill in the contact addressee and send it on.

Supervisor's scenario: log on say once every week and collect everyone's form, the process them at leisure while off-line.

The problem was: my supervisor wants specific text in the subject line. The only way I could figure out how to stuff data into the subject line was by using the Submit Option block, which also requires the addressee to be filled-in (essentially at design time). At run time, I can't rely on users to always know exactly who they will send the form to (substitute supervisors or perhaps timekeepers, for example), so they won't always know the EXACT addressee text. Ergo, I needed a way to resolve an addressee at run time. The contact selector allows for this. And this means I can use the Submit Option as desired to stuff my supervisor's required text into the subject line.

Regards,

Tom