InfoPath Dev

I am very new to InfoPath so if this is a simple thing to do just point me in the right direction, and I'll be on my way. :o)

I am trying to query a Sharepoint list so that instead of receiving loads of data I only receive the one entry that matches an given ID. 

To explain further, I'm plan to have a help text list within Sharepoint which particular users will have access to so they can write their own help notes within a multi line text box.  Within my InfoPath form I have rich text boxes placed at strategic locations, each one has an ID value which corresponds to an entry within the help text Sharepoint list.

As a user moves though the InfoPath form I would like to dynamically query the help text list with the help ID and pull pack the corresponding help text.

I am using InfoPath 2007 with MOSS 2007.

Thank you for your help.

The issue comes down to dynamic queries.

In InfoPath you can not have a dynamic query on secondary data connections except with web services. SharePoint uses web services but it does not provide the ability to pass a parameter. You have to load the whole list and then use filters to only display the correct record.

With a database table and a web service you can accomplish what you need but I do not think it is possible with a SharePoint list.

Another possibility is keeping the help as an XML file and loading it with the form but if it is extensive than you are right performance would be better with a dynamic query. Also after about 2K items your performance will suffer in SharePoint.

I'm doing something similar and would love to see your code for this solution. 

Thanks,

Brad

Hi Paul,

I too am very new to InfoPath and Sharepoint.  I am also trying to query a SP list in InfoPath, since the overhead becomes too burdensome once all the items in the lists are retrieved (1600).  And the form becomes unmanegeable.

If you would not mind explainign how to set up your routine on the server I would greatly appreciate it.  And, also how you can pass a value from within the InfoPath form to have the SP List queried based on that value.

Additionally, I was wondering in anyone else has come up with a solution that enables the form data (once returned from SP) to be dissociated from the SP DB.  This is needed since the form is emailied and we don't want the person receiving the form t ohave access to the DB.  However, in the current configuration, the recipient is presented with the UserName and Password request and if they do not have one the form is cancelled.  In our scenario we fill out one portion of the form with the recipients information and then the recipient is required to fill in the rest at their facility.

If anyone can help with some (all) of these questions I would truly appreciate it.

 Thank You,

Gus

I've been working on a simlar problem using InfoPath 2007 (Windows client solution) and SharePoint 2007 list data.  I don't want to receive all of the list items in the InfoPath form.

The article below describes how you can use the OWSSVR.dll to receive pre-filtered SharePoint list data in XML form.

http://www.synergyonline.com/blog/blog-moss/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=24

I've connected to the OWSSRV.dll data from InfoPath to create a pre-filered SharePoint data source.

Query the SharePoint list data:

• You can query a SharePoint list view using querystring parameters (see the article)

OR

• You can pass querystring values to filter the XML list data (http://[servername]/[sitename]/_vti_bin/owssvr.dll?Cmd=Display&List={GUID}&XMLDATA=TRUE&FilterField1=[ColumnName]&FilterValue1=[FilterValue])

Create an InfoPath Data Source:

• Create a new InfoPath data source to Receive Data
• Choose the XML Document option
• Paste in your URL with querystring when prompted for the XML document

When creating a datasource in your InfoPath forms with OWSSVR.dll, if any of the columns are empty on all list items, this column will not be represented in the InfoPath datasouce. It may be good practice to seed your list with at least one item that has values in all columns before creating the datasource.  I found this while migrating my form into a new environment and reconnecting it's datasources.

This should get you started with the OWSSRV.dll

For Consideration

• The XML data returns additional values for multi-select SharePoint list columns ie// 2;#Request Received
• You may want to look into using a Rule and the xPath function substring-after to clean these up
• I'm not sure how well this would work in an InfoPath Forms Server solution (?)
• Microsoft recently published this article on using the OWSSVR.dll: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms478653.aspx