General

Re: Infopath - reports?

absMing — Mon, 10 Oct 2005 07:42:23 GMT

Thats a shame,

Thanks for your responses anyway.

Re: Infopath - reports?

franck — Fri, 07 Oct 2005 13:25:49 GMT

Good job vt! I did put it nicely, but that was the idea...

Franck

Re: Infopath - reports?

vt_asparagus — Fri, 07 Oct 2005 12:28:02 GMT

I was reading the fact sheet a couple days ago http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/office/office2003/plan/inpthfaq.mspx) and Microsoft even states that InfoPath is NOT a reporting product. Any they have not really supported either. Frankly, I cannot get mad with them because their goal for this tool is not to compete with reporting engines. If you need to do simple reporting, use InfoPath, otherwise use InfoPath for what it is good for (data capture) and use a different tool for reporting.

Question: Can you use InfoPath to generate reports?
Answer: InfoPath is designed to help customers efficiently capture information through rich, dynamic forms and to integrate this information into business processes. It is possible for customers to generate reporting views on existing data using InfoPath, however, this is not the design intent of the product. InfoPath is optimized for scenarios in which data needs to be collected or modified or more contextual information is required. Customers can use a Microsoft or third-party reporting application in conjunction with InfoPath to generate reports because the data collected in InfoPath will integrate with any XML-enabled database or server.

Re: Infopath - reports?

franck — Fri, 07 Oct 2005 05:51:50 GMT

Hi,

InfoPath is not the best reporting tool around. For example, you have no ability to control the content of the form header and footer by code (which is often required).
That said, if you need simple report, IP will work great. You can link you form to Web Services and pass the filtering criteria as parameters. You can display results in repeating tables, etc.

In any case, it will take longer to build that using the built-in reporting features of Access.

Hope that it helps.

Regards,

Franck Dauché

Infopath - reports?

absMing — Fri, 07 Oct 2005 05:06:20 GMT

Gday,

Im trying to get my head around infopath capability to report. At the moment i have an access database with ip front end. I want to be able to create a set of options for the users to be able to specify their report parameters. For example...

* Have a two date fields to specify a date range when sale occured
* A list box allowing the users to select one or more specific product types.

Is this possible, Im kinda over infopath at the moment.

Regards,
Ryan