InfoPath Dev

I am brand new to InfoPath and find a few items confusing. Can you tell me when and why you should use web services to handle data for the InfoPath form. I understand there is the ability to show an InfoPath form in a browser and I wondered if this is when you use web services to return and write data. When writing the code for InfoPath (working with web services), can it be done in VB.net Visual Studio? Thanks

hi, you can write code in vb.net, you just have to select the right languages on the option, but you don't need Visual Studio, when you make a full install of InfoPath it include VSTA who will provide the coding environment for InfoPath.

You use webservices with the Infopath wizard when you query a SharePoint list for instance you can do the same by code.

Thanks for your reply. Would that be the only time you use web services? Being used to VB.net I thought you could put everything through code, but I have seen people using web services to write to and return data and I wondered if there is a reason for this. What about sending InfoPath forms via email........would web services be suitable here also? Thanks

 

You can use web services for many different reasons, but the most common is probably when you need to query data based on a given parameter.  Infopath has a fairly good means of sending emails as it is, especially if you get the iLoveSharepoint addon at codeplex (http://www.codeplex.ccom/) for your sharepoint server.

 As a general rule, you want to use as little coding as possible because it can get REAL ugly when you try to upgrade or install an addon. If you're doing this at the professional level, your product typically won't get support from Microsoft PTR's/Engineers with custom code.

There's a pretty good tutorial here for setting up web services, I think it's just on the main page part way down. There's one heck of a learning curve before you really get a feel for InfoPath, but once you do, you'll realize it's way more capable than you thought.

 Good luck!

There does not seem to be a form load event as in other languages such as VBA or VB.net. I was trying to populate my combo and text boxes from a web service. I have several combo boxes and at first I thought I could set a data connection to a web service to get the data. Unsure if this is the correct way of doing things. From there I thought I could use a form load event to populate combo boxes from the same web service by referencing the web service as an object in code. Pls advise Thanks

 troy you should be able to create a data connection to the web service, then bind the value returned by that web service to a control (textbox, etc).

you can either do it with a rule that sets the value of a control or you can bind certain controls right to the data connection. The link I posted earlier explains how to use the rules to set the value.

Thanks for your reply. Are we saying then that we need to set a seperate data connection for each text box, combo box etc or can we set one and pick up the different methods within that one connection? Thanks