InfoPath Dev

Hi,

The requirement is to build a 20-30 page form in Infopath. The form contains multiple sections, and contains lots of controls. This needs to be browser-rendered too. Obviously, implementing this in a single form template might make it too big.

Hence the form needs to be broken into smaller forms. My question is, is there a way to link together each form template, and provide navigation between sections? I was thinking in terms of an aspx page to provide the navigation and host the form in an XmlFormView. Do we really need to publish the templates in a form library then? Has anybody done anything similar?

Thanks,
Bala

It sounds like what you want is a single form with multiple views... not mutliple forms.

Hi Bala,
Our Qdabra Database Accelerator Suite includes form linking feature that lets you link or embed forms within other forms and save portions of them without having to lock all of them. You still need to design the pieces, but it will enable aggregation scenarios where you have multiple components. Send me e-mail for a free beta. We plan to release v2 in 3-4 weeks on the web. The Basic install will be free.

Thanks Greg, Patrick.

Greg,

If I have a single form with multiple views, wouldn't that still load the entire form's DOM on the server, thereby reducing any performance advantages? I agree it may enable a better user experience, from a navigation perspective.

Thanks,
Bala

InfoPath performance has been covered numerous times. Basically it sounds like you would run into a couple of bottle necks:

1. The amount of controls in a single view. This is alleviated by creating multiple smaller views.

2. The amount of data loaded at one time. This can be alleviated by pulling in only what you need for the particular view, and then saving out as you go (note that saving out can be done via a secondary dom which are much faster in InfoPath because there's limited processing done on them.)

Hi,

I have a similar issue that I would like some assistance with.  I have two forms.  One is an activity enrollment form (Form A) where users can select check boxes to indicate which activity they would like to take part in.  These check boxes have scores attached to them set as their default values - eg. 10 points, 5 points, 20 points, depending on the activity you click.  Form B is my actual participation form.  What I would like is that when I launch form B, and enter a users name it pulls the corresponding Form A to only display what that person registered for as enabled boxes, so I can then click on if they took part in the event and submit it to the library.  Any assistance with how to easily link these two forms will be appreciated.