Amal Nagm

Design a form template for use on a mobile device InfoPath 2007

metynagm — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:39:58 +0000

Introduction to designing form templates for mobile devices

By using Office InfoPath 2007 together with InfoPath Forms Services, you can design a browser-compatible form template (browser-compatible form template: A form template that is designed in InfoPath by using a specific compatibility mode. A browser-compatible form template can be browser-enabled when it is published to a server running InfoPath Forms Services.) that can be filled out by using a personal digital assistant (PDA) or other mobile device.

Note You can create a browser-compatible form template for most mobile devices, including PDAs, smartphones, and any device that supports a Web browser with HTML, cHTML, or xHTML. However, InfoPath Forms Services does not support mobile device browsers that use Wireless Action Protocol (WAP).

You can design a browser-compatible form template for users to fill out exclusively in a mobile device browser. For example, you might design such a template if your warehouse is Wi-Fi enabled and your company provides all warehouse employees with PDAs to track inventory.
If you want your form template to be accessible to all users, regardless of their display device, you can design one view exclusively for mobile users, a second view for a desktop browser, and a third view for people who have InfoPath installed on their computers. This technique lets you design a single form template that can be filled out by different sets of users, instead of creating separate forms for each form-filling scenario.
Find links to more information about creating dedicated views in the See Also section.
Since each mobile device displays a given Web page differently, the exact appearance of the form will vary depending on the device that is used to access it. When you design your form template in InfoPath, it helps to target a specific mobile device so that you can optimize your design to suit that particular device.
This article describes tips and procedures for designing, publishing, and testing your mobile-enabled form templates, as well as control and feature limitations for mobile form templates,

Form controls and features that are not supported in mobile device browsers

Mobile devices support many, but not all, of the controls that are supported in browser-compatible form templates.

Note InfoPath will not warn you about a form control or a feature in your form template that is not supported in mobile device browsers.

Support for form controls

You can use the following table to determine whether InfoPath Forms Services supports a particular InfoPath control.

Since mobile device browsers do not support HTML tables, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), and certain other browser technologies, some controls appear differently in a mobile device browser than they do in a desktop browser.

Furthermore, mobile device browsers completely ignore some controls; for example, a file attachment control.

= Full support = Partial support = No support

InfoPath 2007 control	Desktop browsers	Mobile device browsers
Text box
Check box
Button
Expression box
List box
Drop-down list box
Repeating section
Hyperlink
Option button ¹
Optional section ²
Repeating table ³
File attachment control
Date picker ⁴
Rich text box
ActiveX control
Bulleted list control
Choice group
Choice section
Combo box
Horizontal repeating table
Horizontal region
Ink picture control
Master/detail control
Multiple-selection list box
Numbered list control
Picture control
Plain list control
Repeating choice group
Repeating recursive section
Scrolling region
Vertical label

¹Consider using a drop-down list box instead.

²Consider using multiple views instead.

³Consider using a repeating section instead.

⁴In mobile device browsers, the date picker appears as a text box with data validation.

Support for business logic

You can add business logic to your form template to help prevent data-entry errors and to automate specific actions in the form for the user. In particular, you can use data validation (data validation: The process of testing the accuracy of data; a set of rules you can apply to a control to specify the type and range of data that users can enter.), conditional formatting (conditional formatting: The process of changing the appearance of a control, including its visibility and read-write state, based on values entered into the form.), and rules (rule: A condition or action, or a set of conditions or actions, that automatically performs tasks based on events and values in the form.)to make the form show validation messages, change formatting, or perform other tasks.

You can use the following table to determine whether or not a given browser supports a particular type of business logic.

= Full support = Partial support = No support

InfoPath 2007 feature	Desktop browsers	Mobile device browsers
Formulas ¹
Data validation
Rules
Conditional formatting ²
User roles

¹Except xdXDocument:get-Role, Position, and Last functions.

²Mobile device browsers support some conditional formatting features; for example, you can hide or display controls depending upon conditions you define in the form. You cannot use conditional formatting, however, to change the appearance of a control based on conditions in the form. For example, you cannot use conditional formatting to change the color of text in a control.

General design advice

You can find a lot of guidance on the Internet about how to design a form that users will view on a mobile device. Here are some additional tips to think about as you design the form template:

When users fill out a form on a mobile device, they must click the Update button on the mobile device toolbar to trigger a calculation or some other other type of business logic. Each click of the button forces the mobile device to submit data to the server, a process called a postback. To make it easier on the user, consider adding a button to the form template that automates the postback. For example, suppose your form includes a Total field that totals the numbers in three other fields on the form. In that case, you might add a Show Total button next to the Total field, so that users remember to refresh the fields in the form.
Rather than insert all of the controls on a single view (view: A form-specific display setting that can be saved with a form template and applied to form data when the form is being filled out. Users can switch between views to choose the amount of data shown in the form.), consider a design that has multiple views, especially for the display of conditional controls. Multiple views on a form help prevent a single view from becoming too large or complex, and therefore difficult to use on a small screen.
If the form has multiple views, add buttons that help users to navigate between views.
Use list boxes wherever possible; it is difficult to type on a mobile device.

Design a form template for use on a mobile device

With some exceptions, designing and publishing a form template for a mobile device is the same as designing and publishing a form template for a browser on a desktop computer. The following sections discuss how to design, deploy, and test a mobile form template.

Step 1: Specify a compatibility setting for the form template

Step 2: Specify a mobile device setting for the form template

Step 3: Create a document library to store the completed forms

Step 4: Specify submission options for the form template

Step 5: Publish the form template to a server

Step 6: Associate the form template with the document library

Step 7: Test and debug the form template

Step 1: Specify a compatibility setting for the form template

The first step is to specify that you want to design a browser-compatible form template.

On the File menu, click Design a Form Template.
Under Design a new in the Design a Form template dialog box, click Form Template.
In the Based on gallery, do one of the following:
- To define the data source as you design the form template, click Blank.
- To use a Web service as the data source for the form template, click Web Service. This option lets you query or submit data to a Web service.
- To use a Microsoft SQL Server database as the data source for the form template, click Database. This option lets you query data from a SQL Server database.
- To use an XML document (.xml) file or an XML Schema (.xsd) file as the the data source, click XML or Schema.
- To use information in a data connection file (data connection file: A file that stores information about a connection to a data source, such as an Access database, a spreadsheet, or a text file, and that facilitates data source administration.) as the basis for the data source, click Connection Library.
To make your form template compatible with a server running InfoPath Forms Services, select the Enable browser-compatible features only check box, and then click OK.

A new form template opens in InfoPath, with the text, Compatibility: InfoPath and InfoPath Forms Services in the status bar. The purpose of the text is to inform you that either InfoPath or a Web browser can display the active form template.
Add controls, data validation, or any other features to the form template. As you design your form template, remember that mobile browsers do not support some of the controls that desktop browsers support.
Note The Design Checker task pane will not warn you that a control or feature in your form template is not supported in mobile device browsers. To double-check support for a control or feature, see the Form controls and features that are not supported in mobile device browsers section later in this article.

Step 2: Specify a mobile device setting for the form template

After you create your browser-compatible form template, you must add an Update button to the toolbar of the form template, and then select a specific option in the Form Options dialog box to enable the form template for a mobile device browser.

On the Tools menu, click Form Options.
In the Form Options dialog box, click the Browser category.
To add an Update button to the toolbar of the mobile device, under Include the following commands on the toolbars, in the Toolbars section, select the Update check box.
Under Mobile Devices, select the Enable rendering on a mobile device check box.
Click OK to return to the form template.
Save the form template to the location of your choice.

Step 3: Create a document library to store the mobile forms

The next two steps describe how to submit form data to a library on a server that is running InfoPath Forms Services.

Use the following steps to create the library.

Using a browser, open the SharePoint site where you want to store user forms.
Click View All Site Content, and then click Create on the All Site Content page.

Tip In most cases, you can use the Site Actions menu as well.
Under Libraries, click Document Library.
In the Name box, type a name for the new library.
The name will appear at the top of the library page, become part of the address for the library page, and appear in the navigational elements that help users to find and open the library.
In the Document Template section, in the Document Template list, click None, and then click Create.

Step 4: Specify submission options for the form template

Now, you must configure your form template so that users can submit form data to the document library you created in step 3. In addition, you will create a formula that assigns a unique file name to each form that is submitted to the library.

In InfoPath, open the browser-compatible form template that you created in step 2.
On the Tools menu, click Submit Options.
In the Submit Options dialog box, select the Allow users to submit this form check box.
In the Send form data to a single destination list, click SharePoint document library.
To add a new data connection, click Add. The Data Connection Wizard dialog box opens.
In the Document Library text box, type http:////Forms/AllItems.aspx, where is the name of the SharePoint server that is running InfoPath Forms Services, and is the name of the library.
Note If the document library is not located on the root site, you must insert the site name in the URL. For example, http://///Forms/AllItems.aspx
Click the button to the right of the File name text box.
In the Insert Formula dialog box, click Insert Function. The Insert Function dialog box opens.
Click the Text category, click the concat function, and then click OK.
In the Insert Formula dialog box, click the first occurrence of the text “double-click to insert field” in the Formula box to highlight it, and then type ‘form’. Include the single quotation marks.
Click the second occurrence of the text “double-click to insert field” in the Formula box to highlight it, and then click Insert Function.
Click the Date and Time category, click the now function, and then click OK.
Tip The now function lets you automatically add the current date and time to the form name.
Delete the remaining “double-click to insert field” items in the Formula box.
Delete the extra space and the comma, so that the formula box contains the formula concat(‘form’, now()), as shown in the following image.

When users submit their form to the library, the form will be named according to this formula. Each submitted form will have a unique name.
To return to the Data Connection Wizard dialog box, click OK.
Click Next, and then click Finish.
To return to the form template, click OK.
On the Tools menu, click Form Options, and then click the Browser category.
Under Toolbars, select the Submit check box, adn then click OK.
Save your changes.

Step 5: Publish the form template to a server

To publish a form template that mobile devices can use, you must work with the administrator of the server that is running InfoPath Forms Services. That publication process can be divided into three distinct steps:

The form designer must publish an .xsn file to a shared location. The .xsn file contains information about the server where the form template will ultimately appear.
The farm administrator must upload the form template to the server and optionally verify that the form template is free from errors.
The farm administrator or site collection administrator must activate the form template to a site collection (site collection: A set of Web sites on a virtual server that have the same owner and share administration settings. Each site collection contains a top-level Web site and can contain one or more subsites.) on the server, which makes the form template available to people using mobile devices.

Prepare the form template for administrator approval

As is the case for all form templates that you design for mobile devices, this form template requires administrator approval. The following procedure walks you through the process of preparing the form template for administrator approval, by saving it to a shared location on your computer or network. The farm administrator for the server is responsible for actually deploying the form template, which involves uploading and activating the form template on the server.

On the File menu, click Publish.
In the Publishing Wizard, click To a SharePoint server with or without InfoPath Forms Services, and then click Next to open the next page of the wizard.
In the Enter the location of your SharePoint or InfoPath Forms Services site box, type the location of the SharePoint site where the forms will be stored, and then click Next to open the next page of the wizard.
Review the settings, and note that the form template requires aministrator approval.

Click Next to open the next page of the wizard.
In the Specify a location and file name for the form template box, click Browse.
In the Browse dialog box, browse to a location that the farm administrator can access, and then in the File name box, type the name of the form template and click Save.
Click Next to open the next page of the wizard.
If you want specific fields in the form template to show as columns in the document library, click the Add button, select the fields you want, and then click OK. Otherwise, click Next to open the next page of the wizard.
Verify that the information is correct, and then click Publish to save your form template (.xsn) file to the specified location.
Click Close.
At this point, you must ask a farm administrator to upload the form template to the server and then activate it to a site collection.
Tip To watch a demo of the upload and activation process, see Demo: Deploy an administrator-approved form template

Step 6: Associate the form template with the document library

After a farm administrator uploads your form template to the server and activates it to a site collection, you must associate the form template with the library you created in step 3. When users create a new file in this library, a form based on the form template you created will open in their mobile device browser.

Using a browser, open the document library you created in step 3.
Tip The path should be something like http:///sites/team//Forms/AllItems.aspx, where is the name of your SharePoint site, and is the name of the library where the forms will be stored.
In the library, on the Settings menu , click Document Library Settings.
Under General Settings, click Advanced settings.
In the Content Types section, under Allow management of content types, click Yes.
Click OK to return to the Customize Library Name page.
Under Content Types, click Add from existing site content types.
Next to Select Content Types, click the name of the form template in the Available Site Content Types list.
Cick Add.
Click OK to return to the Customize Library Name page.
In the Content Types section, click Document.
Under Settings, click Delete this content type, and then click OK.
Return to the document library, and click the New button to make sure that the appropriate form opens.
Note By default, the form will open in InfoPath. If you want to force the form to open in a browser, go back to the advanced settings page for the document library. Next to Browser-enabled Documents, click Display as a Web page, and then click OK.

Step 7: Test the form template

Once your form template has been published to a server that is running InfoPath Forms Services, it is a good idea to make sure that it is working correctly. You should test your form by using the targeted mobile device under the same working and lighting conditions as your users.

If you do not have the actual physical device, you can use a device emulator to mimic the behavior of most mobile devices. Emulators are available on the Internet for a variety of devices and operating systems.

How to Create, test, and Debug Mobile Form Templates InfoPath 2007

metynagm — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:39:47 +0000

How to: Create, Test, and Debug Mobile Form Templates

With Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007 and access to a server running InfoPath Forms Services, you can create and deploy InfoPath form templates that can be filled out on a mobile device. Following the procedures below, create a basic InfoPath form template for use on a mobile device, and test and debug it using downloadable tools that are also available with Visual Studio 2005.

Creating the Form Template

In the following procedure, create a browser-compatible form template that will populate a text box in the default view with the word Mobile. If you have already created a mobile form template, skip this section.

To Create a basic form template for browser and mobile use

Create a browser-compatible form template and add a Text Box control to the default view.
Click Form Options on the Tools menu.
Select the Browser category, then click Update in the Include the following commands on the toolbars of the Toolbars section, and click Enable rendering on a mobile device in the Mobile Devices section.
Select the Open and Save category and click the Rules button.
In the Rules for Opening Forms dialog box, click the Add button.
In the Rule dialog box, click the Set Condition button.
In the Condition dialog box, choose The expression from the first drop-down box and replace the text in the second box with xdEnvironment:IsMobile() and click OK.
In the Rule dialog box, click the Add Action button.
In the Action dialog box, choose the Set a field’s value action.
Click the button at the end of the Field box and choose field1 and click OK.
In the Value box type Mobile and click OK four times to dismiss all dialog boxes.
Save and publish the form template to a server running InfoPath Forms Services. The form will have to be deployed to the server by an administrator. If you have administrator privileges, see Developing and Deploying Form Templates for InfoPath Forms Services for information about how to deploy the form
Note In step 9 you could choose Switch Views to switch to a view designed for mobile use when the form is opened in a mobile browser.

Testing and Debugging a Mobile Form

A simple way to test and debug an InfoPath browser-enabled form without using a mobile device is by using desktop emulators. Emulators for a variety of device form factors and operating systems can be found on the internet.
To test forms with Microsoft mobile device emulators, you will need the Microsoft Device Emulator Manager and ActiveSync. Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008 install the emulators and the Device Emulator Manager. If you do not have Visual Studio, are targeting Windows Mobile 6 devices, or are running Windows Vista, download the Standalone Device Emulator 3.0, which includes the Device Emulator Manager. If you require additional localized emulator images for Windows Mobile 5.0, you can download them from the Localized Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC Emulator Images page. If you require emulator images for Windows Mobile 6, you can download them from the Windows Mobile 6 Localized Emulator Images page.
ActiveSync 4.5 is a separate download and is required for Windows Mobile 2003 SE, Windows Mobile 5.0, and Windows Mobile 6.0 devices syncing with computers running Windows XP SP2 or earlier. Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1 is a separate download and is required for Windows Mobile 2003 devices and later syncing with computers running Windows Vista.

Note:
You may need to reboot your computer to see the Active Sync icon (for Window XP or Windows Server 2003) or Sync Center icon (for Windows Vista) in your Windows Taskbar

To Test and debug a mobile form template

Launch ActiveSync or Windows Mobile Device Center.
Launch Visual Studio 2005 and click Device Emulator Manager on the Tools menu. If you do not have Visual Studio 2005, browse to the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Device Emulator\1.0\ folder and double-click Device Emulator Manager (dvcemumanager.exe).
In the Device Emulator Manager, right-click on your desired emulator and choose Connect.
Once connected, right-click on the emulator name in the Device Emulator Manager and select Cradle.
Follow the ActiveSync prompts to create a Guest partnership.
Once ActiveSync displays “Connected”, launch Internet Explorer from the Start menu in the emulator
Browse to your SharePoint site by adding /m/ to the end of the URL.
Browse to the Form Templates folder, locate the form, and click the Display link, which will take you to a properties page.
Click on the form template filename on this page to load the form in the browser.
Notice that you have a form loaded in the device emulator browser window, with the word Mobile in the text box. If you do not see this, or the form fails to load, check your form template again to make sure the rule is set up correctly, then re-deploy the form to the site.

In step 7 above, you may go directly to the form by using a URL similar to the following:
http://ServerName/Sites/SiteName/_layouts/Mobile/MobileFormServer.aspx?XsnLocation=~sitecollection/FormServerTemplates/MobileForm.xsn
ServerName, SiteName, and MobileForm.xsn should be replaced with values that match your server, site, and name of your form template deployed to the site. You may also use the same URL in a desktop browser to get an idea of how the form will look in a mobile browser, but you will not be able to see an exact representation of the form on a mobile device without using an emulator or the target device.

color scheme InfoPath 2007

metynagm — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:39:37 +0000

Introduction to color schemes

You can use the Color Schemes task pane to automatically apply coordinated colors to certain items on your form template. Each color scheme consists of six colors that are designed to visually work well together.

When you apply a color scheme to your form template, only the following items change color:

Text that is formatted with any of the built-in heading styles that are available in the Font task pane
Header row background colors and cell borders in repeating tables (repeating table: A control on a form that contains other controls in a table format and that repeats as needed. Users can insert multiple rows when filling out the form.)
The Table with Title layout table Tip If you want the background of your form template to pick up the colors in a color scheme, you can place additional layout tables and controls inside the Table with Title layout table. Alternatively, you can click the Background Color command on the Format menu to manually apply a color from the color scheme to the entire background of your form template.

If your form template doesn’t contain any of these items, you won’t see a visual change when you apply a color scheme.
Remember that colors appear differently on different screens, so you may want to view the colors that you select on different computers to see how your form template looks.
Note Because color schemes are not supported in template parts (template part: A portion of a form template that can be saved for reuse in multiple form templates. A typical template part consists of controls and a data source, and may also include features such as data connections, data validation, and rules.), the Color Schemes task pane is unavailable when you design template parts. In addition, the sample form templates that are included with InfoPath don’t work with color schemes. Although the Color Schemes task pane is available in the sample form templates, the colors in the form template do not change when you click a color scheme in the Apply a color scheme list.

Change the color scheme for a form template

Whenever you create a new form template, InfoPath automatically applies the Blue color scheme. You can use the Color Schemes task pane to select a different color scheme.

On the Format menu, click Color Schemes.
In the Color Schemes task pane, click a color scheme in the Apply a color scheme list.
Tip To remove the currently applied color scheme, click None in the Apply a color scheme list.

Apply color scheme colors to specific items on your form template

Only some of the items on a form template change color automatically when you apply a color scheme. However, you can apply colors from the selected color scheme to other items on your form template, including text boxes, sections, and control labels.
When you apply a color scheme to your form template, the colors from that color scheme appear at the top of any color palette in the InfoPath user interface. For example, in the following image, the six color tiles that appear in the top row of the color palette represent the colors in the Burgundy color scheme.

The color palette is accessible from the Borders and Shading and View Properties dialog boxes, as well as the Font task pane. You can also access it from various buttons on the Formatting toolbar, such as the Font Color and Highlight buttons.
Note If you apply a different color scheme to your form template after manually applying colors to your form template, any colors that you applied manually won’t automatically change to reflect the new color scheme colors. You must change them manually to match the new color scheme.
In the following procedures, you will learn how to apply colors from the active color scheme to the borders and backgrounds of controls or table cells, to the background of the form template, and to text on the form template.

Apply a color scheme color to the border of a control or table

Right-click the control, table, or cell that you want to modify.
On the shortcut menu, click Borders and Shading.
Click the Borders tab.
Click the arrow next to the Color box.
Click one of the colors in the top row of the color palette.
To apply a border that uses one of the colors from the color scheme, do one of the following:
- To apply a predefined set of borders, under Presets, click the button for the borders that you want.
- To apply only specific parts of a border, under Border, click the button for each part of the border that you want. In some cases, you may need to click the buttons more than once to see a change.

Apply a color scheme color to the background of a control or table

You can also apply a color scheme color to the background of text boxes, list boxes, and other controls on your form template.

Right-click the control, table, or cell that you want to modify.
On the shortcut menu, click Borders and Shading.
Click the Shading tab.
Click the arrow next to the Color box.
To apply a color from the currently selected color scheme, click one of the colors in the top row of the color palette.

Apply a color scheme color to the background of a form template

You can apply a color scheme color to the entire background of your form template. However, if you apply a background color, make sure that the text remains legible on the form template.

On the Format menu, click Background Color.
Click the General tab.
Click the arrow next to the Background color box.
To apply a color from the currently selected color scheme, click one of the colors in the top row of the color palette.

Apply a color scheme color to a label or other text

In most cases, applying a color scheme doesn’t change the appearance of text on the form template. If you want text to match the color scheme that you applied to your form template, you must manually apply colors from that color scheme.
When you apply a color to text, make sure that the text remains visible against the background colors or shading.

Select the text or label that you want to modify.
On the Format menu, click Font.
In the Font task pane, click the arrow next to the Font color box.
To apply a color from the currently selected color scheme, click one of the colors in the top row of the color palette.

Remove a color scheme

On the Format menu, click Color Schemes.
To remove the currently applied color scheme, in the Color Schemes task pane, in the Apply a color scheme list, click None.

Note Only some of the items on a form template change color automatically when you apply a color scheme. If you have manually applied colors to other items on your form template, such as the backgrounds of controls or table cells, clicking None will not remove the color. Instead, you will need to remove or change the colors manually, by using options in the dialog box that you used to apply them.

Introduction to browser-compatible form templates InfoPath 2007

metynagm — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:39:25 +0000

When you design a Microsoft Office InfoPath form template, you can choose to create a form template that can be opened or filled out in either InfoPath or a Web browser. This type of form template is called a browser-compatible form template. After you finish designing a browser-compatible form template, you use the Publishing Wizard to publish it to a server running InfoPath Forms Services. You must also enable the browser-compatible form template for use in a Web browser. In some cases, you can enable the form template yourself during the publishing process. In other cases, such as when the browser-compatible form template contains managed code, a server farm administrator must perform this step for you.

What is InfoPath Forms Services?

InfoPath Forms Services is a server technology that makes it possible for you to design browser-based forms in InfoPath and then distribute those forms on internal or external Web sites. Users aren’t required to have InfoPath installed on their computer to fill out a form, nor are they required to download anything extra from the Web. All they need is a browser, such as Windows Internet Explorer, Apple Safari, or Mozilla Firefox. If users have InfoPath installed on their computer, they can display and fill out the form in InfoPath rather than a browser.

The InfoPath Forms Services technology is available in the Enterprise Client Access License (CAL) Edition of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and also, separately, in Microsoft Office Forms Server 2007.

Overview of browser compatibility

All form templates are compatible with InfoPath — that is, users can open and edit the forms in InfoPath, provided that the users have InfoPath installed on their computers.

If you have access to a server running InfoPath Forms Services, you can design a single form template that accommodates two kinds of users — those who have InfoPath installed on their computers and those who do not. In the latter case, users fill out forms in a Web browser, not in InfoPath.

If your users have InfoPath installed, they can open the form in InfoPath and access the full range of features for filling out forms.

The process for designing a browser-compatible form template includes specifying a compatibility setting, either up-front, when you first create the form template, or later, when you design the form template. After you design a browser-compatible form template, you can test it, publish it, and make it browser-enabled so that users can fill it out in a browser.

Compatibility options

You can design a single browser-compatible form template that runs in a Web browser, in InfoPath, or even on a mobile device. This approach reduces development time and cost and increases efficiency by allowing you to accommodate different users with a single form template.

To design a browser-compatible form template, you select the Enable browser-compatible features only check box in the Design a Form Template dialog box, which appears each time that you create a new form template. This indicates to InfoPath that you want your form template to be compatible with a Web browser, and that you intend to publish your form template to a server running InfoPath Forms Services.

When you select this check box, controls or features that won’t work in browser-compatible form templates are either hidden or disabled so that you aren’t tempted to use them during the form-design process. In the following image, the text inside the yellow box indicates that unsupported controls do not appear in the Controls task pane.

To quickly verify the current compatibility setting for your form template, look at the text that appears in the lower-right corner of the InfoPath window.

If you click this text, the Design Checker task pane appears, where you can change the current compatibility setting for the form template. For example, if you begin designing a form template and then decide that you want it to be browser-compatible, you can change the compatibility setting for the form template by clicking the Change Compatibility Settings link in the Design Checker task pane. Similarly, you can click this link to turn a browser-compatible form template into an Infopath-only form template.

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InfoPath-only views

If many of your users will have InfoPath installed on their computers, you may want to use the full range of features available in InfoPath, including some that are not available in a Web browser. In this case, you can create two views (view: A form-specific display setting that can be saved with a form template and applied to form data when the form is being filled out. Users can switch between views to choose the amount of data shown in the form.) of your browser-compatible form template. One view will be for users who open the form template in a Web browser. The other view will be used exclusively by users who have InfoPath installed on their computers.

This InfoPath-only view will never be displayed in a Web browser. Consequently, you can use InfoPath features in this view that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to use, such as user roles (user role: A predefined category that can be assigned to form users based on job title or some other criterion. Roles are typically used to present customized versions of a form to different types of users.) or master/detail controls.

Tip You can also design a view specifically for display on a small screen and use code to automatically switch to that view when a user opens the form on a mobile device.

The Design Checker task pane

If you are designing a form template, and you decide to change its compatibility setting to make it browser-compatible, it is possible that browser-compatibility problems may result. Compatibility problems occur when a form template contains features that are not supported in browser-compatible form templates. The fastest way to identify these compatibility problems is by using the Design Checker task pane.

The text at the top of the task pane indicates that the form template is currently compatible with both InfoPath and a server running InfoPath Forms Services. If you want to change this setting, click the Change Compatibility Settings link.

Errors appear in the task pane because the browser-compatible form template contains unsupported controls. To publish the browser-compatible form template, remove these controls or convert them to controls that are browser-compatible.

If you select the Verify on server check box in the Design Checker task pane, you can also view errors and messages that are generated by a server running InfoPath Forms Services, in addition to any errors and messages that InfoPath detects. For example, you may receive notifications about features in your form template that may negatively affect form performance in the browser. The verification feature is useful because you can view potential problems while you are designing your browser-compatible form template rather than after you have published it to the server.

Note It is possible to publish a form template that contains compatibility errors. However, if you do so, the form template cannot be browser-enabled, either by you or the farm administrator.

Deployment options

All browser-enabled form templates must be hosted on a server running InfoPath Forms Services. To deploy a browser-enabled form template, you must publish a browser-compatible form template by using the Publishing Wizard in InfoPath and enable it for use on the Web.

To publish a browser-compatible form template, you must select the To a SharePoint server with or without InfoPath Forms Services option on the first screen of the Publishing Wizard.

There are two deployment modes for form templates that are hosted on a server running InfoPath Forms Services: one for user form templates and one for administrator-approved form templates. The following sections describes the two deployment options in more detail.

User form templates

This type of form template can be enabled for use on the Web by a form template designer.

User form templates may not contain script or managed code, require full trust, or use a data connection that is managed by an administrator. In addition, user form templates may not be designed to be accessible in a mobile Web browser.

User form templates run under the domain-trust security level, which means that the form template is trusted by computers in the same domain as the server, and that any data connections in the form template are able to access data from the same domain only.

You can publish user form templates to a library or as a content type (content type: A reusable group of settings for a category of content. Use content types to manage the metadata, templates, and behaviors of items and documents consistently. Content types are defined at the site level and used on lists and libraries.) on a server running InfoPath Forms Services. To publish the form template to a library, you need permission to create libraries and lists on the site. To publish the form template as a site content type, you need permission to manage the site.

Deploying user form templates is best for form templates that do not have managed code and that have a limited scope of deployment, such as those that are meant to be used by employees in a single department.

Note If you want to deploy a form template but do not have permission to do so, you will see text in the Publishing Wizard telling you to contact a farm administrator for assistance. Before you ask a farm administrator to deploy a form template, you must publish it to a location where the administrator can access it. For example, imagine you just completed the design of a form template that allows customers to manage their insurance policy online. Because your form template contains data connections that are managed by the farm administrator, you cannot publish the form directly to a server running InfoPath Forms Services. Instead, you publish the form template to a network location specified by the administrator, where it can be checked for compliance with whatever design standards your organization uses for form templates. As a last step, you can notify the administrator that the form template is ready for review.

Administrator-approved form templates

This type of form template can be enabled for use on the Web only by a farm administrator.

Administrator-approved form templates may contain script or managed code, require full trust, or use a data connection that is managed by an administrator. In addition, they may be designed to be accessible in a mobile Web browser.

Administrator-approved form templates may run under the full-trust or domain-trust security level.

The form template is generally verified and uploaded by a farm administrator, and then it is activated to a form template library for one or more site collections. Activation is the process that is used to turn features on or off in a site collection (site collection: A set of Web sites on a virtual server that have the same owner and share administration settings. Each site collection contains a top-level Web site and can contain one or more subsites.) or to make administrator-approved form templates available for use. A farm administrator must verify and upload an administrator-approved form template, but a site collection administrator can activate the form template after it has been uploaded.

Deploying administrator-approved form templates is best for form templates that need to be widely deployed for use by employees in many departments across an organization.

protect a form template’s design InfoPath 2007

metynagm — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:39:18 +0000

You can select the Enable protection check box in Microsoft Office InfoPath to discourage users from opening or modifying a form template in design mode. When you enable this setting, the Design this form command is unavailable on the Tools menu in InfoPath when users fill out a form based on this form template.

Notes

Users can still open or modify the form’s design by opening the form directly in design mode. However, in such cases, users receive a message stating that the form is protected.
To restrict access to your form template, you should apply Information Rights Management (IRM), which is available in the 2007 Microsoft Office system.
You can use the Microsoft Office Resource Kit (ORK) to install policy templates that disable the InfoPath design mode for all users except those specified as form template designers. To find the latest information about helping to prevent users from editing your form templates, and to review additional policy settings, visit the Microsoft Office Resource Kit Web site.

On the Tools menu, click Form Options.
Under Category, click Advanced.
Under Protection, select the Enable protection check box.

Create a custom task pane to help users fill out a form InfoPath 2007

metynagm — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:39:08 +0000

A complex form can be confusing for users to fill out. Placeholder text, views, conditional formatting, and rules can help make filling out a form easier, but none of these features provides an overview of how a form works.

You can create a custom task pane and add it to a form template to help make forms that are based on your form template easier for users to understand and fill out correctly.

Important Custom task panes are not supported in browser-compatible form templates (browser-compatible form template: A form template that is designed in InfoPath by using a specific compatibility mode. A browser-compatible form template can be browser-enabled when it is published to a server running InfoPath Forms Services.). If you want to use a custom task pane, your form template must only be filled out by using InfoPath.

A custom task pane is a Web page that displays in a Microsoft Office InfoPath task pane (task pane: A window within an Office program that provides commonly used commands. Its location and small size allow you to use these commands while still working on your files.) when a user fills out a form.

The name of the custom task pane appears here.

The Web page appears here.

You can specify one Web page to use as the default custom task pane for a form template. If you want, you can add more Web pages to a form template as resource files (resource file: A file created outside of InfoPath, such as an .html, .xml, or .xsd file, which is added to a form template to support the functionality of the form.), and then use hyperlinks to connect them. When people fill out a form that is based on the form template, they can navigate these Web pages in the custom task pane.

Note Only HTML (HTML: The standard markup language used for documents on the World Wide Web. HTML uses tags to indicate how Web browsers should display page elements such as text and graphics and how to respond to user actions.) is rendered in a custom task pane.

Tip You can use Microsoft Office Word to create the content for your custom task pane, and then save it as a Web page. Most Word formatting is retained.

Once you have created the content for your custom task pane, you can do one of two things with it:

Add it to the form template If you expect to update the custom task pane content infrequently or not at all, you should add the HTML file to the form template. This lets users view the custom task pane even when they fill out the form while they are offiline.
Link to it from the form template If you plan to update the custom task pane content frequently, and you do not want to republish the form template every time that you update the content, you should store the HTML file in another location. Then you can link to the content from the form template. When you want to update the customer task pane, you revise the HTML file, or replace it with a new one.
Note The location in which you store the HTML file must be avaliable to the people who fill out forms that are based on your form template. Also, if the location is not in the same domain as the form template, users will see a warning when they start to fill out the form.

Before you begin

Plan your content.  If you are designing a new form template, talk to people who will fill out forms that are based on your form template to understand their needs. This will help you plan what kind of content you want to include in the custom task pane. If you are adding a custom task pane to an existing form template, talk to the people who have filled out forms that are based on the form template, and to the people who have used the collected information. This will help you determine what help people need.

Note   Your overall help strategy should include other elements, such as placeholder text. For more information, see the See Also section.

Tip   If you are planning help content for a form template that will be deployed in a large enterprise, you might consider convening a focus group or conducting a survey to help determine your overall help strategy.
Decide how you will create the Web page. You can use Microsoft Office Word to write the content for your custom task pane, and then save the file as a Filtered Web page. This format is a generic HTML format that does not contain any Office-specific features. You can also use Web page editors, such as Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer, as long as your finished Web page does not depend on files located in other locations, such as subfolders. You can also write simple HTML files by using a text editor, such as WordPad.
Prepare other resources. If you are linking to a page from a custom task pane, instead of adding the page to the form template, you will need a Web server that all your users can access. You might also want people to be able to amend the custom task pane, perhaps by using a specific account created for that purpose.

Compatibility considerations

When you design a form template in Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007, you can choose to design a browser-compatible form template (browser-compatible form template: A form template that is designed in InfoPath by using a specific compatibility mode. A browser-compatible form template can be browser-enabled when it is published to a server running InfoPath Forms Services.). When you design a browser-compatible form template, some features are unavailable. For example, custom task panes (custom task pane: An .html file whose content is displayed in a window next to a form. Custom task panes can provide form-specific commands and Help content.), which are often used to display custom Help text, are unsupported in browser-compatible form templates. To add Help to a browser-compatible form template, consider another way to add Help, such as using conditional formatting (conditional formatting: The process of changing the appearance of a control, including its visibility and read-write state, based on values entered into the form.) to display contextual Help.

Create a custom task pane

Write the content for the custom task pane and save it as a Web page. If you use Word to write the content, save the file as a Filtered Web page.
Open the form template in design mode (design mode: The InfoPath design environment in which you can create or modify a form template.).
On the Tools menu, click Form Options.
In the Form Options dialog box, under Category, click Programming.
Select the Enable custom task pane check box.
To add the custom task pane to the form template, so that forms can be filled out offline, do the following:
1. Click Resource Files.
2. In the Resource Files dialog box, click Add.
3. In the Add File dialog box, locate the file that you want to add, and then double-click it.
4. Repeat the previous two steps until you have added all the resource files that you need. If you are using multiple Web pages, make sure that you add them all.
5. When you are finished adding resource files, in the Resource Files dialog box, click OK.
In the Task pane name box, enter a name for the custom task pane. The name will appear above the task pane.
In the Task pane location box, do one of the following:
- If you put the Web page on a Web server, enter the URL for the page.
- If you added the Web page as a resource, click the arrow, and then select the Web page from the list. If you have more than one resource file, select the file you want as the default.
Click OK.
To test your changes, click Preview on the Standard toolbar, or press CTRL+SHIFT+B.
Your custom task pane should appear next to the form.

Add custom Help text to a form template InfoPath 2007

metynagm — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:38:54 +0000

To help users understand the purpose of your form, and to help them fill it out successfully, you can add instructional Help text to your form template.

This article explains how to determine the best type of Help text for your form template by considering factors such as the type of form template you create, your audience, how widely your form template will be deployed, and whether users will fill out forms based on your form template by using a Web browser.

Compatibility considerations

When you design a form template in Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007, you can choose to design a browser-compatible form template (browser-compatible form template: A form template that is designed in InfoPath by using a specific compatibility mode. A browser-compatible form template can be browser-enabled when it is published to a server running InfoPath Forms Services.). When you design a browser-compatible form template, some features are unavailable. For example, custom task panes (custom task pane: An .html file whose content is displayed in a window next to a form. Custom task panes can provide form-specific commands and Help content.), which are often used to display custom Help text, are unsupported in browser-compatible form templates. To add Help to a browser-compatible form template, consider an alternate way to add Help, such as using conditional formatting (conditional formatting: The process of changing the appearance of a control, including its visibility and read-write state, based on values entered into the form.) to display contextual Help.

Types of Help

Depending on the complexity of your form template and the needs of your users, you can add different types of Help text, using different procedures. Depending on your form template, you might use more than one type of Help text in your form template. The following is a list of the most common ways to display Help text in your form template:

Help view Create a separate view (view: A form-specific display setting that can be saved with a form template and applied to form data when the form is being filled out. Users can switch between views to choose the amount of data shown in the form.) to show Help text when you want to provide detailed instructions to your users. You can create a Help view that contains only Help text, or you can duplicate the controls that you added in the default view of your form template and include accompanying Help text. By adding controls with Help text, you provide an alternate view for filling out the form — one that contains contextual Help for each section or control. This is a useful approach when your audience contains both new users, who need extra assistance, and experienced users, who already know how to fill out the form.
Tip Because browser-compatible form templates do not support custom task panes, using Help views to display Help text is a good alternative to custom task panes.
Custom task pane A custom task pane is an HTML file whose content is displayed in an InfoPath task pane when a user fills out a form. You can specify only one HTML file to open in the default custom task pane for your form template, but you can add additional HTML files to your form template as resource files, and then create hyperlinks between them. Only HTML files can be displayed in custom task panes. Custom task panes can provide form-specific commands and Help content. You can add an HTML file directly to your form template, so that users can view the custom task pane Help even while they fill out the form offline, or you can link the custom task pane to an HTML file that is stored in another location. For example, if you plan to update the Help content frequently, but don’t want to publish your form template each time an update is made to the HTML Help file, it is a good idea to store the HTML file in another location and link to it from the custom task pane. Remember that browser-compatible form templates do not support custom task panes, so you should create a custom task pane only for forms that will be filled out in InfoPath.
Conditional formatting You can use conditional formatting to specify different formatting options for a control that are based on conditions that occur on the form. If the specified conditions are true when a user fills out a form, the conditional formatting is applied. When you add Help text to a section in your form template and add conditional formatting to that section, you allow a user to show or hide contextual Help text for a section or control as needed, without switching views. This is a useful way to provide inline Help for specific sections or controls for users who want the Help.
External Help You can add a link to an external file, such as an HTML file on a Web site. For example, if the technical support Web site for your organization contains a Web page for starting a live chat session with a technical support engineer, you can add a hyperlink to your form template that enables users to open that page in their Web browsers. This approach is useful when you design a form template for another department in your organization, and that department is best qualified to provide users with Help or technical support.
The InfoPath Help system for users who fill out forms InfoPath contains a dedicated Help system for users who fill out forms. By instructing your users to press F1 while they fill out a form, you enable them to access these Help topics about standard InfoPath functionality. Use this approach for forms that users fill out by using InfoPath only.

Create a view to show Help

In order to create a separate view in your form template for users to view Help about filling out the form, you need to first create a Help view for your form template, and then add a button to your default form view that users can click in order to access the Help view.

Create a Help view

On the View menu, click Manage Views.
Under Actions in the Views task pane, click Add a New View.
In the New view name box, type a name for the Help view, and then click OK.
For example, type Help.
On the form template, click in the view that you just added, and type or paste the Help text that you want.
If the Controls task pane is not visible, click More Controls on the Insert menu, or press ALT+I, C.
In the Controls task pane, click Button.
Right-click the button that you added, and then click Button Properties on the shortcut menu.
Click the General tab.
In the Label box, type a label for the button. For example, type Return to Form.
Click Rules.
In the Rules dialog box, click Add.
Click Add Action.
In the Action box, click Switch views.
In the View box, click the name of your default view.
Click OK four times to return to the form template.

After you create the Help view for your form template, you need to add a button to your default view, so that users can easily access the Help view when they fill out your form.

Add a button to your default view

On the View menu, click Manage Views.
In the Views task pane, click the name of your default view.
If the Controls task pane is not visible, click More Controls on the Insert menu, or press ALT+I, C.
In the Controls task pane, click Button.
Right-click the button that you added, and then click Button Properties on the shortcut menu.
Click the General tab.
In the Label box, type a label for the button. For example, type Help.
Click Rules.
In the Rules dialog box, click Add.
Click Add Action.
In the Action box, click Switch views.
In the View box, click the name of your Help view that you added in the previous procedure.
Click OK four times to return to the form template.

Tip You can optionally add the same controls to the Help view as those contained in the default view. This gives users the choice between filling out the form in the default view if they do not need assistance, or using the Help view to fill out the form if they need to see the Help text instructions.

Create a custom task pane to show Help

Notes

Before you create a custom task pane to display Help in your form template, consider the following:

Browser-compatible form templates do not support custom task panes.
Before you enable a custom task pane, you must first create an HTML file for the custom task pane by using an HTML editor such as Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007.

To create and enable a custom task pane, do the following:

On the Tools menu, click Form Options.
Under Category, click Programming.
Select the Enable custom task pane check box.
In the Task pane name box, type the name that you want to appear at the top of the custom task pane. For example, type Help.
To add a file to your form template, click Resource Files.
Note To link a file to your form template, in the Task pane location box, type the absolute path for the location of the HTML file, and then click OK.

Security It is recommended that you link to an HTML file that is located in the same domain as your form template. Otherwise, users who open a form that is based on your form template will see an alert.
In the Resource Files dialog box, click Add.
In the Add File dialog box, browse to and select the HTML file that you want, and then click OK.
If the HTML file that you added references additional files, such as cascading style sheets (cascading style sheets (CSS): Declarations, either embedded in a Web page or stored in a separate .css file that is linked to a Web page, that specify the appearance of particular HTML elements.), add those files as well.
Tip You can specify only one HTML file to open in the default custom task pane for your form template, but you can add additional HTML files to your form template as resource files, and then create hyperlinks between them.
In the Form Options dialog box, click the name of the HTML file that you just added in the Task pane location box.
To test your changes, click Preview on the Standard toolbar, or press CTRL+SHIFT+B. The custom task pane that you just created should appear by default when you preview the form template.

Use conditional formatting to show contextual Help

The following procedure describes how to use conditional formatting to show or hide contextual Help.

If the Controls task pane is not visible, click More Controls on the Insert menu, or press ALT+I, C.
In the Controls task pane, click Check Box, and then click Section.
Click in the section that you just added to your form template, and type some Help text.
Delete the default label text for the check box, and then type Click to show or hide Help.
Click the tab for the section on your form template, and then on the Format menu, click Conditional Formatting.
Click Add.
Under If this condition is true, in the first box, click Select a field or group.
In the Select a Field or Group dialog box, select the field that corresponds to the check box control that you added in step 2, and then click OK.
In the second box, in the Conditional Format dialog box, click is equal to.
In the third box, click FALSE.
Under Then apply this formatting, select the Hide this control check box.
Note The condition now states that if the check box is selected, the section will be displayed.
To test your changes, click Preview on the Standard toolbar, or press CTRL+SHIFT+B.

Create a hyperlink to an external Help file or Web site

The following procedure describes how to add a hyperlink from your form template to an external Help file, such as an HTML file or a compiled Help (.chm) file, or to a Web site, such as a technical support Web site.

Notes

Make sure that the external Help file or Web site that you create a link to is accessible by your users. If you want to add a link to an HTML file in a form template that is compatible with InfoPath only (in other words, users must use InfoPath to fill out forms based on that form template), you can add HTML files to the form template by adding them as resource files that open in a custom task pane. For browser-compatible form template, you should publish the HTML files to a site that is accessible to your users, preferably the same Web site where your form template is located, and create a static hyperlink in your form template that points to the external HTML file.
If you decide to use another format for your Help file, such as a .chm file, remember to verify whether the file format that you choose is supported on the operating systems on your users’ computers.

Create a static hyperlink to an external file

On the form template, click where you want to insert a hyperlink, or select the text or picture that you want to turn into a hyperlink.
On the Standard toolbar, click Insert Hyperlink .
Click the General tab.
In the Address box, type the URL that you want to link to.
To change the hyperlink text that appears on the form template, type the text that you want in the Text box.
Note If you selected a picture in step 1, this option is unavailable.
To assign a ScreenTip that will appear when a user moves the pointer over the hyperlink, click the Advanced tab, and then in the ScreenTip box, type the text that you want to display.
To test your changes, click Preview on the Standard toolbar, or press CTRL+SHIFT+B.

Add instructions for users to view the InfoPath Help system

InfoPath includes a dedicated Help system that people can use when they fill out forms. This Help system contains information about common tasks, such as turning on or off AutoComplete and checking the spelling of text in a form. As a form designer, you can open InfoPath Help for form users by pressing F1 when you are previewing a form in the preview window.

Help for form users is limited to tasks that apply to all forms, so it is a good idea to provide custom Help for the form templates that you design. To help your users view the InfoPath Help system when they fill out a form, you can add instructions to your form template that explain how to access the InfoPath Help system. For example, you might include one of the following examples in your form template:

To open InfoPath Help, press F1.
To open InfoPath Help, click Microsoft Office InfoPath Help on the Help menu.

Add remove update resource files in a form template InfoPath 2007

metynagm — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:38:45 +0000

A resource file is a file that is used to display additional information in a form template. When you save or publish a form template, any resource files are included in the form template.

You can add the following types of resource files to your form template:

HTML files You can use HTML files to display information in a custom task pane (custom task pane: An .html file whose content is displayed in a window next to a form. Custom task panes can provide form-specific commands and Help content.).

Note When you add an HTML file as a resource file to a form template, you should also add any files that are required by the HTML file, such as other HTML files, style sheets, or graphics files.

XML files You can use XML files to populate list box controls, combo box controls, or drop-down list box controls. If the data in a list box, combo box, or drop-down list box control are constant, put that data in an XML file and add that file to the form template as a resource file, rather than using a data connection (data connection: The connection between an InfoPath form and an external data source, such as a database, Web service, SharePoint library, or XML file. Data connections are used to query and submit data.) to populate those controls. When you use a resource file, forms that are based on that form template open quicker than forms that use a data connection to populate those controls. That is because the data in a resource file is considered part of the form template and does not rely on a data connection to get the data. If the form template is not configured so that the form stores the data from an external data source, the form must be connected to the network in order to get the required data. A resource file doesn’t need a data connection, because the data is already part of the form.

What do you want to do?

Add a resource file to a form template

Remove a resource file from a form template

Update a resource file in a form template

Add a resource file to a form template

On the Tools menu, click Resource Files.
In the Resource Files dialog box, click Add.
In the Add File dialog box, select the file that you want to add.

Remove a resource file from a form template

On the Tools menu, click Resource Files.
In the Resource files in the form template list in the Resource Files dialog box, select the resource file that you want to remove from the form template.
Click Remove.

Update a resource file in a form template

You can update the resource file in a form template after the form template has been published. For example, you might want to add new items or delete existing items in a resource file that you are using to populate a list box control in your form template. To update the resource file, you must modify a copy of the resource file, and then add the updated resource file to the form template. When you add the updated resource file to your form template, you are actually replacing the existing resource file. After you add the updated resource file, publish the form template again. Your users will then get the updated resource file when they open a new, blank form that is based on the form template.

Make any necessary changes to a local copy of the resource file.
Tip If you do not have a local copy of the resource file, you can extract a copy from the form template. Find links to more information about extracting the files in a form template in the See Also section.
In InfoPath design mode, open the form template that the resource file is associated with.
On the Tools menu, click Resource Files.
In the Resource Files dialog box, click Add.
In the Add File dialog box, select the file that you updated, and then click OK.
In the Microsoft Office InfoPath dialog box, click Replace the existing file, and then click OK.
In the Resource Files dialog box, click OK.
To publish the form template, on the File menu, click Publish, and then complete the steps in the Publishing Wizard.

Configure your form template to detect the connection state of a form InfoPath 2007

metynagm — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:38:36 +0000

If you are designing a form template whose forms rely upon a network connection to process or return data, and you are familiar with writing script, you can write a script that detects the network connection state of forms based on your form template. You can use this script to have Microsoft Office InfoPath check if a new form is connected to a network and if the form can connect to an external data source before the form sends a query to the external data source. This article provides Microsoft JScript and Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript) examples for determining if forms based on your form template are connected to the network and if those forms can connect to an external data source.

To determine the network connection state of a form based on your form template, you can use the MachineOnlineState property of the Application object. Then you can use the IsDestinationReachable method of the same Application object to determine if the form can find the external data source. The MachineOnlineState property contains a value that represents the connection state of the form. This property can have the following values:

Value	Description
0	The computer is not connected to a network. The property can have this value if the computer is not connected to a network or if the network card in the computer is disabled.
1	The computer is connected to a network. If the computer is connected to a network using a network cable, this value indicates that the computer is on a network. If the computer has a working wireless network card, this value indicates that the wireless network card is working. However, the computer may not be connected to a wireless network.
2	The computer is connected to a network, but Windows Internet Explorer is configured to work offline. When Internet Explorer is configured to work offline, the data connection to a database or Web service may not work correctly.

After you have determined that the user’s computer is connected to a network, you can use the IsDestinationReachable method to determine if the form can communicate with the external data source. This method takes the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) (Uniform Resource Locator (URL): An address that specifies a protocol (such as HTTP or FTP) and a location of an object, document, World Wide Web page, or other destination on the Internet or an intranet, for example: http://www.microsoft.com/.) or Uniform Resource Name (URN) (Uniform Resource Name (URN): A scheme for uniquely identifying resources that may be available on the Internet by name, without regard to where they are located.) of the external data source as a parameter and returns one of the following Boolean values:

True The form has found the external data source on the network.

False The form cannot find the external data source. The external data source may be offline or may be on the network, but unavailable.

The script examples in this article only determine if the form is connected to the network. In this article, the script examples are used when the user first opens the form. However, you can also use this script whenever you want to check the network connection prior to performing an action. For example, you can use this script when a user clicks a particular button in the form to determine if there is a network connection to the external data source. Regardless of when you choose to use this script, you can also add script that performs an action, based on whether the form is connected to the network or not. For example, if the computer is offline or cannot connect to the external data source, you can have InfoPath display a warning message to the user that indicates that the external data source is not available. You can customize the warning message to tell users what to do if the external data source is unavailable. For example, you could tell them to try filling out the form later, or have the user contact their support service.

JScript example

var machineState = Application.MachineOnlineState; var displayMessage = machineState;  switch(machineState) {  case 0:  {   displayMessage = "The computer is not connected to a network.";   break;  } 		  case 1:  {   if (!Application.IsDestinationReachable("http://example"))    {     displayMessage = "The computer is connected to a network, "                    + "but the external data source is not "                    + "available. Contact the data source "                    + "administrator for more information.";     }     else     {      displayMessage = "The computer is connected to a network.";     }     break;   } 		   case 2:   {    displayMessage = "The computer is connected to a network, but "                   + "Internet Explorer is in offline mode. Some "                   + "data connections may not work until you "                   + "set Internet Explorer to online mode. To "                   + "switch to online mode, on the File menu in "                   + "Internet Explorer, click Work Offline.";     break;   }    default:   {    displayMessage = "An unknown error occurred: Error: "                    + machineState;   } }  XDocument.UI.Alert(displayMessage);

VBScript example

Dim machineState, displayMessage, returnValue  machineState = Application.MachineOnlineState displayMessage = machineState returnValue = False 	 Select Case machineState  Case 0    displayMessage = "The computer is not connected to a network." 	  Case 1   returnValue = Application.IsDestinationReachable("http://example") 			     If returnValue = False Then    displayMessage = "The computer is connected to a network, but "    displayMessage = displayMessage + "the external data source is "    displayMessage = displayMessage + "not available. Contact the "    displayMessage = displayMessage + "data source administrator "    displayMessage = displayMessage + "for more information."    Else    displayMessage = "The computer is connected to a network."    End If 			  Case 2   displayMessage = "The computer is connected to a network, but "   displayMessage = displayMessage + "Internet Explorer is in "   displayMessage = displayMessage + "offline mode. Some data "   displayMessage = displayMessage + "connections may not work "   displayMessage = displayMessage + "until you set Internet "   displayMessage = displayMessage + "Explorer to online mode. "   displayMessage = displayMessage + "To switch to online mode, "   displayMessage = displayMessage + "on the File menu in "   displayMessage = displayMessage + "Internet Explorer, click "   displayMessage = displayMessage + "Work Offline." 		  Case Else   displayMessage = "An unknown error occurred: Error: "    displayMessage = displayMessage + machineState + "." 		 End Select 	 XDocument.UI.Alert(displayMessage)

Use the script example in a form template

If you would like to test a script example before using it in your form template, you can use the following procedure to create a blank form template, and then copy one of the script examples from this article to the OnLoad event. The script in the OnLoad event runs whenever a new form based on the form template is created. You can then preview your form template to test the script example with your computer connected to a network, disconnected from the network, or connected to the network but with Internet Explorer set to offline mode.

Copy one of the script examples listed earlier in this topic, and then paste it into a text editor, such as Microsoft Notepad.
Note Copying the script example to a text editor before you add it to your form template prevents Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) (HTML: The standard markup language used for documents on the World Wide Web. HTML uses tags to indicate how Web browsers should display page elements such as text and graphics and how to respond to user actions.) formatting marks from appearing in the script.
In InfoPath, on the File menu, click Design a Form Template.
Under Design a new, in the Design a Form Template dialog box, click Form Template, click Blank, and then click OK.
By default, new form templates are configured to use JScript as the scripting language. To use VBScript as your scripting language, change the scripting language of the form template.
How?
1. On the Tools menu, click Form Options.
2. In the Category list, click Programming.
3. In the Form template code language list under Programming language, click VBScript, and then click OK.
On the Tools menu, point to Programming, and then click On Load Event. The Microsoft Script Editor starts with the cursor at the OnLoad event.
In the OnLoad event in the Microsoft Script Editor, replace the // Write your code here (JScript) or ' Write your code here (VBScript) text with the script example that you copied to the text editor.
Modify the script example to suit your environment. For example, you can modify the messages and change http://example to the URL or URN of your external data source.
In the Microsoft Script Editor, on the File menu, click Save.
To test your changes, click Preview on the Standard toolbar, or press CTRL+SHIFT+B.

Design a Document Information Panel by using InfoPath

metynagm — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:38:25 +0000

Understanding Document Information Panels

The Document Information Panel, which is displayed in Office Word 2007, Office Excel 2007, and Office PowerPoint 2007 documents, enables users to view and change the properties for an individual file or for a content type that is saved to a document management server, such as a Document Workspace site or a library based on Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. These properties, also known as metadata (metadata: Data that describes other data. For example, the words in a document are data; the word count is an example of metadata.), are details about a file that describe or identify it. Users can use these properties to organize, identify, and search for documents.

The Document Information Panel is a Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007 form that is hosted and displayed within a document. You do not need InfoPath installed on your computer to see a Document Information Panel in a 2007 Microsoft Office system document, but you do need Office InfoPath 2007 to design or customize Document Information Panels. For example, if you want to customize a Document Information Panel to display data from an external resource such as a Web service, you must use Office InfoPath 2007 to design that Document Information Panel.

By customizing the Document Information Panel, you can also add business logic, such as data validation, or add custom properties that are important to your organization. In addition, by creating a template part to contain common fields, you can organize the efficient reuse of Document Information Panels in different 2007 Office release document types across your organization.

Top of Page

Design a Document Information Panel

When you design a custom Document Information Panel, you can use it with multiple documents from Office Word 2007, Office Excel 2007, and Office PowerPoint 2007, or you can design multiple Document Information Panels. For example, if certain documents are associated with a specific project, you may want to use unique fields for the Document Information Panels that are used in those documents only.

Even if your organization uses several Document Information Panels, each can contain several common properties. To easily reuse common properties when you design a Document Information Panel, consider using template parts. By creating and using template parts, you can help ensure that key metadata for your organization is consistent in tone, structure, and behavior. For example, your organization can require each Document Information Panel to include a field named Job Title in addition to Author. By designing a template part that uses those common fields, you can easily reuse the template part in multiple Document Information Panels.

The following procedure describes how to design a Document Information Panel for use with 2007 Office release documents.

On the File menu, click Design a Form Template.
Under Design a new in the Design a Form Template dialog box, click Form Template.
In the Based on gallery, click Blank, and then click OK. This enables InfoPath to define the data source as you design the form template.
Note You can also base your form template on an XML document or XML Schema, such as the Dublin Core Properties. In addition, you can design your form template by using a Web service, a database, or settings in a data connection library. Find information about designing a form template based on a data source in the See Also section.
Design the form template to use as a Document Information Panel.
Tip By creating a template part to contain common fields, you can coordinate the efficient reuse of Document Information Panels in different 2007 Office release document types across your organization. If you created a template part and added it to the Controls task pane, you can insert the template part onto your form template by using the following procedure.
1. Place the cursor on the form template where you want to insert the template part.
2. If the Controls task pane is not visible, click More Controls on the Insert menu, or press ALT+I, C.
3. Under Custom in the Insert controls list, click the name of the template part that you want to insert.
  The template part appears inside a section control on the form template. You can recognize the template part on the form template because the words Section (Template Part: Name) appear as the section label, where Name is the name of the template part file.
Rename the default view, and any other views in the form template.
How?
1. On the View menu, click Manage Views.
2. In the Views task pane, click the view that you want to rename, and then click View Properties.
3. Click the General tab.
4. In the View name box, type a new name for the view.
Note Even if your form template contains only one view, you should give the view a friendly name, such as Custom Properties, because the name of the view will appear in the Property Views and Options list when the Document Information Panel is viewed in a document.
Publish the Document Information Panel to a shared network folder.
How?
1. On the File menu, click Publish.
2. In the Publishing Wizard, click To a network location, and then click Next.
3. On the next page of the wizard, click Browse.
4. Browse to the shared network folder where you want to publish the form template, and then click OK.
5. On the next page of the wizard, verify that the path and form template name in the Form template name box are correct, and then click Next.
6. On the next page of the wizard, if you have an alternate path to this shared network folder, such as a public Uniform Resource Locator (URL) (Uniform Resource Locator (URL): An address that specifies a protocol (such as HTTP or FTP) and a location of an object, document, World Wide Web page, or other destination on the Internet or an intranet, for example: http://www.microsoft.com/.), type the path in the box, and then click Next.
7. On the next page of the wizard, click Publish.
  You will receive a confirmation on the last page of the wizard if your form template was successfully published.
Note You can also publish the Document Information Panel to a SharePoint site. Find information about publishing to a SharePoint site in the See Also section.

Create or edit a custom Document Information Panel for a SharePoint content type

When you create a site content type based on the Document content type or the Dublin Core Columns content type — which is available on servers running Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 — a Document Information Panel is automatically created to track SharePoint properties. You can use Office InfoPath 2007 to customize this type of Document Information Panel in the same way that you customize any InfoPath form template. For example, you can customize the Document Information Panel by doing one or more of the following:

Add features such as data validation (data validation: The process of testing the accuracy of data; a set of rules you can apply to a control to specify the type and range of data that users can enter.) or conditional formatting (conditional formatting: The process of changing the appearance of a control, including its visibility and read-write state, based on values entered into the form.).
Add a secondary data connection to the Document Information Panel, and then add controls that display data from fields in the data source.
Create a new view, and then add a template part that contains common fields that your organization can use to track data.
Note When a Document Information Panel is based on a SharePoint content type schema, you cannot customize the Document Information Panel by adding fields that are not part of that schema. To add or remove fields from the content type schema, you must add or remove columns from the content type.

Create or edit a custom Document Information Panel

On the File menu, click Design a Form Template.
Under Design a new in the Design a Form Template dialog box, click Form Template.
In the Based on list, click XML or Schema, and then click OK.
Note Do not select the Enable browser-compatible features only check box because the Document Information Panel will only display as part of a 2007 Office release document, not as part of a Web page.
In the Data Source Wizard, type the URL for the SharePoint server, and then click Next.
In the Select a list or web list, click the name of the content type that you want, and then click Next.
Click Finish.
The Document Information Panel for the content type schema opens.
Make the changes that you want to the Document Information Panel, and then save the form template.
Note Because the Document Information Panel is based on the content type schema, which is the main data source for the form template, you cannot customize the Document Information Panel by adding fields that are not part of the schema. To add or remove fields from the Document Information Panel by adding new fields to the content type schema, you must add or remove columns from the content type.
On the File menu, click Publish.
In the Publishing Wizard, click As a Document Information Panel template for a SharePoint site content type or list content type (recommended), and then click Next.
Note As a Document Information Panel template for a SharePoint site content type or list content type (recommended) only appears on this page of the wizard if you clicked XML or Schema in step 3.
On the next page of the wizard, click Publish.
You will receive a confirmation on the last page of the wizard if your form template was successfully published.

Add a custom Document Information Panel to a document

After you create a custom Document Information Panel, you must associate it with a document before you can use it. To do this, you must first activate the Developer tab on the Ribbon in the programs where you want to use the Document Information Panel. You can then specify the location of the Document Information Panel by using a URL, UNC, or URN file path. In addition, you can choose to display the Document Information Panel by default when the document is opened. You can also choose whether the custom properties that you created are visible by default when the document is opened.

The following procedure describes how to associate a Document Information Panel with a document for Office Word 2007, Office Excel 2007, or Office PowerPoint 2007.

Click the Microsoft Office Button , and then click Program Name Options, where Program Name is the name of the program that you are working in. For example, click Word Options.
In the Program Name Options dialog box, click Popular, select the Show Developer tab in the Ribbon check box, and then click OK.
Note The Ribbon is part of the Microsoft Office Fluent user interface
Click the Developer tab on the Office Fluent Ribbon, and then click Document Panel.
In the Document Information Panel dialog box, under Specify a custom template (URL, UNC, or URN), type the location of the Document Information Panel that you want to add to the document.
To display the custom properties by default in your document, in the Display by default list, click Custom Properties.
To display the Document Information Panel by default, click the Always show Document Information Panel on document open and initial save check box.

In addition to viewing or changing properties in Document Information Panels in documents for Office Word 2007, Office Excel 2007, and Office PowerPoint 2007, in Office Word 2007 users can add properties from the Document Information Panel as property controls in the document itself. For example, multiple instances of a company address can be added as property controls in a document. These property controls will be updated as the information in the Document Information Panel is changed.

Note Find more information about adding properties to an Office Word 2007 document in the See Also section.