InfoPath Dev

So I created a Purchase Order Form within my company. The goal is, eventually, to send the Purchase order to the external supplier, which of course, does not have InfoPath or access to our SharePoint site (where the Form is stored). 

I hoped that when selecting  tools->Form options ->E-mail attachments ->always send current view and attachments (Form data (I cant select Form data and the form template?) the supplier would get the view in his e-mail and be done with it. But that apparently didn't work out as I had planned.

Is it possible for the supplier to see the infopath form as I see it when sending it? I can't expect suppliers to have MS InfoPath and they won't be able to access our SharePoint site where the data is stored.

Can anyone help?

Hi-

There must be some issue because what you are describing is possible. With answers to these two questions, someone might be able to suggest some solutions.

First, you say: "the supplier would get the view in his e-mail and be done with it. But that apparently didn't work out as I had planned." Can you explain what the external supplier is getting?

Second, do you know what email client the external supplier is using?

Someone who is not using InfoPath will never get exactly what you see in InfoPath. Sadly, email clients distort the view, each in their own way, some more and some less.

One recommendation is to create two sections: one for filling out the form and one for sending email. These two sections are controlled by the value of a boolean field. The boolean field is FALSE by default. When the user clicks submit, the boolean field is changed to TRUE. The "filling out" section is shown by default but hidden when the boolean field = TRUE. The "emailing section" is hidden by default but shown when the boolean field = FALSE.

Result: this allows you to have two sections with different designs in your form. One gets used for filling out, and the other is sent out in email. This allows you to play around with the spacing and layout of the "email section" until it looks acceptable in the email that is received.

Hope this helps.

In the first situation he got the template, although the lay-out was totally messed up and he could not open attachments added to the purchase order. Also he was not able to open the attachment that was in the e-mail (no InfoPath).
See also a picture here:
http://img121.imageshack.us/i/distortedtemplateview.jpg/

The second situation he only saw XML code in his e-mail. The form was not being viewed within the e-mail.
http://img33.imageshack.us/i/xmloutputinfopath.jpg/ 

Second, do you know what email client the external supplier is using?

Microsoft Outlook (either 2003 or 2007)

One recommendation is to create two sections

Actually I have two different views in the template. One for internal and one just for the Supplier, which are copied fields and made read only. Employees (except the facilities department) cannot see or open this view.

Looking forward to some more input, your first response was valuable!

Thanks for the info. The first screenshot brings you a step closer to the desired result. That is, the template is distorted and the PDF attachment can't be downloaded, but at least Outlook is correctly reading the xml file.

So the problem should be attacked in steps:

1. Why is Outlook not recognizing the XML?

2. Why is the attachment not being sent? I believe this is default InfoPath behavior. I found some previous discussions on this, including:

http://www.infopathdev.com/forums/p/9366/33158.aspx

http://www.infopathdev.com/forums/p/7879/28773.aspx

3. Clean up the view so it's not a messed up layout. (this can be done, but the InfoPath views do get distorted in email and require lots of tweaking)

So, to discuss the first issue: what changed between the first attempt and the second attemp? To me it sounds like somehow Outlook is no longer opening the xml, but I'm not sure what could've caused this. I imagine that this is a machine configuration issue; you can verify by having InfoPath send the email other users, to see if the issue is reproducible on other machines that are running Outlook.

Once Outlook begins to recognize and display the form content (first screenshot), then you'll need to play with the form design to get it to display undistorted.

As far as the attachment, the links above provide ideas on uploading the attachment to a URL, and then including that URL in the form itself. Please read over the links and post your thoughts here. Thanks.

2. Why is the attachment not being sent? I believe this is default InfoPath behavior.
Fact is the attachment does get sent internally (but that's probably because people inside the company who can access SharePoint have access to this data.

So, to discuss the first issue: what changed between the first attempt and the second attemp?
I changed the settings.
Scenario 1: Tools->Form Options->deselect Always send current view and the following attachments
Scenario 2: Tools->Form Options-> Select Always send current view and the following attachments-> Form data (cannot select the "and for template")

you'll need to play with the form design to get it to display undistorted
I can try to make the form smaller and maybe even work with more sections to get this fixed.

As far as the attachment, the links above provide ideas on uploading the attachment to a URL, and then including that URL in the form itself. Please read over the links and post your thoughts here. Thanks.
Thanks for the links but they provide no solution for me. The document gets saved in our Network and suppliers do not have access to this information. Still I find is strange the PDF is not openable. But it just came to me (this very moment) that I have a conditional format on the attachments that only a certain role can edit/open them. Maybe that's why the supplier can't open the attachment. I am going to delete this conditional formatting and see what it does.

To be continued. 

 None of the above fixed the problem.

 We are now sending a "converted to PDF" form to the supplier and use the form internally as InfoPath.