InfoPath Dev

Problem:  I have these forms that travel together.  Let's call them form1 and form2.  I start form1 and once form1 is filled out I'd like to have form2 open up (using a rule, I already know I can do that), but I'd like to have form1 already attached to form2.  Is this possible?

Thank you

I would link them via hyperlinks rather than attaching.

Also I would look at whether the two forms could be combined into a super form with seperate views.

You can ID the user and state when it is open to show the user the correct view and then it is much simpler to manage and relate the two.

 Hello Mr. Fox. ( been following your threads for a few months now.nice job sir!).

(Quick intro:) I am in the military, and an officer has given me a tough tasker. It is tough to me because I have a problem. First off, our machines at work have infopath 2003 and no upgrades to 2007 coming till this summer. Adding to that, I was also made a Sharepoint site manager. Since I am a newbie, I am at a disadvantage in getting this form built any sooner.  Understanding that 2003 is limited with HTML features (which Sharepoint uses the default viewer), we decided to simply make a series of forms and provide them on a regular server. Getting to the point, here are my problems

1. multiple forms used such as 'fillable' letterhead and 'internal electronic routing sheet' that is both printable and electronically trackable and/or saved.

2. users must be able to navigate to other forms when required (options galore).

3. I forgot how to add multiple secondary data-sources to the main (so many fields have the same name I am tired of renaming them -boss does not want to see 'myfield-100, myfield-101 he wants to know accurate naming conventions for future building projects  

 So with that, I made a click button that brings the user to our internal routing sheet, but I have several more that need to be added. Basically, the user needs to be able to (1) go on a trip, (2) get a qualification, (3) produce an after action summary, (4) create a routing sheet so the info can make its way to the Commanding Officer.

 Right now, the submit button has been removed because our new Sharepoint site is not fully implemented and Marines prefer to stick with their old legacy server (Cisco). I understand what xsd,xml and xsn files are, but I simply for got how to bring in all these forms under one xsn template. I did it before, but forgot. I think I had to rename a few hundred field names before because I am a noob, and always forget the 'name-spaces' as I create these files. Sadly I spent a month working the Sharepoint side, and was told to change direction. The good news is that I have all the forms I need, and they are built but my question is this...(1) Do I extract each and every xsn (form) and add them as resource files?

And (2), what do I do with all of those "schema.xsd' files that were extracted? I seem to have up to 10 extracted from each xsn.

Please help, as no one on this entire base can assist me. I have been volun-told to be the Sharepoint/Infopath manager, and so far my prowess is in a deficit state. Please no SQL commands -if at all possible. I do have 'Visual Studio 2008'  if that helps. If all else fails, I can always go back to Adobe Live Cycle Designer but I am starting to like this new Info-07.

thanks,

-Kevin

what Microsoft says... http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/infopath/HA100738031033.aspx

Basically i am asking how do I put all forms under one 'roof'. Everytime I add a secondary source, it says there is already something named that, and 'do I want to replace the existing name'.

All of these files I have built from a blank (non HTML capable) Infopath template, no other source file libraries or types (excel.docx etc.. were used). All files are on my machine via [CAC] card are 'fully trusted and signed.

Please tell me there is a way - like to copy & paste- the form so I dont have to build it with the additional blank views I have created. That is my hold up right now. The data is sitting there looking at me, but there is no time to redesign each and every secondary data source i pulled in.

Thanks again, Kev

Hi -- I may be a little confused as to what your question is -- are you asking how to repack a template you saved as source files? If you've saved as source files, simply right click on the file called 'manifest.xsf' and select Design. Your form will open in design mode. Then, from the File menu, select Save As. You can then save as an xsn (InfoPath template) which packages your form template files back up.

While it is good to be familiar with the source files and the things they do, it is easier to work with an xsn file, especially if you are new. And you will be surprised by how many files make up an xsn -- especially if you have some secondary data connections in the form!

 Thank you Ms. Stoupa for that advice. I apologize for repeating a question someone else may have previously threaded. What I have is a template that had main data only. Later on I had to insert additional information, but it was quite a bit. So instead of starting over, I added another connection and now I have a secondary -actually, make it three. Wanting 3 more forms to be merged in, I simply copy and pasted the form on a new 'view' and was hoping that the field names/name spaces would automatically find the source. Well, I was wrong. Sadly I did not create understandable 'groups' for my fields..so now I have about 6-700 fields all independent without groups. Today I had to 'remap' all of those fields, pointing them to the secondary source. Well, I did a few previews before I published to my (local machine), and all of the forms looked good, and no errors were identified. I published it, and sent it to a user. When I did this, the user could in fact open the xsn, and could save the form to .xml. But when he went back in and opened it up, the xml only saved the information that was sourced from the 'main' data and semed to ignore the secondary data I brought in. Being mindful of the data connections, I made sure nothing was hanging out there that they could not access. Since I am keeping these forms on my machine, I will not add them to Sharepoint just yet.

I guess that my questions relate to; why didn't the data save from the secondary data sources from the end user?

I will be starting from scratch again, and this will take all weekend. I wish that Infopath had a 'import template' option, which could automatically map the fields or something. If nothing else, a feature which identifies dead or unused fields/groups/macros in the xsn file. I compare the 'guts' of Infopath to the registry in Widows XP in some ways - lots of obsolete data that will stay until you manually delete it.

Thanks for the reply, and advance apologies for not making a readers digest of the situation :P

Kev

Secondary data sources in InfoPath are never saved with the XML. The stored data will always only be that in the main data source. So if you have controls on your form bound to secondary data sources, and the user makes changes to the values in those controls -- those changes will not be saved.

You may want to consider a different design. Does the data from all the forms you are trying to bring together really belong together? If not, can you publish multiple forms, and then, in each form, have buttons allowing users to open the other forms? If all the data does belong together, of course, use views to try to keep things organized. For example, if your 3 or 4 forms share a lot of information, it may make sense to use a single form with multiple views for different activities....