InfoPath Dev

Hello

 
Within the division I am working they severely lack an inventory database, we did have one some time ago but as other managers started to buy in equipment the updating of the database was overlooked and is now out of date. I have been set the deadline of 8 -10 weeks.  Below are listed some of the requirements

 
Design a database to hold inventory details for all hardware items

Produce a list of the fields to be held for each item of hardware, e.g. serial, model, make, year bought, warranty, type (desktop, laptop, disk etc.), current user, location and any others you think would be relevant.

 
Access to database should be web enabled or via Sharepoint, allowing anyone in the company to view, add, amend details.

 
Asset tags should be produced for every item of equipment.

 
All existing equipment should then be recorded into the system.

 
My idea is to do this using MS InfoPath 2007. I don’t have much experience using this software, from what I can see you can create various forms and fill out information (i.e. serial number,model, etc) and then publish it. My company has an intranet that was created using Sharepoint. My company uses MS Sharepoint Server 2007.

 
Can you please provide me with some guidance on how this can be done using InfoPath and Sharepoint?

One thing I don't understand, will I be manually inputting the equipment data into the forms I create in InfoPath or where can I input this information and then import it into InfoPath?Is that how it would work?The equipment information that I will collect, I enter this into the forms I will create..but then I will have hundreds of forms to publish on Sharepoint is there a better way to collate similiar forms i.e. all information on printers into one form?rather than publish all these forms individually on Sharepoint?

 

Thank you for taking the time to read this

Any help you can provide me with would be greatly appreciated

 

Thomas

Thomas, you know how I feel about this, but I'll wait to see what the Qdabra folks think.

Hi Thomas,

Great scenario. Should be totally doable with InfoPath and SQL. SharePoint has some perf limits with several thousand forms but if you use SharePoint Data View Web Part on SQL you can filter to only show the data you need and get around the limitations. We have several solutions in the 100k+ range of forms and visibility is fine with custom web parts or custom views. Of course, we use our loosely coupled Database Accelerator Web Service (DBXL) which lets supports mapping more than one InfoPath form into a pre-existing SQL database. Because the Web Service uses a data-driven mapping layer (and also saves the XML), changes to the form's data source or to the SQL database schema can happen without breaking the submit process.

To import large amounts of pre-existing data, we have Excel to XML tool that can help you. One row per asset. We even have an Asset Tracker form that we use internally which might be a good starting point for you. Many people use InfoPath today to enter data into SharePoint and SQL. InfoPath provides a low cost way to create and manage forms. Adding fields to the form is easy and does not require a programmer. InfoPath provides the best and easiest to use data validation out there and because it has excellent support for XML, it's easy to map to a database using a Web Service.

You can also use Access to do this. In Access, creating an input form is slightly more complicated and users must have Access running on their computers.

Hope this helps.