Data Connections

Re: UDC and multi-environment deployment

Hilary Stoupa — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 15:16:27 GMT

Just to add to this - after checking the Scott Roberts / Hagen Green book (Designing Forms for Microsoft Office InfoPath and Forms Services 2007) the data connections in the CMCL can't be access from IP directly when designing the form - you can only select from the data connection library version. In fact, in preview, IP uses the DCL (data connection library) version - so if for security reasons you delete your DCL version after uploading to CMCL, your form won't be able to connect to the data connections after preview. But as Tom mentions - this does allow you to use a single data connection across the entire server farm - so the trade off is in the convenience factor when designing your form.

You can select an existing data connection in a DCL and then modify it to use the CMCL in the published, admin approved version of the template. The design version will continue to use the connection from the DCL.

Re: UDC and multi-environment deployment

TomCastiglia — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 03:38:21 GMT

The best approach for publishing InfoPath forms across multiple environments (e.g. DEV/TEST/PROD) is to publish you connections to the Central Managed Connection Library (CMCL) in Central Admin (under General Application Settings>InfoPath Form Services>Manage data connection files). This will also require that you publish your template as an Admin Approved form. The steps for deploying connections in the CMCL are quite simple, but a little counter-intuitive. This article explains it nicely though: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff621104.aspx

UDC and multi-environment deployment

enathaniel — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 15:52:48 GMT

Hi guys,

I've read a few articles about UDC and multiple Sharepoint environments but I've never read an article that explain how everything tied together (usually the authors explain everything in high-level overview with no samples) so I'm wondering if someone can explain to me how UDC works and how can I switch my Data Connections between 2 or more Sharepoint environments (let's say I have DEV, TEST, and PROD environment).

A little bit of background of what I know so far:

1) I know how to setup DCL in Sharepoint

2) I know how to convert a Data Connection to File and store it to SP DCL

3) I don't know how this works with multi-environment since it appears I have to switch the Data Connection in each and every control in the form every time I'm about to publish.

4) I don't know how I can publish to multi-environment using UDC: should I publish manually per environment (hence changing the Submit Option every single time I'm changing the environment?)

5) I don't know how to create a re-usable "sub-form" component (e.g.: a Search box with a filter backed by SP list) within the multi-environment situation

Please share your best practices if you know any.

Thanks!