Know limitations

lsconyer — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 20:56:58 GMT

Hello all. I'm not quite a newbie but definitely not a pro. I have a fairly complex situation that I hope InfoPath can solve but not quite sure of it's limitations. Here's the project:

I have a department that wants to be able to fill out a survey while they are offline. The form needs to have drill-down capability so that they can select a single record from potential thousands. My first thought was to store a SqlServer express edition on their laptop. Have the infopath form query that database locally and when they connect to the network, have the local database sync with the networked full Sql Server. I quickly came to see that InfoPath relies heavily on web services to query data so that kills my first thought.

My second thought was to create web services and have them publish them internet, thus consumable offline. My worry is that the connection process will be far too time consuming. They'll potentially hit the web services 10 times for one form. So, I'm not sure this is the best option.

After filling out the form, they'll then submit the form to a Sharepoint Library. The sharepoint site is not facing the internet so they can only submit when they're online so that part is not as difficult.

Can InfoPath help me accomplish what i need to do? If so, any suggestions? If not, please let me know. Thanks in advance.

Data Connections

Know limitations