InfoPath Dev

 Hi,

I'm really new to infoPath 2003 and I have IIS and the necessary .NET Framework isntalled, but I can't figure out what I have to do to enable form submittal to the web service.  It says I need to enter the location of the web service to do so.  What is/where can I find the location?  What do I need to set up in IIS to be able to do this?  I know absolutely nothing about IIS.  I've looked elsewhere but can't find anything.

You don't have to do anything with IIS.  The web service must be built first and then available from an active website that has been created in IIS.  IIS isn't where you do anything, though.  If you don't know how to buid websites and web services (using something like Visual Studio), then you're not going down the right path.  If you're referring to an existing web service being exposed by an existing website, then you of course have to give the path to that web service.

What is the web service you're trying to use?

 Ok, I need to build a web service.  Thank you.  I'm downloading visual studio now and will attempt to follow tutorials to set one up.

I'm not certain that is the best route to take.  Do you mind sharing what your actual goal is?  Becoming a developer overnight to write web services without knowing one thing about IIS does not seem an efficient path.  Do you know what web services do?  Do you have a database that this web service is going to point to?

 My actual goal is to create electronic forms for another company and enable form submission to a web service hosted on IIS so the company's employees can fill the forms and it will be collected in a database.

But you're doing that without any knowledge of web services, IIS, InfoPath, or .NET development really?  Do you have access to this database now?  Do you understand its schema and how to write a web service that properly retrieves and submits data to/from that database?  Do you know how to properly pass credentials?  These aren't necessarily my questions to you but questions to ask yourself or whoever it is that assigned you a task of building a custom, complex solution for a client without knowledge of the products required to make it work.

You mentioned you were "downloading VS now."  You don't already have and use it regularly for other development?  It's not just a random tool you download.  It's expensive and is very powerful but only used by people who write code for a living.  Does your company just have floating licenses out there that allow anyone to get it whenever they want?

For the record, IP2003 definitely can be used to accomplish your goal and using a web service to submit/retrieve data to/from a database is definitely a best practice.  IP03 is about to be 2 versions old, though, so be wary of that.  You need to make sure you know the database type, too.  Is it SQL, Oracle, or something else?  Do you have rights to modify the data within it?