InfoPath Dev

What I'm trying to do may or may not be possible but I thought that I would run it past all of you first. I'm new to the Microsoft world being a life-long Lotus pro. I need to be able to create a meeting agenda form using InfoPath that will allow the users to create both a new meeting in Outlook and a new meeting in Domino. Here are my issues.

1. I started out by creating a custom form in Outlook with all of our Navy-centric fields. I thought that I could simply have the Navy users, who use Outlook, fill out the custom form when creating new meeting requests and the request would simply pass into the Domino calendar because we would be using the iCalendar format. The problem is that the custom Outlook form data doesn't transfer out of Outlook. I thought about maybe somehow having the custom field data exported into an XML file and attached to the invite along with the standard ICS file but I don't know anything about VBScript and don't know where to start in writing the macro. I pretty much gave up on this one.

2. I found InfoPath and figured that it was a perfect solution for me because all of the form data is automatically stored as XML and gets sent to Domino quite nicely. The problem here is that the InfoPath form isn't an appointment item and doesn't send any iCalendar data. I thought that maybe I could somehow access the Outlook DOM in the onclick event of the submit button on my InfoPath form and create a new appointment item in Outlook. In that same event I would have the xml file from the InfoPath form attached to the new appointment item and sent along with the ICS file to Domino.

Does this sound at all doable? Am I making this too complex? Does anyone know of a better way?


Any help would be great!


Thanks,


Adam

Good question! Many web applications will generate ical-formatted meeting requests (for example, Live Meeting). Out-of-the-box, I haven't heard of InfoPath e-mail adapter being used in this way, so you'll definitely have to write code to modify the envelope. However, my guess is that you shouldn't have to be full trust since ical is just a message format. Sending a message from InfoPath involves a popup, and you can't escape that popup without full trust, but assuming you are ok with the popup, and assuming it supports ical format, you should be ok.

Hi,

I had sourced through the entire web for the past few days and does not seems to find anyone who is trying to do the same thing as me. This is interesting as i thought this should be quite useful.

Anyway, here is what i am trying to do:

I already have created an InfoPath Leave Form that allows employees to apply for vacation/leave from their manager. I only want to add an additional feature to allow the sender's calendar to be automatically added with the appointment (subsequently, i would like to add it to a public calendar in exchange).

I am currently using Office 2007. I got the following error [Automation server can't create object] when I using the following code:
//=======
// The following function handler is created by Microsoft Office InfoPath.
// Do not modify the name of the function, or the name and number of arguments.
//=======
function ADD_TO_CAL::OnClick(eventObj)
{
 /* Set our values to be inserted into the Appointment */
 newAppt = new appt("test subject", "this location", "05/26/2000 9:00 AM", "15");
 /* Call our own function to save data */
 saveAppt( newAppt );
}

/* Define Outlook constant for Appointment Item */
var olAppointmentItem = 1;
/* To add other Properties, refer to the Outlook Object Model */
function appt(Subject, Location, Start, ReminderMinutesBeforeStart)
{
 this.Subject = Subject; 
 this.Location = Location; 
 this.Start = Start; 
 this.ReminderMinutesBeforeStart = ReminderMinutesBeforeStart;
}
function saveAppt(obj)
{
 /* Create the Outlook Object and Appointment Item */ 
 var out = new ActiveXObject("Outlook.Application");   <- The error points to this line

 /* Create an Appointment Item */ 
 appt = out.CreateItem(olAppointmentItem);

 /* Transfer the data */ 
 appt.Subject = obj.Subject; 
 appt.Location  = obj.Location; 
 appt.Start = obj.Start; 
 appt.ReminderMinutesBeforeStart = obj.ReminderMinutesBeforeStart;  

 /* Save the data */ 
 appt.Save(); 
}

 I tried all 3 steps from this link -> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/832512 to no avail. 

Long long time ago, 8 years back, I managed to integrate Outlook 97 to create a VB Form for submitting leave form and adding the appointment to the public calendar and outlook calendar. But now, 8 years later, i am unable to do it on Outlook 2007. Am I missing something? Can I don't use Sharepoint to acheive what I wanted?

 

HI.... I am currently working on the same project but I am using Outlook 2010..... and it is not allowing me link it with Infopath.... any suggestions?

This thread is old and out-of-date.

Out-of-box, you can use SharePoint to generate iCal meetings. You just submit your InfoPath form data to a calendar and then use SharePoint URL formatting to create an iCal link.

Of course, your Outlook calendar can just be synched with the calendar too so that new submits automatically show up.

Please try searching for "Generate iCal with SharePoint URL" and see if you can figure it out. If not, please email me. 

Hi Patrick, Thank you so much for replying to me on this subject. I have tried what you suggested and it is still not not working. I am not using SharePoint, just Infopath and Outlook 2010. I am able to submit the form.... email it.. but the dates are not showing in Outlook UNLESS I make it a meeting or appointment and then it is added. Any suggestions? Thank you for all of your help in advance!

If you don't have SharePoint, you'll need to create the iCal's yourself which is more work.

I will ask one of our staff to spend a few minutes looking for links on how to do this.

Thank you!!!! I really appreciate it!

Hello again Patrick, I now have Sharepoint added! Yes! But I am still having a hard time connecting the Infopath form details to the Outlook Calendar. I have created a "General Calendar" for my team to use. This calendar is going to be used to track vacation days. The Infopath form works great and has everything that I need on it but like I stated before the requested "days off" are not being transferred over to Outlook. Any suggestions? I am using Sharepoint 2010 and Outlook 2010. Thank you for all of your help in advance!

You will need to submit the requested days off to a calendar on SharePoint and that calendar needs to be included in people's Outlook 2010 - people can easily add it by navigating to ShP calendar and choosing add.

To submit the requested days off to the calendar, there are a couple options - you can submit the days using CAML or qRules. We have done both techniques many times. We actually use this approach for our own leave request.

Maybe I should just demo it for you. Send me an email.

Hi Patrick... Yes can you please send me a demo... I want to make sure that I am doing it correct! I would really appreciate it!