InfoPath Dev

Hi remigiuszmarian,

The problem encountered may have been caused by manually creating a library first before publishing the form. If this was the case, the first option we could take is to delete the library, and then publish the form as a new library with the same name, or create a new one if you encouter any further problems. Kindly refer to the steps provided for publishing a form on the previous reply. Let me know if it helps.

 donstephen,

 I followed your suggestion and deleted the existing form library and created a new one during the form publishing process. Now when I click on "New Document" I receive a message which states that the form cannot be open in a web browser and that it will need to be opened in InfoPath. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Hello remigiuszmarian,

Here are a few things to consider regarding browser forms. First would be the browser in use, I strongly recomend using an updated version of IE. Another factor would be the SharePoint Library settings which should be enabled to open in browser. I found some links from Microsoft for you to indulge in:

link 1
link 2
link 3

Also check your InfoPath Form settings. Namely these three: Form options compatibility, the Design Checker for possible browser errors and issues (check the browser form post back settings when you click on a field, control, or section property. There is a guide here for the list of errors ), and enabling browser compatibility at the publishing wizard.

 Hope this helps.

 Hi donstephen,

Thank you for the help with InfoPath. Besides my online research that I perform for getting through my first InfoPath form, your advice and aid has been invaluable. I have crossed another problem though which has me worried. I upgraded from InfoPath 2010 to InfoPath Filler 2013 and InfoPath Designer 2013 and now whenever I try to open my save InfoPath form I receive an error which I will attach as a image file to this reply. I have researched this error and found that I need to enter a value in order to fix it. I have also noticed that when trying to open the form back in InfoPath Designer 2010 the same error appears but a different value needs to be entered to fix it. I will also attach this error as an image to this reply.

Do you have any suggestions for me on how I can go about fixing this problem? I really hope that I will not have to start from scratch.

Best Regards

Hello remigiuszmarian,

For this error, I suggest editing the manifest.xsf file. Copy the file and place it inside a folder. Rename the .xsn template to .cab (If you can't see the file extension, go to organize > Folder and Search Options, then click the View tab. Uncheck the box titled "Hide extensions for known file types") and extract the file. Locate the  manifest.xsf and open it in design mode. Remove any references to the error received and save the file (saving will merge all the extracted files and turn the XSF to XSN).

You may find there are more than just one error, so you may need to repeat the above for each error. And remember to keep a back up file all the time, to avoid problems. Hope this helps.

 I will give this a try this afternoon and I will let you know how it fared out.

 Thanks!

I think the easiest thing may be to make sure the Compatibility is set to browser (not filler). The mobile stuff is no longer there, so you may need to set compat back to 2010 browser, remove mobile, and reopen with 2013.

Hi donstephen,

I was able to fix the problem and now my .xsn file is opening successfully in both SharePoint 2010 and 2013. Now that I have done this I have worked on the form some more and tried opening it in the browser. This is not yet possible because the form now opens up in InfoPath Form Filler 2013. I have researched on some online forums and found that I would need to enable using sandboxed code service on the SharePoint server if I want the form to be filled out in the web browser. As I am still learning how SharePoint and InfoPath forms work together, I noticed that I am unable to publish my form because the sandboxed code service does not work with forms that use email options like I am. The form published successfully but with an error stating that "Submitting through email is not supported in sandboxed solutions."

According to most websites I will need to publish the form as an "Administrator-approved form template (advanced)" option instead of using the "Form Library" option. Is there any way around this?

Also, if we go back to when we discussed how to save the form to the SharePoint library at the same time as sending an email, how could I setup the form so that every time a new form is submitted a new name will be applied to it? For example, when someone submits the form, the user will be able to specify a name to save the form under.

Hi remigiuszmarian, 

If you are getting that sandbox solutions message, then it means that the form has code in it.  Was the code added intentionally, or did you accidentally hit the "edit form code" button?  Once you do this, it adds code to the form and requires publishing through the Sandbox or Central Admin. You may remove this if you wish to publish using the Form Library. Proceed to File > Info > Form Options > Programming > Remove Code.

But if you intend to keep it, you might need to publish it as an Administrator-approved form template. Or, you could try using a SharePoint Designer E-mail workflow.

As for the form name, what you can do is create a field which would contain the form name data and select this field at the SharePoint Library Submit connection (see image below). At the right side is a formula which is generated whenever the submit button has been clicked.

You may use a concat formula similar to this:

concat("Expense Report - ", today(), " - ", name)

Where "Expense Report - " is a text, today() is a formula for the date, and name is a field which means this would change whenever a different data is entered on the particular field. Hope this helps.

 Hi donstephen,

The above explanation helped me a great deal. Thank you!

If I would like to be able to search forms that have been submitted to the SharePoint Library how would I go about setting that up? The forms would need to be searchable by either of these 3 fields: TTU ID, Dell Service Tag, Date that the form was submitted on, and the date that the form was completed on. Also, if I would want to run a report on forms that have been submitted to the SharePoint library would that be possible through SharePoint and how would I go about doing that if possible. If not possible, how would I be able to run a report like this? The report would be created through the selection of date ranges (from date  and to date).

Thanks donstephen

Hi remigiuszmarian,

I'm glad that the explanation was able to help you out.

I was able to find a good video tutorial which explains the basics of pulling data onto a Report Form or a Dashboard. This guide shows how select columns, how to filter the data you wish to query, and other techniques. Now this is only a simple view of the submitted data, if you intend to open the submitted forms, I suggest using a hyperlink which was discussed on this thread. Hope this helps.

 Hi donstephen,

 Is there a setting that will prevent a new form from being created when editing an existing one in the SharePoint form library? All I would like for the user to be able to do is after they edit an existing form a new form the changes will be saved to the same form. I do not want a new form to be created each time an existing form is edited.

Thanks,

First, you would need to allow overwrite if the file already exists at the Data Connection for your Library. For the second issue, since your form creates a File Name every time it is accessed, you would need to configure each rule which sets the File Name to only run when the field FormName is blank. This should prevent creating form names for your form and should allow you to edit the existing files. 

Let me know if this helps.

 Hi donstephen,

 I followed your suggestion and made the necessary changes. I saved a test form in the Form Library and then went in and made a few changes in the test form. After the changes were made I hit the submit button. This created a new form name instead of making changes to the existing form. Do you have any thoughts on this?

Thanks!

I re-checked your form and noticed that the form's name is saved under the type of distribution selected. To simply put it, it will not overwrite the XML file on your SharePoint Library if the Form Name changes (distribution type has been changed). In order to have this form overwrite the XML file on your SharePoint Library, you would need to use another Form Name, which is constant. I suggest using or adding another field which generates a unique ID for the form name. Let me know if this helps.