InfoPath Dev

Hi,

I’m new here, new in SharePoint and new in InfoPath.

I hope you could help me with my problem. Let me give you a brief resume of my business process:

Every user in the organization can create this kind of forms (It includes Administrators).

The form will need to pass through the following states:  Draft, Reviewing, Pending, Accepted, Service Evaluation and Finished

The user who creates the form can modify certain fields while the state is “Draft”. When the user sends it for Review (administrators review the form) administrators can see all the fields of the form. They can’t modify the fields already filled by the user; they can only fill a section and sign the form (Agree or Disagree).

When they hit the “Agree” button, the state becomes “Accepted”, then, Administrators could send this form for “Service Evaluation”. In this state, the user who create the form needs to fill the Service Evaluation, when the user finish it, the user sends it back to Administrator and the form is changed to “Finished” state.

If the Administrator signs the form as “Disagree”, the form will be send to the user with the administrator’s comments. In this “Pending” state, the user must recheck the form and send it again to the administrators to continue the process.

·         I need a field to select contacts from the Active Directory. I used Contact Selector, but it doesn’t work for me and I don’t know why (I did it with the right structure, but when I select a contact and press Ok, the field (group or control) is disabled and then, I can’t add users anymore).

·         When you pass from one state to another, you can’t modify the fields already filled in previous states, but you can see the information contained in these fields. Also, in every change (state) some notifications needs to be send, for example, DraftàReviewing sends an e-mail to administrators to sign the form.

I already finish the form (Look and feel), now I need it on a SharePoint Form Library, with this signature process and the validation listed in Notes Section. I really don’t have any idea how to do this so:

Any advice, suggestions, recommendations… anything are welcomed

If you need more information let me know.

Thanks for all,

Jaime Saldaña

PS If anyone have a poster or something to help me understand how to access and modify fields in a form (specially in VB.net) I appreciate it so much.

Welcome Jaime.

You describe a complex but doable workflow and assignment process.

You may be interested in the Database Accelerator Qdabra Database Accelerator Suite Version 2.1 - Developer since it includes sample forms which include the assignment and routing process you describe done in a task pane. If you would like I could show you a demo. It has state of the form and read-only views as you describe. It also can do email notifications if the form stays in one status too long, etc.

How are you identifying each user and categorizing them?

Thanks for your comments Clay Fox.

I tried to install the application you mention yesterday, but I got some errors installing it, like this:

The request failed with the error message: ||--||<html>|| <head>||    <title>Configutario…

I tried to solve it, but I couldn’t so, I quit.

I tried to install it on a virtual machine running Windows 2003 Standard, with MSSQL Server 2005 Enterprise and MOSS 2007 Standard.

If you could help me to install it and you could show me a demo of this application I would appreciate it so much.

About the question: How am I identifying each user and categorizing them?

 The answer is: I added roles: Users (for every user in the organization) and Administrators (only 4 users)

Hi JSaldanar and welcome!

The problem is that SharePoint 2007 doesn't play well with other Web Services in IIS. 

Here's a link to a release note regarding this issue with SharePoint 2007: http://www.infopathdev.com/files/folders/dbxlsupport/entry20602.aspx

Please let us know if this resolves your problem.

Best regards,

I tried to find the folder, but I couldn’t. I think that the reference you mention it’s when you install it.

My problem is that I can’t install it; the installer makes a rollback to all the installation

Any other suggestion or idea?

The trick is to check this while you are in the install process.

Once you get through to where you configure the database, look in IIS and access the web config which should be there at this point before the roll back.

Also make sure your account you are using has permission to create databases and a QdabraDBXL db is being created.

Hi Clay,

I did it, but I got this error:  Unable to connect to the remote server--> no connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it.

I test the connection and everything works fine.

Any idea?

What were you doing when you got the unable to connect? What were you trying to do?

Hi Clay, 

I was trying to install the application.

When the installer was trying to create the database, it throws me the error that I told you.

OK That helps.

Is the database local on the machine?

Do you have multiple instances of SQL?  Sometimes you need to specify the SQL instance name instead of the default (local) in the install routine.

Are you using an account in the local administrators group when running the install? Verify you have the ability to create databases in SQL.

You also may need to turn remote TCP connections on through the configuration manager.

Hi Clay,

Here you have my answers:

Is the database local on the machine?

Yes it is, the database is local on the machine (I'm using a virtual machine with Windows 2003, MOSS Standard and SQL Server 2005 Enterprise)

Do you have multiple instances of SQL?  Sometimes you need to specify the SQL instance name instead of the default (local) in the install routine.

No, I don't have multiple instances of SQL.

Are you using an account in the local administrators group when running the install? Verify you have the ability to create databases in SQL.

I'm using Windows Authentication in SQL Server, I'm logged in as Administrator so I can create databases

You also may need to turn remote TCP connections on through the configuration manager.

I couldn't find the option to turn remote TCP connections, I saw all protocols marked as active (on SQL Server Configuration Manager).