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Need fast, reliable, easy-to-use solutions for using InfoPath® with SharePoint® 2013? This book delivers exactly what you’re looking for: step-by-step help and guidance with the tasks you’ll perform most often. You’ll learn better ways to design and develop intuitive, effective form-based solutions, and then efficiently administer, secure, and troubleshoot them. The industry’s most focused resource for solving business problems with SharePoint and InfoPath forms, this book provides all the answers you need—now!
Steven Mann is an Enterprise Applications Engineer for Morgan Lewis and has nearly 20 years of professional experience with collaboration and business intelligence, including a decade working with SharePoint. Formerly Principal Architect for RDA Corporation, his books include InfoPath with SharePoint 2010 How-To, Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Business Intelligence Unleashed, SharePoint 2010 Field Guide, and SharePoint 2010 Managed Metadata Unleashed.
Fast, Accurate, and Easy-to-Use!
¿ Discover powerful tips for success with InfoPath Designer 2013
¿ Efficiently create SharePoint form controls, rules, and functions
¿ Master form page design, views, and list forms
¿ Submit, publish, and use data in SharePoint forms
¿ Streamline business processes by integrating forms into SharePoint workflows
¿ Design more intuitive, easier-to-use forms with InfoPath controls, functionality, and settings
¿ Use template parts to create reusable form components, including controls, fields, and data connections
¿ Leverage Visual Studio 2012 with InfoPath to build solutions and application-level add-ins
¿ Dynamically populate repeating tables in forms
¿ Elegantly track changes in SharePoint forms
¿ Automatically generate new InfoPath form instances
¿ Use SharePoint 2013 Central Administration to manage forms and Forms Services
¿ Automate InfoPath Form Services administration with PowerShell
¿ Manage form permissions to control user access and rights
¿ Troubleshoot form development, deployment, publishing, and form submission
Introduction 1
Overview of This Book . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . 1
How to Benefit from This Book . . . . . . . . 1
What Is New in This Book? . . . . . . .. . .. . . 2
How to Continue Expanding Your Knowledge . . . . . . 2
Part I: Designing Forms for SharePoint
1 Use InfoPath Designer 2013 3
Why Use an InfoPath Form? . . . . .. . . . 3
What Does InfoPath Do for My Lists? . . . . .. . . 4
Why Use InfoPath Forms in Workflows? . . . . . . . . 4
How Does InfoPath Integrate with My Data? . . . . . . . 4
InfoPath Versus Web Controls and Web Parts . . . . . .. . 5
What Is the InfoPath Web Part? . . . . . . . . . . .. . 5
Getting Started . . . . . . . . 5
2 Create a SharePoint Form with InfoPath Designer 7
Design a SharePoint Form Using the Blank Form Template . . . . . . . . 9
Add Controls. . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Preview Your Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Name Your Data Fields . . . . .. . . . . . 12
Add Submit Options . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . 13
Publish Your Form . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 15
Use Your Form in SharePoint . . . . . . . . . . 17
Create a Form Library from InfoPath . . . . . . . . . . 18
Design a SharePoint Form Using the SharePoint Form Library Template. . . . .. 20
3 Use SharePoint Form Controls 21
What Are Input Controls?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
What Are Object Controls? . . . . . . . . . . . .. 23
What Are Container Controls? . . . . . .. . . 24
Drag Controls on Your Form . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Allow Users to Enter Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Make a Text Box Read-Only . . . . . . . . . 25
Make a Text Box Multiline . . . . . . .. . . . . 26
Allow Users to Select a Single Selection from a List of Items . . 27
Allow Users to Select Multiple Items from a List of Items . . . 29
Allow Users to Select an Optional Single Choice . . . . 30
Allow Users to Select from Various Options . . . . . . . 31
Allow Users to Enter a Date/Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Allow Users to Select a Person . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Allow Users to Select from a SharePoint External Content Type . . . . . . 35
Allow Users to Initiate an Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Show Optional Controls on Your Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Allow Users to Enter Multiple Instances of the Same Fields . . . . . 37
Allow Users to Choose Which Set of Fields to Use . . . . . . . 38
Make a Control/Field Required . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
4 Create SharePoint Form Rules 41
Hide or Show Controls Based on a Selected Option . . . . . . . . 42
Format an Entry Based on a Condition . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Implement a Validation Rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Add an Action Rule to a Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Use Rules for Form Submission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Use Rules for Form Loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Validate Data Entry Using Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
5 SharePoint Form Functions 57
Use the SharePoint URL Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Calculate a Future Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Get the Current SharePoint User . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Remove Leading and Trailing Spaces from a Field Value . . . . . 63
Remove All Spaces from an Entry . .. . . . . . . . 63
Default a Blank Amount to Zero . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Calculate the Sum of All Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Determine a Count of the Items Entered . . . . .. . . . . 67
Obtain a Portion of an Entered String . . . . . . . . . . 68
Obtain the Username from SharePoint Online (Office 365) . . . . . 69
Add Years to a Date Preserving the Month and Day . . . . . 70
6 Create SharePoint Form Page Designs and Views 71
Change the Current View Name . . . . . . . . . 72
Create a New View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Change the Default View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Make a View Read-Only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Prevent a User from Selecting a View . . . . . . . . 75
Use a View for Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Use a Different Layout for Your Form . . . . . . . . 77
Use a Theme for Your Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Add Headers/Footers to Your Form . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Insert a Table Layout into Your Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Modify a Table Layout in Your Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
7 SharePoint List Forms 81
Use a Form to Create a SharePoint List . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Modify the Form of an Existing SharePoint List . . . . . . . . . . 86
Set Your List Form Template Back to the Default Form . . . . . 87
8 Submit and Publish to SharePoint 89
Enable Your Form for Submission . . . . . . . . . 90
Configure Email Submission . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Publish Your Form to Email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Configure SharePoint Library Submission . . . .. . . . . . . . . 96
Publish Your Form to a SharePoint Library . . .. . . . . . . 97
Use Multiple Forms in SharePoint Libraries. . . . . . . . . . 101
Configure Web Service Submission . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Configure SharePoint Server Connection Submission . . . . . . . 107
Modify the Available Menu Buttons During Form Submission . . . . . 110
Part II: Business Solutions
9 Use Data in SharePoint Forms 113
Use Data From a Database . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . 114
Convert an InfoPath Connection to a SharePoint Connection File . . . 119
Use Data From a SharePoint List . . . .. . . . . . . . . . 121
Use Data From a SharePoint Data Connection File . . . . . . 123
Use Data from a (SOAP) Web Service . . . . . . 124
Populate a Drop-Down List with Data . . . . . . . . . . 126
Populate a Drop-Down List with Data Based on Another Selection (Cascading Drop-Down) . . . . . 129
Display Data from a SharePoint List . . . . . . . . 133
Display a Repeating Table from a SharePoint List . . . . . . . . . 137
Leverage External Data from a SharePoint External Content Type (Business Data Connectivity Services) . . . . 142
Leverage External Data from a REST Web Service . . .. . . . 144
10 Use the InfoPath Form Web Part 151
Add an InfoPath Form Web Part to a SharePoint Web Part Page . . . . 152
Create a Master/Detail Display Form for SharePoint Lists . . 154
Expose Form Fields as Web Part Connection Parameters . . . . 156
Create a Form to Send Data to Web Parts . . . . . . . . . . 158
11 Using Forms in SharePoint Workflows 163
Create a SharePoint Workflow for a Form Library . . . . 164
Include a Link to the Form in an Email . . .. . . . . . . . 168
Add a Task to the Workflow . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . 170
Perform Workflow Actions Based on Form Values . . .. . . . 172
Perform One Workflow Action or Another (But Not Both) . . . . 175
Get a User from a People/Group Picker Control . . . . . . . . 177
Customize the Task Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Add Form Parameters Used When Starting Your Workflow . . . . . . 181
12 Enhance the User Experience 183
Display a Read-Only Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Compact Sections of Fields/Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Configure Dynamic Sections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Make Screen Tips Informative for Validation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Notify the User of Successful Submission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Create a Tabbed Navigation in Your Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Use Pictures as Choices . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . 198
13 Using Template Parts to Create Reusable Form Components 203
Create a New Template Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Add Common Data Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Add Common Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Add Common Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Save Your Form Template Part . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Add Your Template Part as a Custom Control . . . . . .. . 206
Use Your Template Part as a Control . . . .. . . . . . . 209
Change the Name of Your Custom Control . . . . .. . . . . . . 210
Change the Icon of Your Custom Control . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Part III: Technical Solutions
14 Customize a Document Information Panel Content Type 213
Create the Document Library . . . . . . . . . 214
Add Columns to Your DIP . . . . . . . . . . 215
Modify the DIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
15 Leverage Visual Studio 2012 with InfoPath 221
Access Your Form Within a Visual Studio Solution . . . . . . . 222
Create an InfoPath 2013 Add-In . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Create a Custom Task Pane . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . 226
16 Dynamically Populate a Repeating Table 229
Set Up the Initial Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Create a Changed Event Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Create a Namespace Variable. . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Access the Secondary Data Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Loop Through the Secondary Data Source . . . . . . . . . 235
Populate the Repeating Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Clear Previous Entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
What Does the Final Solution Look Like? . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . 237
Implement a Nested Repeating Table Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
17 Track Changes in a Form 243
Set Up the Form for Tracking Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Add Changed Event Code for Tracking Changes . . . .. . . . . . . 246
Apply Rich Text to the Entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Show Only One Version at a Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Display a Changes Counter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Display the User Who Made the Modification . . . . . . . . . . . 257
18 Autogenerate Forms 259
Create a Class Object of Your Form . . . . . . . . . 260
Create Form Generation Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Upload the Form Object to a Form Library . . . . . . 265
Part IV: Administrative Aspects
19 Use Central Administration to Administer InfoPath Forms Services 267
Access the InfoPath Form Services Options . . .. . . . . 268
Browser-Enable Form Templates . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Throttle Data Connection Timeouts . . . . . . . . . 269
Throttle the Data Connection Response Size . . . .. . . . . . 270
Modify Authentication Settings . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Configure Session State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Upload a Form Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
What Happens When a Form Is Uploaded? . . . .. . . . 275
Manage Form Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
What Happens When a Form Is Activated to a Site Collection? . . . 277
Enable the Web Service Proxy . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Manage Data Connections . . . . . . . . . . . 279
20 PowerShell 281
Access SharePoint 2013 Management Shell . . .. . . . . . . 282
Browser-Enable Form Templates . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . 283
Throttle Data Connection Timeouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Throttle the Data Connection Response Size . . . . . . . . . 284
Modify Authentication Settings . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Configure Session State . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Enable View State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
Verify and Upload a Form Template . . . . . . . . . . . 287
Upload Multiple Form Templates at Once . . . . . . . . . . 288
Activate or Deactivate a Form to a Site Collection . . . . . . . 288
Remove a Form from InfoPath Form Services . . . . . . . . 289
Quiesce a Form from InfoPath Form Services . . . . . . 289
Enable the Web Service Proxy . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
21 Managing Form Permissions 293
Create Unique Permissions on a Form Library . . . . . . . . . 294
Grant Users Permissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Create a Permission Level for Your Form Library . . . . . . . 296
Edit a Group’s Permission Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Create a Submit-Only Permission Level . . . . . . . . 299
Part V: Troubleshooting
22 General Form Issues 301
Resolve: Issue Accessing Data Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
Resolve: SQL Credential Issue . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 303
Resolve: Business Data Connectivity Metadata Store Is Currently Unavailable . . . . 304
Resolve: Picker Issue Obtaining Business Data . . .. . . . . 305
Resolve: Missing Business Data Connectivity Services Client Components . . .. . . . 306
Resolve: SharePoint Designer Task List Creation Error . . . . 307
Resolve: Missing Programmability Components . . . . . . . . 308
Resolve: Error Loading the Form . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 308
Resolve: Security Exception Using Code-Behind . . .. . . . . . . 309
23 Resolve Deployment and Publishing Issues 311
Resolve: No File with URL in This Web . . . .. . . . . . . . 312
Resolve: Form Cannot Be Browser Enabled on Selected Site . . . . . . . . . 312
Resolve: Form Template Has Not Been Published . . . . . . . . . . 314
24 Resolve Form Submission Issues 315
Troubleshoot General Submission Issues . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 316
Resolve: SharePoint Location Is Read-Only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
Resolve: Document Library Already Contains a File with the Same Name . . . . . 317
Resolve: Errors Submitting to a Web Service . . . . . . . . 318
Part VI: Appendixes
A Auto-Increment Repeating Tables 321
Use the position() Function in a Calculated Value Control . .. . 321
Use the count() Function . . . 321
Use a Counter Field with Form Rules . . . 322
B Upload File Attachments in Forms to a Document Library 323
Form Scenario . . . . . . . . . . 323
Submit Button and Code-Behind Setup . . . . . 323
Event Handler Code . . . . . . . . . 324
Deployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
C Add Picture Files to InfoPath 327
Add a Picture as a Resource File . . . . . . . . 327
Use a Resource File Picture . . . . . . . . . . . 328
Index 331