InfoPath Dev

InfoPath 2007 crippled the ability to allow direct Submits by limiting fields to 255 characters.  I have installed the Office 2010 beta, and now it looks like the Submit Option for Database has disappeared altogether.  You can submit using a Connection for Data Connection Library, which resides in SharePoint.  Can anyone confirm that this is the case?  I am trying to make a case for QDabra DBXML and it looks like our direct-to-SQL forms have no future.

Notarian, I will test this tonight to confirm. As for your direct-to-SQL forms, why are those not using web services to submit to SQL?

Hopefully, you will be able to make your case for DBXL, since it is a great tool.

If you create your form using an XML Schema (File->Design...->New from Blank) you can't submit directly to a DB. That's because the schema is XML and not based off SQL data types. Submitting directly to a DB after form creation was never an option in InfoPath.

If you create your form from a DB, you already have the submit data connection built in.

Best practice here is to submit to a Web Service as an XML string. Have the Web Service handle the mapping to SQL. Then, one Web Service can handle any form. This is the way Qdabra's Web Service Suite (DBXL) works. Free downloads and very inexpensive licenses will save you a lot of time and money.