Newbie Questions

Re: email form options

warrtalon — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:34:44 GMT

Oh wow, now I think I understand. So you aren't using _any_ of InfoPath's abilities other than a simple way to fill out a form, right? You are just opening the template (XSN) locally, filling it out, then saving it as a data file locally (XML). You are then right-clicking on the file and choosing Send To > Mail Recipients? Yeah, of course that's going to send the attachment. That's just like if you do it with a Word doc or any other file. this is NOT how you use InfoPath, so that's the whole problem.

You should be using all the built-in features of InfoPath to automate all of this. First of all, if you open the template and click File > Publish, you will see that you can actually publish this to a list of email recipients. However, that's primarily so that they can fill it out, which is not what you want, but keep it in mind for later. The other thing you can do is publish it to a network drive. This is what you should do, I believe:

Drag a plain button to your canvas
Double-click the button and click Rules, then click Add
Add an action and choose Submit using a data connection
You have none, so click Add
Create a new connection to: Submit data
Select "As an e-mail message"
Type in the email address, alias, or display name of the group these always go to and give it a subject (notice these fields can be filled with data from the form if that's what you prefer)
On the next screen, this is where you choose to Send only the active view of the form and no attachment! This way, they see the form contents without getting an attachment, and they can't modify it.
Right-click the template and click Design
Hit Next and Finish

You won't need to publish it anywhere, since no one is using it, but in the future you'd probably want to publish to email or publish to a network location if you don't have SharePoint.

Re: email form options

russell — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:20:53 GMT

i have the template currently on my computer not on our server for other people to use until i get the little things worked out. the form has several drop down boxes with selected name associated with each box. there are several text fields. to send i have been clicking the send to mail recipients. find the mailing list within our global email list and send. looking at it now it looks like the template is a .xsn file. after saving it, it becomes a .xml.

Re: email form options

warrtalon — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:18:13 GMT

Send it how? You just open the template locally, fill it out, save it as an XML file, and then email it? You didn't build this form template? It's not published anywhere? I don't understand how it's functioning.

Is everything you're doing just manual?
You don't have it set to automatically send an email to users, nor is it published to a set of email recipients?
How exactly are yous ending it to those mail recipients? Via what method?
How are you "saving" it?
How are you choosing the list of recipients? Is it just a distribution list you send it to that is static, or is this a dynamic list?

Re: email form options

russell — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:54:56 GMT

i have template, after entering my data,i save it as the date then send it to mail recipients with in the company. i am not sure about your other questions. sorry.

Re: email form options

warrtalon — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:57:55 GMT

Oh, ok, then that should be easy, but I need to know how the form is built.

Is it published to "a set of email recipients"?
It's not published to a network drive or to SharePoint, is it?
How is the form created before it gets sent out as a report?
What actions and what data connections are triggered when the form is submitted?

Re: email form options

russell — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:08:32 GMT

our company upgraded office 2003 to 2007. we were using a form in outlook for our report. I need the report to be read only, just to cover me, so other people don't change the info. This is a daily report that is sent out to the company that doesn't come back to me. I am not collection outside info, just sending out my report.

what do i need to do so the formatting info isn't in my post?

Re: email form options

warrtalon — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 05:56:50 GMT

Upgraded to what from what?
In the Email Submit data connection wizard, you can choose for it to be embedded in the email or attached. Yours must be set to the attachment option. However, even if you try to embed, it requires Outlook 2007 to view it and interact with it, I believe.
What do you mean that they can "change dropdowns and other information"? Aren't they supposed to be able to select from dropdowns and fill out info? What exactly can they change that you don't want changed?

email form options

russell — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 05:47:58 GMT

hi,

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our company upgraded and old forms won't work anymore. I created a new form with InfoPath, got it to work, emailed to who it needed to go to. My problem is when it is emailed it adds a copy of the form as an attachment. the other problem is I have drop downs and other information that the recipients can change in the form they receive. I really need it to not be able to be changed. thanks for your help.