InfoPath Dev

 I assume when you say nobody here knows anything you mean at work and not the forum

When reading the InfoPath books. Just reading I think you miss lots. I always find it useful to follow along with the examples. A great book to follow along with is the Microsoft Press - Using InfoPath 2010 with SharePoint 2010 Step by Step.

When you want a copy of a form to a dropbox library - what do you mean? Do you need version control? Or do you need a save as draft option?

If you can't find your form check your data connections and path to your library. There often is a mismatch.

If you want to copy a form to a library and a list you can do it with a workflow function. What's the purpose of both? Why not make your library view to look like a list?

Digital signatures - Check your form options. File>Form Options>Digital signatures or you could write a rule to set fields and have a section appear when complete. The section fields could be calculated values or read only controls.

If people can't open your form, it sounds like it's corrupt. You could play around with something called the manifest. Yet, I find it often just quicker to recreate the form, that way you know it is clean.

Hi wilkies.

Thank you for your reply.  (Yes, I meant that nobody at work knows Infopath.)  I think I have the same book you mentioned and I did follow a few examples but I still have questions.  Here I will clarify.

When I want a copy of the form to the dropbox library - Yes I need version control  and I need to keep the users' old filled out forms.  (Currently people are uploading MS Word documents to this library, then I modify them (get signoff, etc.) and move them to some other folders for storage.)

I can get filled forms (*.xml) to go to the dropbox by the submit functionality.. but if you do "Publish" isn't your template (*.xsn) supposed to go there automatically?  It did at first, but not anymore, and I can't tell why this changed.

I have an existing list - this is legacy information, a giant table with hundreds of rows - before, when people submitted MS Word forms, I would manually type the details into the table.  I would like to do so automatically by coding but I am not sure where I could put such code.  I assumed it would be easy.. just some insert statement... but I can't find anything about it.

 I will read again about the digital signatures.  Thanks.

Re: my form getting corrupted, what sort of things can corrupt it?  Which file is the manifest?  This form has hundreds of controls on it, so recreating it from scratch takes a week.  Is it possible to open 2 instances of Infopath and copy sections from one to the other?

 If you play around with your SharePoint library settings you should be able to keep version easily or you could have a work flow to rename files in some way.


Publishing your forms - again I'd check the url. i.e. do you have the word Forms in your url? I have often lost forms because I'm publishing to the right location, but not the right location if that makes sense. Copy your url and open up an new window in IE and test. Does it open where you expect it to open.

If I've understood you correctly with the Word doc and code. - This is a little more tricky because you're using a Word doc and not an InfoPath form, but it can be done.

You'll need a dummy Word template to use as a content type for your library. Upload a copy to your library, then download again, us Word quick parts as place holders to test for information etc..

Can't remember of the top of my head, but I don't think you need a work flow. I'll have to check own of my Word forms. This is something I've had to do quite often.

Yes you can have 2 forms open and copy between the two. Yet do it slowly and test.

Also on your form go File>Design Check. That will often help too.

Hi wilkies.  Thank you again for replying.  I am grateful!

The URL for my "dropbox" is like this (does contain the word Forms).  When I update the "publish to" details how much of this URL should be in?  I have been putting the whole URL.  Is this correct?

http://sharepoint/sites/foss/InfoPathTestSuz4/Forms/AllItems.aspx

Sorry, I was unclear - we used to be using MS Word forms, but I am trying to use only Infopath forms.  If you remember how to insert a row, please let me know.  I will Google more.  I have no details about the actual database. I assume I need some connection details.  (IT dept hasn't responded to me...but for some cases in the book you need *.asmx or something - I can't find this anywhere when looking at the sharepoint site.

 The design checker isn't finding anything wrong.  Even if I add submit action, that breaks the *.xsn for my colleagues.