Advanced InfoPath DevelopmentInfoPath / SharePoint 2010

Prepared By: Suzanne GeorgeSuzanne.George@perficient.comSr. ArchitectPerficient - Microsoft West Region

About Perficient

Perficient is a leading information technology consulting firm serving clients

throughout North America.

We help clients implement business-driven technology solutions that integrate

business processes, improve worker productivity, increase customer loyalty and

create a more agile enterprise to better respond to new business opportunities.

Agenda

• InfoPath – Getting started• Designing foundations• What you need to know• Debugging InfoPath• Creating a Vacation Request Form

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InfoPath – Love it or Hate it!?!

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The Promise of InfoPath

The Developer Dream

Why Me??

Where is the developer??

InfoPath - Start with the basics!

• To use or not to use InfoPath? Just because you can doesn’t mean you should!

– Pros: •Easy to use interface, integration with SharePoint Lists and Form Web Parts, Office Integration.

•Power Users can do simple stuff.•Lookups and repeating tables are easy to do.

– Cons: •Advanced developers find it frustrating•Can’t publish people picker fields•Publishing columns / changes to column names•No CSS type support (expand/collapse regions)

• evaluate the requirements and prioritization of features over simplicity and maintainability

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Designing Your InfoPath Form for Success

• Design first! – Where is the data? Database, List or Library, in the

form?– Where does the business logic belong – Workflow,

Code-Behind, or InfoPath Rules? Where will approval happen?

– Form Views – how many views will you need, when will they show, and who has access to update?

– Form Controls – what types of controls are needed for the data, which controls will be exported, etc.

– Styles – how will the form look and does it make sense to the user?

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The InfoPath Need to Know List

• Deployment – Central Admin vs. Publish (Form Options)

• Know how to retrieve your InfoPath Form w/Powershell– Export-SPInfoPathAdministrationFiles -path d:\

Temp\file.cab • Know how to export source files before checking in to

TFS. (Also possible to rename FormName.xsn to FormName.cab to view/extract contents)

• When removing exported columns, the are not removed from a list! Here is how to fix it…

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Add-PSSnapin microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell$web = Get-SPWeb http://crzo-test77/BASS$list = $web.Lists["ApplicationSupport"]$field = $list.Fields["SR Assigned To"]$field.AllowDeletion = “true”$field.Sealed = “false”$field.Delete()$list.Update()

$list.Fields | Select-Object InternalName$web.Dispose()

Debugging an InfoPath Form

• Debugging Essentials– Check form with Design Checker– Set debug mode

• click the Build tab and then, at the bottom, click Advanced. In the Advanced Build Settings dialog box, click the Debug Info list and then click full

• In the Options dialog box, in the area to the left, expand Debugging and then click General.

• Clear the Enable Just My Code (Managed only) check box.• Select the Suppress JIT optimization on module load (Managed only) check box.

• Build/Deploy

– Set Central Administration Logging for InfoPath • Use ULS Viewer for log information

• Urls: http://ybbest.wordpress.com/2011/01/09/how-to-debug-infopath2010-using-vs2010/

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg271285.aspx#IP14_Debugging

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An example… Vacation Form

• The requirements – User to input form– All data stays inside form, certain fields are

exported to list– Version History– After approval start SharePoint workflow– SharePoint list views need to have People “is [Me]”

functionality

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Form User Input

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– Demo

Conclusion

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• Design first, code once!• InfoPath can be powerful and leverage both PowerUsers

and developers capabilities• More things you can do with InfoPath

• Automatically check-in / out forms• Populate dynamic approvers in form based upon information in the

form• Dynamically hide and show data• Mash-ups• Read/Write to database tables

• Questions?

Suzanne George

For further information, please contact:

Suzanne GeorgeSuzanne.George@perficient.comSr. Technical ArchitectPerficient - Microsoft West RegionTwitter: spgenie

Books co-authored:

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The SharePoint 2010 Handbook: A Collection of Short Chapters for Delivering Successful SharePoint Projects

Microsoft® SharePoint® 2010 Administrator's Companion