Newbie Questions

Re: How can people without InfoPath fill in a form (without webserver)

eggwart — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:33:52 GMT

Hi Jimmy

I'm a very uneducated person, but the functionality I require is pretty simple. The form is just a table with text boxes, check boxes, and some buttons for attaching files. The check boxes hide certain sections of the table when unselected. I've seen this done with CSS and JScript, so I still don't see what FireFox still needs from InfoPath.
XML holds the data, XSD defines it using InfoPath namespace, and XSL displays it. Textboxes and buttons are old hat for FireFox. User enters information and attaches files. User saves webpage as ?.xml
What am I missing?

I attach platform provisioning form.xsn.

please help

Re: How can people without InfoPath fill in a form (without webserver)

Jimmy — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:10:38 GMT

"XML techlnology" doesn't mean a lot on its own. It's XML extensions like the ones implemented in InfoPath, and other programs that utilize XML that give it meaning and bring it to life. Firefox and other browsers can take an XML file and an XSLT file and produce some HTML (and JavaScript), but it can't come anywhere close to providing the functionality that InfoPath does (of course, this functionality can be imitated using a web server, and that's precisely what InfoPath Forms Services does).

Asking why you can't use an InfoPath form in Firefox or Acrobat Reader is tantamount to asking why you can't view a PDF in MSPaint. Just as Paint was not designed for viewing Acrobat files, Firefox and Acrobat Reader were not designed for giving a rich interface to XML forms.

Re: How can people without InfoPath fill in a form (without webserver)

eggwart — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 06:52:56 GMT

Hi there

I don't want to / can't use a any form of web server. I want to create a self-contained form someone can open in Firefox, enter information, and save it. Then they return it to me manually, without any fancy emailing or serving.

I think I'm not understanding the limitations here, because I don't see why this can't be done with xml technology. They open the xml document, it references the schemas which make is display nicely with colours and functioning forms, they enter information and then they save the xml.

Can someone please explain why this is not possible?

Export to PDF only seems to export an image. There's no form functionality in the outputted PDF :(

Thanks
E

Re: How can people without InfoPath fill in a form (without webserver)

madhuri — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:28:50 GMT

You can create InfoPath Forms Services.Using InfoPath Forms Services, you can publish form templates that can be opened either in Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007 or rendered in a Web browser. Look at the below link.

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/sharepoint/InfoPathFormServices.aspx?display=Print

Otherwise you have an option to export the form.xsn to pdf or Excel.

How can people without InfoPath fill in a form (without webserver)

eggwart — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:04:32 GMT

Hi there

I've made a form in InfoPath and want people who don't have InfoPath to fill it in.
Are there programs or plugins for converting to a Word Doc or PDF or something?

I don't want to do any programming and I can't serve the file over the web.
I tried copying into a word document, but the text fields don't show up and it looks shabby.

Thanks
e