InfoPath Dev

Hi Everyone,

I am currently working on a SharePoint 2010 project that has an InfoPath Form and Workflow component. Never having the need to get involed with InfoPath before, I find myself in the position where I need some pointers in the right direction.

The company that I am working for at the moment is a large seafood distributor. Each of the resellers (small seafood shops) make orders for various types of seafood.
I have been able to set the form up so that it collects the customer details through a combination of textboxes and similar controls. I am using a repeating table that allows x number of products to be ordered. There are calculations performed that work out product line total and grand totals based on quantity and item price.

This form also contains an input area for the location from which the stock will come from. However this information is not to be supplied by the person who fills out the form, but by another employee instead, After this, the completed form is then submitted for approval by regional managers.

Firstly, is it possible to pass this form onto another user through a workflow getting them to fill out only a given section?
Secondly, can I lock down some of these controls when it gets to the second user preventing them from changing the original order information?
Lastly, through this workflow can I write information back to the form?

I am extremely new to InfoPath so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Hi -

Is the form to be used in InfoPath filler? Or is it a browser form?

If you are using it in Filler, you may want to explore User Roles in InfoPath - you could base conditional formatting (or the view that opens) on the user role.

You could also use a status field of some kind to indicate the form state - the field doesn't have to be on the form at all, but could default to New, get set to Submitted on the first submit, set to Complete after the location info is entered, etc. Then your conditional formatting could be based on status - if equal to submitted, make some fields read only (or change to a view that uses calculated values, whatever works for your scenario) to lock things down. Once equal to Complete - lock other stuff down.

I do not know for sure, but I would think if your form had some promoted properties that were editable in the library, you'd be able to set those field values via workflow.

Hope this helps a bit - or at least gives you some terms & ideas to explore.

Hi Hilary,

Thank you so much for the very quick reply. =)

The form is to be a browser form. Your solution sounds good and it does make total sense. I am relieved to know that it can be done.

Do you know of any good tutorials or blogs that illustrate this?

What workflow task would I use to pass the form onto the next person for location values?

Would an OnLoad event in the form be used to check the status field to determine what view or what controls are editable?

Thank you very very much in advance.

You can simply use loading rules to check the value of a field, if you go that route, no need to write code.

As to passing the form on - so much of that just depends on your business logic. Maybe your users who are supposed to fill out the location values set alerts on the library for new forms - or have a view that just shows submitted forms - there are so many ways to do this. Your workflow could email them based on the form status, etc.

Here's a link to some Office Online info - there is quite a lot of info there - it may not all be for the version of IP you are using, but should get you pointed in the right direction.

Awesome, I understand exactly what is needed now.
Again, thank you very much for your assistance and material direction you provided.

I will definitely be returning here if I run into any hurdles in the future.