InfoPath Dev

Hello

Is it possible to automate the file name of an Infopath form by creating a macro or another programming technique?

The form would have fields populated from a SQL Server database. Also other information would be hard coded on to the header of the form.

The form would have to work as follows:

User fills in the form fields.

I need to be able to create a button possibly called 'Confirm' and place it in the form or as part of the form's infopath toolbar. So this is essentially a 'save' button but with added functions.

So once the form has been filled in and the user hits the 'confirm' button, the code should pick up relevant information from the fields and the header (also current date and time) and produce a string which will fill in the f'ile name' field of the 'save as' dialog box. (my aim is to avoid users entering the file name in the wrong format)

If this is possible I am also wondering how the same form would work in a sharepoint environment??

Does infopath have autosaving functionality? Whether you can write a macro to save the form automatically every few minutes so that even if someone closes it by mistake they won't lose all the filled in information?

They are all related questions and it would be much appreciated if someone would be able to advise/help me in how to go about achieving these functionalities. 

Many Thanks

Sathya 

I think everything you are looking for is already a part of Infopath. :)

Typicall best practice is to not use the default save and save as functionality since you cannot control the file naming and location. This can be turned off in Form options.

You want to setup a data connection, which can either be to a network share or to SharePoint.

You will be prompted for a filename. Use the function button and typically a concatenation to create unique, standardized naming based on values in your form.

You can add a button or configure the submit button to submit to this data connection or multiple ones.

Great stuff, Thanks.

 The data connection (submit data) doesnt allow submitting to somewhere on the network. Also it doesnt allow submitting to database but the data connection (receive data) seems to allow receiving data from a database. That's a bit confusing.

I have to fully run through this process (what makes the prompt for the filename?)

Also how will this work when it gets published as web-enabled form and also within sharepoint? Will all the functionalties that i create withing a form apply in the other environments too or does this apply for a form opened within the infopath application?

Thanks again

Sathya

I suspect the boat has already been pushed out on this one, but in case it helps anyone else I have a solution to the SaveAs with filename problem. It's actually quite simple. Create a handler for the Save event of type SaveEventHandler. The FormEvents_Save method takes two arguments, the first is an "object" type usually named sender. If you cast this to an XmlForm you can set call some methods on the form object.

form.SetSaveAsDialogLocation("http://server/web/Form Library");  -or-  form.SetSaveAsDialogLocation("C:\somewhere");

form.SetSaveAsDialogFilename("The name of my form.xml");

It works fine.