InfoPath Dev

Hi all,

Like many people, I've discovered the built-in surveys in Sharepoint / MOSS 2007 aren't that great. So I'm thinking of using Infopath 2007 w/ Form Services to build a survey. However I'm trying to figure out a way to restrict users to submitting only 1 entry. I also need to allow users to modify his existing entry.

Is there a way to configure a form such that when a user clicks "New" in the form library, the form will first check if there's an existing item / entry submitted by that person, and then load that specific entry (instead of creating a new one)? I'm open to any suggestions.

Yes, the builtin Surveys in MOSS (2007 & 2010) aren't really that great.  It's better in 2010 because you can use InfoPath to customize the survey (which is actually pretty nice) but in the end most surveys are too complex for the cookie cutter approach with the built in surveys.

In InfoPath you should be able to query the entire library and if the current user = a "created by" user then throw a message and keep them from saving the form.

However, you should also be sure to have a nice little web part that is filtered for "created by [me]" which would then show the user their survey when they got to the SharePoint site.  If there is no survey they click on new, if there is a survey already they would see it in their web part. 

Hope that helps

Ted

Ted Fitch:

In InfoPath you should be able to query the entire library and if the current user = a "created by" user then throw a message and keep them from saving the form.

Sounds like that a good idea. However, I still would prefer the option of building the form such that if the user clicks "New" when there's an existing survey record for him, the form loads that record and then overwrites any changes. Would that be feasible?

On load, just query a SharePoint list for the user's name. If a record exists, switch the user to a view saying "Hey, looks like you have an existing survey, click the button below to open it.". Add a button with a rule to open the form that is their data and close the existing form.

The only thing tricky about this is the initial query. You could use Qdabra's qRules to query SharePoint ala FilterOWSSVR (no code needed and pretty simple to do), or you could write some code yourself.

Patrick Halstead:

On load, just query a SharePoint list for the user's name. If a record exists, switch the user to a view saying "Hey, looks like you have an existing survey, click the button below to open it.". Add a button with a rule to open the form that is their data and close the existing form.

The only thing tricky about this is the initial query. You could use Qdabra's qRules to query SharePoint ala FilterOWSSVR (no code needed and pretty simple to do), or you could write some code yourself.

I looked at the available actions for rules and saw the one "Open a new form to fill out", but there's a message saying "This action is not supported  by InfoPath Form Services". If that was the route you were suggesting, doesn't look like it will work.Or did you have something else in mind?

hi Ted Fitch,

How can we customize the suvey form in SharePoint2010 & Infopath 2010. I have created a survey list in SharePoint, but when I create IP SharePoint List form, and I point to the site where I've create the survey list, the survey list dens't appear under the sharepoint existing list.

Please help..

Wen