InfoPath Dev

I have a problem with some users not being able to open InfoPath form.  Here’s the scenario. (I didn’t set this up and am new to InfoPath forms development).

We have an C# application that sends email notifications to managers to inform them of an employee’s review date.  An InfoPath review.xml file is attached to the email with the employees preliminary information.   The Reviews.xsn template file is stored in SharePoint library.

The manager can open this form, update it, rename it etc, and can also forward it to other managers who can do the same and return it to originating manager.  When the manager then forwards the final reviewEMPLOYEENAME.xml form to the employee for input, the employee can not open the form.  An error message “InfoPath cannot open the following file: <filepath here>.  The following form template for the form cannot be found: <filepath here>.”

We migrated our SharePoint server to a new server so I suspect there is some reference to old server somewhere. There are no data connections or special rules on the form itself.  Anyone know how I can make sure everyone who is supposed to view this form, can?

I noticed that one employee, when they tried to open their reviewEMPLOYEENAME.xml form, received the “cannot find” message, but when they clicked “OK” the form opened anyway but in other cases, the employee cannot open the form at all.

I solved this problem.

Solution: In the header of the .xml documents (I had two that were relevent),  within this tag: <?mso-infoPathSolution ....?> there is an href= attribute which points to the template.xsn filepath on SharePoint server.  These 2 files needed to be updated in both .xml files to reflect the correct server location in SharePoint.

 I always seem to solve my own problems.  Hopefully somebody will benefit from me documenting these problemos.

Does everyone have access to the SharePoint library where the form template is published?

Is this a browser form or client InfoPath?  If users don't have InfoPath client and they are trying to open the form it won't open, guessing that is not the issue but just checking.

The XML's that are being passed around will have a section at the top of the form called the "processing instructions" or "PI".  If you open up some of the XML's that users can't open in notepad you will be able to look within the PI section to figure out what template InfoPath is trying to load when the open the XML. The users will need read access to that location so that their local InfoPath can cache the template.

Maybe the C# app isn't creating the XML's correctly with the right PI?  Not sure exactly but there could be something going on there.

My support staff can help if needed, you can send me a private message via the fourms if you want more information.

Ted

I sent you a private message detailing the header info in the xml files.  I took your suggestion and opened the xml file that one user couldn't open (myself included) via notepad and the href= attribute was a location on another person's local computer instead of the server where the template resides.  There was no "PI" attribute in the header unless "PIVersion" is what you're talking about.I suppose passing the xml files through email could get them redirected to other like templates such that when they are renamed and reattached the original path to server is replaced?  Hmmm?

For the record, I never received a reply to my message.

Hi,

So sorry about not replying, I somehow missed the message!

I will take a look and reply to you later today.

Ted

I looked but can't find the private message.

Regarding what is going on I am not exactly sure.  I would suggest engaging our support team to have a look at your workflow, the form templates etc.  Maybe there is some going doing something in the forms you are not aware of?

You can purchase support credits on our website here: http://www.qdabra.com/webstore/products/7-support-pack.aspx

If you are interested in that type of support I can have someone help you out next week.

Ted