InfoPath Dev

I had someone send me an infopath form from their Sharepoint server. I took the file and have it loaded in 2 places. One is located on my hard drive and the other is on my sharepoint server. In either case I am unable to open the file. It looks for his sharepoint server.

HELP!

Norman

Hi Norman Welcome to the Forums,

You can check your file href is located correct or not by opening that file in notepad. If your href is correct then you can give more details what type of error you are getting when try to open that file.

OK, now you have my attention. What is the HREF file? The error I am getting is pretty straight forward. If I create a form on MY SHAREPOINT server I can open it and do what ever with it. The files that were sent to me were created and saved on another sharepoint server.
Here is what I do and get:
1. Open Infopath and select DESIGN FORM.
2. Open form on My Computer
3. File is in XML format, I change the view to all files and select my file.
4. The error is pretty long. But it is trying to go to a site in ENGLAND, where the file came from, to open. It says it can not find the form template.

Hi Norman,

Whichever you have xml file in your computer, open it in notepad or any XML editor mode. Search the keyword for href in that file and change that url to your XSN file path or your manifest.xsf file where it is located. You need to specify where form file wants to open in href.

For example if you want to open it from share point href address like below:
http://SystemName/FormLibraryName/Forms/template.xsn

If you want to open from your local computer:
E:\DriveName\FolderName\ProjectName\manifest.xsf

We are almost there. I thought I had it. I found the "HREF" and changed it. The file starts to open and comes back with an error: "The file does not appear to be an Infopath form". I double checked the file name in case something was not named correctly. Especially the extension.

Norman

I might have figured out the issue. It has to do with the XSN Template. The form needs to be PUBLISHED on the local machine. The problem is that I can do this, to a point with a file. I can make the form on the local machine. However, since I am unable to access the file that was sent to me I can not port (merge) the data. I believe I would need access to the other companies Sharepoint server. The entire process seems to center around the XSN file.

Shiva:

Whichever you have xml file in your computer, open it in notepad or any XML editor mode. Search the keyword for href in that file and change that url to your XSN file path or your manifest.xsf file where it is located. You need to specify where form file wants to open in href.

For example if you want to open it from share point href address like below:
http://SystemName/FormLibraryName/Forms/template.xsn

If you want to open from your local computer:
E:\DriveName\FolderName\ProjectName\manifest.xsf

Editing the xml file with a new href url is fine, but what about when there are many xml files that will be shared across the 2 sites? Is there any way to build into the template a second href so if it can't find the first reference then go to the second? I have many xml files to share with a vendor who has InfoPath only (no SharePoint), and my template has lots of data connections to my SharePoint lists. I just want for my vendor to be able to view this information, and add their comments into free text fields inside the forms.

If I send the vendor the manifest.xsf file, and get them to open it in design mode and then publish it locally I am still left with the problem where my xml files have been created using my template, and therefore the href url is pointing to that.

If anyone could give me some advice on this it would be greatly appreciated!



 

Hi Lotus,

After publishing the form to share point, upload all the xml files and relink all the forms.