InfoPath Dev

Hello to all, new here and pretty new to infopath. I apologize if any of my questions here have already been answered (I'm sure many have been), however when I searched the forums anything that appeared could be helpful left me remaining confused, so I'd really appreciate some individual hands on help :)

 I'm currently an intern at a phone company, and they've requested I create a form which follows a certain workflow. The design is all set, everything is worked out logically in my head, however execution is another story. So, here goes in trying to explain what I need to do and what I need help with:

 I've created a form which features several fields which are entered by the person who originaly submits the form. There is then a repeating table which every person who comes in contact with the forum updates before passing it along. Within this table there is a field "delegatedTo" which is the next person which the forum is to be emailed to when submitted. My superiors want the data processed/updated into a database everytime it is submitted (and it is submitted everytime it's updated). Here are my issues:

 A. Submitting data to a database (Access)
I understand  how I can create a form that is connected to a database, however my logical issue is how I'd write the subtable on each form into the database. A cell in a Access database can't feature an entire table (I don't believe at least), so I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that. One thought was to have infopath create a html page which contains that table, and then have a field in the database be a link to that table. Does anyone have perhaps a better suggestion? Or if not, how exactly I'd go about saving a seperate HTML file within my coding.

 The further issue from there is simply submitting the other data. I don't completely understand how to have the data entered on the form transfered into the database. I've also got to make sure it's not already in the database. Each form will have it's own ID, so when it's submitted, if that ID is already in the database, it should overwrite that section rather than create an entirely new entry.

 B. Another issue with having the repeating table within the form is I want the submit button to use the "delegatedTo" field from the last row used in the repeating table. A simple while row not empty type loop makes sense...I just don't know how the proper coding language to establish that, and to be able to change where the data connection for the submit button.

Hey there and welcome to the forums.

If you are just starting out with Infopath and you need to create an enterprise solution with a database backend and workflow, I would recommend the Database Accelerator Suite of Web Services. Qdabra Database Accelerator Suite Version 2.0 - Developer

This will allow you to integrate your form with the database. It has included an active directory service so that you can identify each form user even over VPN or RAS.  It stores the form in the database so you can secure the form or fields.  It also includes sample forms which have workflow included with assignments.

With standard InfoPath functionality you have some limitations and complexities since you can only connect to one primary table from your form.  With webservices you do not have this limitation.

Best practice is to use SQL or SQL Express (free) instead of Access.  For the enterprise solution you are describing you will want this on a central server and have the capacity for multiple users which SQL is much better suited for.

If you would like to see a demo or have more questions let me know.

Well I'd love to use SQL, but I have 0 experience with it (at the least I have some minimal experience with programming in Microsoft Office environments), and I'm not sure I can get the webspace to work with immediately (though I'm assuming there must be a way to use a local folder).

I'll check out the Qdabra Database Accelerator developer, appreciate the tip.

Thanks for the help, I'm sure I'll come back looking for some more help, likely with SQL since I've been looking to get into that (the language looks simple enough, quite honestly it's been figuring out some sort of testing environment that's kept me from actually trying it out).

Hi Repole (or is that "Eloper" spelled backwards?)

Couple other advantage of the Database Web service (which has a free evaluation version available with no time stamp):

1. mapping to the database and preserving of IDs will happen automatically.
2. audit tracking feature is supported. The Web service will save every version of every form
3. document level lockdown. Depending on who is assigned the form, you can control who has write permissions.

We'd be happy to show you a quick demo using your form. Please send e-mail if you'd like to schedule a quick meeting.

A demo would be great. My form isn't quite ready yet, my boss was supposed to have some sort of plans drawn up by...last friday, but hopefully he gets that done sometime early today. If not I could still use what I've got, it's got the main features I'd need to learn how to integrate (such as the table within the form), so it should be fine for a demo. I'm open for a meeting anytime today between now and however late is possible for you guys so that we'd be finished by 5.

 On a sidenote, Repole is my last name. I'd never noticed that it was Eloper backwards...and I'm a bit shocked that my friends haven't picked up on that either.

 

EDIT: I'll send an email to try and get in touch about a meeting.

Hi Nick,

I sent a meeting request for tomorrow noon. If that doesn't work we could do Thursday. Talk to you then.

Just checking in to make sure you got the second .xsn I sent, sorry for taking too long on delivering the form, my boss kept egging me on in terms of when he planned on about changing things around, and didn't tell me what he wanted until earlier today.

Hi Nick,

Yes! We received it. I sent you a meeting request for tomorrow. Hope that works. Let us know.

Should work out fine, I've been working on making an actual form that's closer to what we actually want done, so perhaps I'll be sending that one as well if it's not a problem.

Unfortunately I have a meeting today which will run threw our scheduled time. Is there any other time today that'd be good for you, or perhaps pushing things back a day again?

 Sorry for all the confusion

I take that back, my meeting got canceled...it's probably a bit late now to keep the meeting we had scheduled for today, but let me know what your thoughts are.

EDIT: As for my questions about some coding...I need to be able to look into the database, search through, extract a piece of information, and place that there as my form's starting info in a certain field. At this point I really need to know how to interact with the database through coding.

Hi

Reading through all those posts was exhausting but just thought I would mention a few things.  I got used to SQL by designing my form in Access and then using the upsizing wizard to recreate it on my Sql 2005 Express Edition Server.

Just thought I would mention it

Cheers Adam