InfoPath Dev

Hello,

I have successfully built my 1st form and deployed it to SharePoint.  I have attached a simple workflow that sends an e-mail when the form is created in the Form Library.

As our company is new to SharePoint and InfoPath.  I have 2 issues.

As it stands now, everything works, but the user has to check in the Form as versioning is turned on before the workflow kicks off the e-mail.

1) With Forms, is it best practice to have Major Versioning on or Off?

2) If on, is there a way to auto check in?  If Off, does anyone run into problems with 2 users editing the same form and thus losing some info.  Or does a Approve Workflow keep a tight lid on this and no versioning is not an issue.

Thanks!

Paul W.

 

Some information to your questions:

Major Versioning On/Off:  All depends on the business needs your users have.  Ex. I had a customer who needed an email alert when data in an InfoPath Form was changed.  I set the Major versioning to On, create an Alert in SharePoint and the interesting feature is that the user received an alert with the detailed information what changed in the InfoPath.

A small remark, SharePoint sends only the diferences of the fields who are promoted.

Automaticlly Check In: You can use versioning with or without check in.  This is a SharePoint Issue.  Check In / Out is a feature to prevent multiple users to change the form at the same time. 

So all depends if the business needs history and how many people will use at the same time the same files

 

Thanks for Tips!

 PAW

Can auto check out when open the form and auto check in when save the form?

Any update on this. This is my EXACT problem. From MS Site a Purpose of InfoPath is Electronic checklists that guide the user step by step through predefined work. Ok, now here is my situation, I have users running checklists.(Line items in a text box pasted from word) But multiple people could be working (updating/add items) on the same checklist from different computers. The check in/out is not an option since my users wont remember to check it back in all the time. But I cant have any steps missed, so if two or more people have it open who ever saves first makes the other users loss is stale and their data is gone. So how to I provide a lock to the form so only 1 person can edit. Then to make it worse, I need it to auto save back after x idle time so other users can edit it. (Like 10mins for example). Any ideas???

Yes, I beleive this can be done with code.  Have a hidden check box on the form for Lock.   When the user opens the form, have it automatically check the checkbox and send a message if the value is Ture (Locked).  If not automatically mark the check box and save the form.  The reason you need code is to prevent the submit window from popping up.  I am trying to figure out how to do this with out code, so if you learn something, let me know.

keep me posted, I would like to hear what you come up with.

I did some research.  If I understand it correctly, by setting up your form as a browser based form (This has it's drawbacks) you can have more that one persion in the form at a time.  Check out the information on merging forms in InfoPath.

Hi I have been working with something similar to this and am having an issue and wondered if anyone had a solution. I have set up versioning on a forms library and set it up to require check in and out to edit forms. But if someone simply clicks on a form it will download the form allowing them to click the design button and change the design of the form and then click save. This save is not local and actually submits it to the server and changes the template of the form on the server, never showing the form being checked out or a version number changing, am i missing a trick? Cheers Ben