InfoPath Dev

I have created a simple form in InfoPath with a file attachment control.
If the user attaches a Word document and later want to edit the same
document, they will have to save it to disk and the replace the Word document
on the form.

Is it not possible to open a Word attachment from InfoPath, edit the
document, and then save the document back to the form?

Thanks in advance

Hi Mipe,
Correct, this is a limitation. My suggestion would be to add some guidance text (static label) to the form to tell people what to do. The other possibility is to use links instead of inline attachments (this will actuall reduce the size of your XML forms too).

Patrick Halstead [InfoPath MVP]
InfoPathDev

 

Hi all, I have a similar question related to data attachments in a form. Currently I am using the normal upload function of the infopath form, where the user attaches a file to the form. My form is sharepoint based and users, despite the notes inside the form keep uploading 20MB files, which reduce the speed of submitting and opening the form  with minutes! It is terrible. So I have to figure out a solution for this problem. I have an Idea of exporting all the attachments into another forms (containers), which will be also placed in sharepoint. Then with a repeating table I will extract all the links to the container forms, which is related to the main form. Thus I will reduce the mail form's size drastically and increase the speed, but on the other hand if a user wants to see the attachment, he has to use the link to the 2nd container form and to wait again to be opened. It is one solution. However I would like more practical solution but I do not think that it is possible - a simple upload in SharePoint as a part of a list with attachments, and a link to this attachment  . Is it possible to be done using JScript and .xls and .pdf files to be uploaded in SP inside a list ?  

Hi Patrick,
I'm looking at how to do this too. When you say use links instead do you mean to a file share or library within sharepoint? I was thinking of writing a c# webpart that took attachments and effectively uploaded them to a library so that I can get a list of the files in InfoPath. Is there an easier way of doing this without using a custom webpart? Ideally I'd like to be able to click on attachments and using office 2007 I'd like the user to be able to click save directly to a sharepoint library.

Is this a good way of doing things. My idea was that I'd need to modify the aspx file generated in the workflow. I'm fairly new to this stuff but finding it all quite interesting.

Also, would anyone be interested in this code if I actually do this?

Thanks Patrick

Nice forum BTW. Keeps popping up in my search results. 

Hi Svetoslav,
I've written something in c# which prevents people from uploading large files you'll need to sign your code if you use c#, the guy before me here used jscript but I struggled to find a solution. There is a good post on MS with 2 classes here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/892730 you are trying to do more or less the same as me I think but this is a good start point. If you do decide to use jscript then you'll need to use a 32 bit filestream on the validating code of your form code behind.

Hope this has been useful.

 

Chris

I'm pretty sure you don't need to use code to prevent people from using large attachments.  The XPath formula string-length(path to attachment field) will give you the size of the file (in base64 format; this is about 4/3 the original size of the file in bytes).  And you can use validation or rules to prevent the submit if the file is too large.

Well now I feel daft