InfoPath Dev

Hello

I recently put in a support question to MS due to me not being able to add a SOAP recieve data connection in InfoPath2010. the answer was very disapointing ,"It's not suppoted in SharePoint online!"

In my test enviroment at work (MOSS 2007) this worked fine and I could hide controls on the form based on the current users group membership. Perfect.

I was using  the following connections to recieve information from the current user viewing the form

_vti_bin/UserGroup.asmx

_vti_bin/UserProfileService.asmx

Now trying to recreate this in Office365 I find out its not supported :(

Does anyone have a workaround for this?,

I know there is a function Username() in InfoPath that I have used to display the current username on the form. But I need to retrieve the group membership also.

Thanks

 Geoff

JimiH:

I recently put in a support question to MS due to me not being able to add a SOAP recieve data connection in InfoPath2010. the answer was very disapointing ,"It's not suppoted in SharePoint online!"

In all plans?

And why do you need to do it specifically through Infopath?

Yes we have the Enterprise version and its disabled in all plans. The reason for selecting InfoPath was

I use forms a lot in my other Job using SharePoint 2007 MOSS. With this we can hide Individual controls

on the form etc. So we have one form with multiple tabs that we can hide depending on group membership.

i was hoping to create a "Customers" group and populate it with all the customer users i have. Then when

the customers login they only see certain information on the form. And also the data on the form is filtered

by the customer name.

This worked perfect in MOSS 2007.

Any Ideas?

regards

 Geoff

It is difficult for me to propose/check any practical advise since my dev machine is packed with enterprise Microsoft Sharepoint Sever 2010 + Infopath 2010 features. 

What could be the rationale that UserProfileService.asmx is not available in Sharepoint online? 

"People Picker" control is available in free Sharepoint Foundation 2010 
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg602066.aspx#section1

Also, from curiosity I created Infopath client form (in Infopath Designer 2010 backstage view: "File" --> New --> Blank Form (Infopath Filler)) in which I inserted "Person/Group Picker" control. 

AFAU, it should be free (since it is not "Web Browser Form" requiring enterprise "Infopath Forms Services")?
Well, and it picks up users and groups
I checked out with Fiidler2 Web Debugger, it is using: 
http://MySharePoint2010Server/_vti_bin/people.asmx

So, I searched for it and found: 
SharePoint webservices overview

Might be some of these webservices are still available and provide needed functionality? 

Ok here is the reply from MS about the services. By the way the overview link you posted includes the two services that I already cant access. --------------------------------------------------- Hello My name is Chad with Microsoft Online SharePoint Support, and I will be assisting you with this issue; I see you have been receiving error messages after trying to make a data connection from InfoPath connect to your SharePoint Online site? I have attempted this process through my own environment, and I am receiving the same results. After researching the issue further, I have found that the issue actually comes down to a Loopback Protection that prevents this task from being carried out successfully. In an On-Premises environment, the Loopback Protection can be disabled, and this allows InfoPath forms to make these types of Web Service connections to SharePoint sites. For security purposes, in the online version of SharePoint, Loopback Protection cannot be turned off. I am sorry to have to report this to you, Julie, but this is a known limitation of the SharePoint Online service. If this answers the question you had, please let me know. We can either move to close this ticket for you, or I would happy to answer any other questions you may have about this Service. I will watch for your response, and I will try to get back to you later today, or tomorrow. Thank you for submitting this issue to us, I look forward to hearing back from you. Have a great day! -------------------------------------------------------- I notice there is a function in InfoPath that returns the current users accessing the form username(). Maybe I could use this some way? Thanks Geoff

Wow, thanks,your feedback is informative as well as  time- and nerve-saving to know ahead

So, one should limitations "limitations" which "Loopback Security Check" is causing. 

Should one expect that this will break aslo:

1)
the seaching/crawling of content sources "Sharepoint Search Service" or "Sharepoint Server Search 14" in sharepoint also fail, since it needs access to read user's permissions (whom to show or not and which results), etc.?

• 1a)
  Search Indexing

 

2)
Any custom code using Sharepoint Web Services?

3)
Scheduled tasks (timer) jobs?

And probably one should expect issues requiring privileges of Administrators and Farm Adminsitrators? 
What else?

Though, isn't "loopback check" is a problem only on machines that are domain controllers simultaneously hosting IIS (and MS SQL Server)? Are all "online sharepoint" servers on domain controllers?

Another response from MS Hello Julie, This is Chad again with Microsoft. Thank you for the return information about how you’ve been hoping to implement this function. I have found, unfortunately, after discussing this with my technical leads, that there is not a current solution or workaround for this issue. As the issue remains the Loopback Protection physically prohibiting this feature from making the connection through InfoPath, there is not a method in place that is capable of circumventing that. I have been informed that there is a Design Change Request already submitted to the Product Group concerning this issue. If you like, Julie, I could certainly include you on this Design Change Request. If you are interested in being added to the Design Change Request already submitted, please let me know. I can either do so for you, or if you would like any additional information concerning the Design Change process, please let me know. I will watch for your response, and I will be in touch again on Monday. Thank you, and have a great day! So I guess they may switch it back on? Regards Geoff

You can get whatever data is provided by UserProfileService.asmx into your Infopath form fields by editing its webpage in browser to get data from built-in sharepoint web parts already in published webpage.

I cannot give you instructions for all possible contexts and needs.

Suppose ypu need to get the data from user profile of current user. 
Suppose you published your infopath form into library.

After clicking "Quick Publish" of your Infopath form in backstage of Infopath Designer 2010, click the link "Open the Sharepoint library in the browser",  there you click "Site Actions" --> "Edit Page" --> on design surface "click "Add a Web Part".

In "Categories" pane choose "Filters", in "Web Parts" pane choose "Current User Filter" , clicjk "Add" button

 You might want to choose properties of user different from default "domain\username" which to pass/get into Infopath form field  in "Select value to provide" drop-down-list of editing pane of "Current User Filter" web part , on the right-side, for example his: 

 

• Department, 
• Office Location, 
• Birthday
• Distinguished name
• Dotted-line-manager (whatever does it mean)
• First name
• Fax
• Hire Date
• Last Name
• Job Title
• Interests
• Manager
• Master account name
• Mobile phone
• Name
• Office
• Office Location
• Past projects
• Skilles
• Schools
• Web site
• Work e-mail
• Work phone
• etc. (I just re-wrote part of the choice list of current user)

.
Don't forget to clik OK on finishing at the bottom of editing pane of web part 

 

 In your Infopath Form Web Part click small-black-down-arrow --> Connections --> Get Filter Values From --> Current User Filter --> in the following pop-up dialog choose the field (you should have created/edite them in Infopath designer) from choices "Consumer Field name: "
 

That's all

If you look into other sharepoint built-in web parts you can find and get all what is provided by  UserProfileService.asmx and much more.

Thanks for the information, it looked like it was going to work until when I get to the popup to select the matching fields. I get an error from SP saying "The consumer webpart did not provide information about the schema". I thought maybe this was due to the previous problem so I added a list filter. Same message. Another support ticket I think. Very disapointing. Regards Geoff

Well managed to get it working :) Ended up creating a new list "Customers" which I entered the details of the customers, including the email which is the "User name" value in the getcurrentuserdetails webpart. So on the page loading the getcurrentuserdetails webpart passes the "User name" value to the second "Customers" list web part. The customer list is then filtered by the email value (User name value). This in turn passes the Company name to the Orders list webpart which dispays all the orders for that company. So for now it seems to be working. Thanks for all your help Geoff

JimiH:

Thanks for the information, it looked like it was going to work until when I get to the popup to select the matching fields. I get an error from SP saying "The consumer webpart did not provide information about the schema". I thought maybe this was due to the previous problem so I added a list filter. Same message. Another support ticket I think. Very disapointing. Regards Geoff

Can't you post (or send me through PM or Email) links to amy of these tickets?

They are only available through the portal you get when you subscribe to Office365. You have a section "My Tickets" which contains all the tickets you have raised. Regards Geoff

JimiH:

I get an error from SP saying "The consumer webpart did not provide information about the schema"

Oops, I just advised you from the book:

• Using Microsoft® InfoPath® 2010 with Microsoft® SharePoint® 2010 Step by Step
  
  By Darvish Shadravan, Laura Rogers
  Publisher: Microsoft Press
  Released: October 2011

Although, I followed all its instructions, but in a hurry without checking.

Now I rechecked all dozen times and had the same problem in my Sharepoint Server 2010 also.  
As well as I am in big depression how to get parameters into Infopath forms web parts.     

I submitted the description of problem to errata of 

 

• Errata for Using Microsoft® InfoPath® 2010 with Microsoft® SharePoint® 2010 Step by Step, 

 

see the one to page 229, 2nf parahraph/

Here is my report in more formatted and extended form:

The text states:

"17. With the page in Edit mode, in the upper-right corner of the Feedback Form, click the black drop-down arrow. On the flyout menu, select Connections | Get Data From | Current User Filter"

 

But upon selection of Connections there are only 2 available choices:

 

1. Get Parameters From
   
   This choice results in error,  compromizing any understanding of how passing of passing parameters/data to Infopath forms (web parts) can be realized at all: 
   "The consumer webpart did not provide information about the schema"
   
   
2. Get Filter Values From
   
   This is just a filter imposed on Department field of infopath form web part by the value received from "Current User Filter" web part.
   
   It does not fill any data but results in:
    "There are no items to show in this view of the "Form" document library. To add a new item, click "New" or "Upload".
   i.e. in disappearance of already existed entries

 

because there was no entry satisfying the received (?) value of user's department by which already existed entrys were filtered out.

So, even existing entries disappeared

 

And this filtering is impossible to remove!!!!!!!! or change the connection without deleting "Current User Filter" web part

 

Attempts to change connection back to "Get Filter Values From" result in:

 

 

"A Web Part can only be connected to another Web Part through one connection type.
Each connection can have only one connection type"

 

 

 

I tried to follow book's

• Chapter 8 Using the InfoPath Form Web Part

 dozens times strictly by the instructions of book's text and in various deviating variants, all in vain.

 

I wish I could understand how to use this - Infopath Form web part!!!!!

I agree, i tried the infopath form for two minutes then decided to just put in a list web part. With the connections going from the current user webpart to the customer list webpart then finally to the orders list webpart. This seemed to work well. Regards Geoff