Workflow

Re: help, i'm new to infopath.

chu_ura — Tue, 05 May 2009 07:09:24 GMT

hello Janice :)

I've stumbled upon this forum in my search for a great tutorial. Just like Johnny, I am very new to Infopath and Sharepoint and has about the same concerns. After reading your post, i found it very informative. But i cannot seem to find the form library and the approval workflow. I was only able to create a workflow very manually, but i want to try your approach. Can you guide me where the form library is? Thank you so much.

I'm using Sharepoint Designer and Infopath 2007. :D

-sincerely: Jeatte

Re: help, i'm new to infopath.

johnny — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 01:22:00 GMT

hi hilary,

hmm, i'm not so sure about using the trial. i'm just an intern for a company. i guess i need to do something that can last and not use a trial of certain product. thanks anyway :)

Re: help, i'm new to infopath.

Hilary Stoupa — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:24:02 GMT

You can get a free trial of ours here -- let us know if you need help setting it up.

Re: help, i'm new to infopath.

johnny — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 01:26:45 GMT

hi janice,

argh! thanks for the reply. guess i didn't know that. now to find a web service...

Re: help, i'm new to infopath.

Janice Thorne — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 15:23:43 GMT

Hello Johnny,

When you designed your form, did you design it off of an existing database? If so, your form will not be able to submit to the database and be browser compatible. Here is a link for additional details about submit data connections. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/infopath/HP012304861033.aspx#5

Re: help, i'm new to infopath.

johnny — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 05:24:50 GMT

hi richard,

i got most of the things mentioned above done already.

my main concern now is having to view the infopath 2007 form on a web browser.

i am currently working as a intern at a company which mostly uses infopath 2003 but i did my form using infopath 2007. (and my days there are running out soon!)

thus i now need to find a way to have it viewed as a web browser.

i got a designer error when i enable the compatibility function. it gives me a ' Submitting data to database is not supported '. so how should i go from here?

i already enable the view in web browser at sharepoint. so this designer error might be the problem which gives me an error when i try to open up infopath 2007 forms as a web browser.

Re: help, i'm new to infopath.

richardlpalmer — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:07:13 GMT

You most likely will not need a coded solution. You'll be surprised how robust InfoPath is (as well as SharePoint). Where are you at with her instructions above? It sounds like you've got the form designed the way you want. Have you published the form to SharePoint?

Re: help, i'm new to infopath.

johnny — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 04:19:55 GMT

Gosh, at first i thought it was going ok for me about the task given to me but i am getting more blur each time :(

hope someone can help

ok, first i have created the require forms needed. the fields are as of/should be the databases name right?

i used infopath 2003 for the form creation. is there a need for infopath 2007?

and i think i will be using sharepoint 2003.

ok let me review my task again:

Through the form, the user initiate a request for a certain item.

an email will then trigger to alert my supervisor and the other bigger bosses.

The team(my supervisor and his 'gang') of the item will then review the request whether to accept or not.

i'm sure there are codes involve? using visual studio or something?

is visual basic 2008 express edition ok to use? or is it not compatible with the 2003 softwares that i am using.

oh, and my boss told me to use the Sofware Development Life Cycle(SDLC) help with this task. i know its not related to infopath, but any tips from anyone? :x

thanks for hearing out my nonsense. appreciate helps :)

Re: help, i'm new to infopath.

Janice Thorne — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 20:59:11 GMT

Hi Johnny. A good step-by-step procedure is found here.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/infopath/HA101070571033.aspx

This procedure walks you through creating a button and creating a submit connection to a Sharepoint form library. Good luck! :-)

Re: help, i'm new to infopath.

Rajitha — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 08:49:50 GMT

Hi,

You can submit form to SharePoint form library. Then form data is stored in SharePoint form library.

And you can open submitted forms directly from SharePoint and you can edit and again submit to SharePoint.

It doesn't need code. You can have a submit data connection to SharePoint form library in the form itself.

Hope this helps.

Re: help, i'm new to infopath.

johnny — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 08:06:19 GMT

How to store the information of the form that is submit?

How to edit the information of the form?

i'm sure this uses codes, so how to find where to input this codes?

Re: help, i'm new to infopath.

Janice Thorne — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 04:53:26 GMT

You are welcome. Let me know if I can be of further help. :-)

Re: help, i'm new to infopath.

johnny — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 04:28:13 GMT

wow, thanks alot. this is very informative.

for the time being, i shall work with the information you have provided.

if i do encounter any problems. i shall be back here.

thanks again :]

Re: help, i'm new to infopath.

Janice Thorne — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 04:19:41 GMT

Good news! It sounds like this is pretty easy. I am assuming you are new to InfoPath and am starting with the basics, so forgive me if you already know some of this (if you have created forms before, skip to the workflow part below). What you will do is create a simple form and then attach workflow to it using the out-of-the-box workflow that comes with the SharePoint form library. I am assuming you are using SharePoint 2007 Standard. If so, this workflow is available and ready to go and just needs to be tweaked. If not, you will need to let me know, so we can pursue other paths.

First, you will need to create your form. You can do this by opening InfoPath and clicking Design a Form Template (on the left hand side.) Next, ensure that “Blank” template is highlighted and click Next.

Your new InfoPath form will look very bland – just a blank page. On the right hand side, you will choose a layout table (Table with Title is a good one to start with) and then give your table a title. Keep in mind that all formatting is similar to Word so you can make your form look nice by formatting the text. You will next expand the Controls section (At the top of the right column, use the drop-down box currently displaying Layout) and there you will find all you need to add function to your form. Where it says “Click here to add content” you can add your text boxes and drop down boxes for users to enter information by clicking in that form and then selecting the different controls.

When you have a control on the page, you will want to double click on it to configure it. For instance, each control is named because it can be reused. Its default name is “field1” and that isn’t really intuitive. So if your first control is a text box that will hold a user’s name, you may want to call it UserName. (Note you do not want spaces or special characters.)

I am assuming your users will be saving this form to a SharePoint Form library. To publish to a form library, click File -> Publish. You will be asked to save the file locally before it is published. Next, it will ask you where you want the form published to. Choose SharePoint form library and click Next. Enter the URL of the location you want to store your form. The format will be http://<your SharePoint Server Name>/<your subsite>/. Click next. On the next page, choose Document Library and click Next and then Next again. Type a name for your library and a description and click Next. For columns to promote, you may bring in fields from the form to your SharePoint list. Once you do this, any information your users enter into these fields will auto-populate when the form is saved to the library. Choose what columns you want in your library and click Next and then Publish. You may also want to create a submit button for users to submit the form to the library. In the current format, your users will have to save it. Although that is easier for you as the form designer, keep in mind you will want them to save it with a unique name to avoid overwriting other requests in the library.

WORKFLOW - In your form library, click next and then Settings à Form Library Settings. In the center section, click on Workflow Settings options and select Approval workflow. Next, give the workflow a name and choose when you want your workflow to start. Probably you will want your workflow to start when a new item is created. Click the Next button. If your form needs to be approved in a specific order, choose Serial workflow. If you want your workflow to go to multiple people at once, choose Parallel workflow. Parallel workflow may be good in your case, since it seems like only one of a group of people need to approve this form. Then, when you add your approvers (these will be your Authorized Persons), add them in a group (Like a pre-created SharePoint group or an AD group) and choose the option to “Assign a single task to each group entered.” This way, if only one person needs to approve it from that group and does so, the form is then approved. If you let the users reassign tasks, it will let them push the form approval off to other users when they are busy. Set how long you want the group to take completing this task (parallel) or set how long you want to give each user to complete their task (serial). Then click OK and your work flow is ready to go. Try it out by creating a document and saving it back to the library. You will see a workflow column appear in the library. When you click on it, it will take you to a workflow status page where you can see what tasks have been created for your users.

Each task will be kicked off with an email to the person it is assigned to and the final approval will also be accompanied with an email.

Does this help at all? Please let me know if you need additional clarification.

Re: help, i'm new to infopath.

johnny — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 03:17:50 GMT

i will be using sharepoint.

2003 or 2007 for which? the sharepoint or infopath?

i am not so sure about quite alot stuff. my supervisor just gave me the task and expects me to learn on my own.

so my only resource i can learn is through the net.

i think the authorized person is predetermined.