Welcome to the Minnesota SharePoint User Group

Quick Intro Announcements SharePoint and InfoPath Quick demo of InfoPath What is InfoPath? How does InfoPath integrate with SharePoint? Leveraging Web Services with InfoPath Extending InfoPath with Workflow Examples of InfoPath solutions / Common Scenarios Q & A Giveaway Agenda

Inetium ( Twin Cites based Microsoft consulting company Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Practice Area focused on Information Worker Technologies New Horizons – Minnesota ( Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Training on many technologies Microsoft ( I’m guessing you’ve heard of them Introductions – MNSPUG Sponsors

Build a local community focused on Microsoft SharePoint Technologies Educate user group members about SharePoint Technologies Transfer knowledge within the community Communicate best practices Introduce new products / solutions User Group Goal / Objectives

Website for user group SharePoint resource documents SharePoint resource websites links RSS Feeds Meeting Schedule Past User Group Presentations

Next Meeting November 9 th TBD 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM Microsoft’s Bloomington Office Topic: Groove Ongoing Schedule 2 nd Wednesday of every month 9:00 to 11:00 am Microsoft’s Bloomington Office Upcoming Schedule

InfoPath and SharePoint

Demo Basic Expense Report Form

Digital Form Tool Newest Member of Microsoft Office Natively supports XML Allows digital data capture Flexible and Dynamic Multiple Submission Options What is InfoPath?

Form Design – Designer builds form Form is published – Form is published to a location where users will ultimately go to fill out the form Users fill out form – Users will navigate to the published location and fill out the form and submit it Typical InfoPath Lifecycle Form is Designed Form is Published Users Fill Out Form

Five primary design tasks Task pane provides visibility into tasks Each task pane expands to display functionality Layout Controls Data Source Views Publish Form InfoPath Design Tasks

User establishes the overall layout of the form Based on a table design approach similar to of Word and HTML tables Layout task pane provides numerous styles including custom table Tables can be nested within one another InfoPath Design Task: Layout

Broad control library with many built-in controls Familiar interface for those with Access experience Drag and drop design interface Form designer Powerful capabilities such as optional and repeating sections Ability to add custom controls InfoPath Design Task: Controls

Defines the data sources for the form Defines the data as XML Allows data to be established in hierarchical fashion Multiple data sources can be established in a form User can define a data source schema before hand and design the form based on the structure User can drag and drop data source fields and controls will automatically be created as defined by the type InfoPath Design Task: Data Source

Can display the same data in a different way on the form Multiple views can be created of the form InfoPath Design Task: Views

Demo “Under the Hood” of the Expense Report form

SharePoint Form Library is designed for InfoPath InfoPath can publish data that has been submitted into the form as columns in a form library SharePoint makes a great location for users to fill out forms InfoPath can make use of information from SharePoint in controls such as drop down lists, list boxes InfoPath Integration w/ SharePoint

Form Libraries are a special kind of document library Same things that can be done in a document library can be done in a form library Alerts Events Versions Individual columns from form can be published to display in list view of library What is a SharePoint Form Library?

Primary Design Task Multiple options for publish destination SharePoint Form Library Shared Folder Web Server Publishing an InfoPath form to SharePoint

Create new form library or Modify an existing one Publishing an InfoPath form to SharePoint (cont)

Pick a location of a SharePoint site SharePoint Portal Server or Windows SharePoint Services Publishing an InfoPath form to SharePoint (cont)

Choose a name of the form library This will create a form library in your destination SharePoint site Publishing an InfoPath form to SharePoint (cont)

Publish columns to SharePoint Multiple columns can be published These show up in the form library Publishing an InfoPath form to SharePoint (cont)

Optionally notify users via directly to form Finishing the wizard creates the Form Library and assigns the InfoPath form template to it Publishing an InfoPath form to SharePoint (cont)

InfoPath form template is bound to this library Submitted InfoPath forms will be stored as XML in the form library Published columns show up in the library SharePoint Form Library

Step 1 – Basic InfoPath Expense Report form that highlights the core principles of InfoPath and highlights the integration with SharePoint. Step 2 – Building on the basic InfoPath form in step 1, adds ability to connect to multiple sources of data including web services including CRM and Mapping data. Step 3 – Taking the form in Step 2 a little bit further by discussing workflow options and leveraging a 3 rd party workflow tool to extend InfoPath and SharePoint by allowing the expense report to be routed to a manager for approval. Our Example: “The Expense Report”

Demo Publishing an InfoPath form to SharePoint

InfoPath controls can be connected to SharePoint Lists Drop Down List Box List Box Allows users to leverage info on SharePoint without having to create a database Information can be filtered from list Leveraging Data in a SharePoint List in InfoPath

Right clicking on the drop down and selecting properties Select look up values in Database Web Service SharePoint Library or List Connecting an InfoPath Drop Down to SharePoint

Adding a connection to data Select look up values in: XML Document Database Web Service SharePoint Library or List Connecting an InfoPath Drop Down to SharePoint

SharePoint Site Details Connect to a site (list or library) via URL Connecting an InfoPath Drop Down to SharePoint

If connecting to site, lists / libraries are displayed Select which library / list contains the values Connecting an InfoPath Drop Down to SharePoint

Selecting fields to choose from Check which fields will be available in the drop down Connecting an InfoPath Drop Down to SharePoint

Name the connection to the SharePoint data Data can be retrieved when form is opened or based on a button action Connecting an InfoPath Drop Down to SharePoint

Select the field to display Can select a different Value and Display name Connecting an InfoPath Drop Down to SharePoint

Demo Connecting InfoPath to SharePoint Data

Submit Database – Only available when creating a Form Web Service Sharepoint Library/XML File Message Receive Database Web Service XML File Sharepoint List Secondary Data Connections

InfoPath Sharepoint List Identity Service Demo: Making the Form User Aware Custom Identity Web Service Determines Current User Retrieves Manager Company Specific Customizations

Perform Actions on a Control Change Visibility Modify Style and Fonts Conditional Formatting

Allow simple calculations Created in a dialog box Commonly used functions Avg Min Max Sum Functions

Verify Correct Data Uses same functionality as Validation Can set different controls Control Can have many Rules Rules

InfoPath Sharepoint List Identity Service Mileage Rate Demo: Getting the Mileage Rate Conditional Formatting Optional Sections Lookup Values Functions

Verify Correct Data Compound expressions together Gives Detail on Validation error Won’t allow submission Validation

InfoPath Sharepoint List Identity Service Mileage Rates CRM Accounts Mapping Service Demo: Calculating Mileage Validation Code Behind Manually Calling Web Service Accessing the DOM

Workflow Options

Most organizations want to go beyond just filling out the form Most organizations want to automate the process once a user has completed a form Multiple Options SharePoint Alerts Custom coding 3 rd party workflow tool BizTalk InfoPath and Workflow

InfoPath can submit via Great for sending info to a particular user Leverage SharePoint alerts on a Form Library when forms are submitted Automatically sends s to those that have created alerts on that library Basic Workflow using InfoPath and SharePoint

InfoPath forms can be submitted to Form Library Form Library has document library events associated to it Cancel Check Out Check In Check Out Copy Delete Insert Move / Rename Update User submits form to Form Library and.NET code runs to process form and execute code Leveraging.NET to Extend SharePoint

Multiple vendors have products Most integrate directly with InfoPath and SharePoint K2 Captaris Teamplate Skelta Ascentn 3 rd Party Products for Workflow

SharePoint Workflow Options – Pros / Cons ProsCons Out of the Box (Alerts / ) Quick Power user can setup Limited functionality Custom.NET Blank slate Customizable Slower development timeline Code reuse Lack of monitoring Costly 3 rd Party Products Flexible Rapid development Technical support Process visibility Costly

Demo Leveraging 3 rd Party Workflow Tool K2 to Automate Workflow

Time cards Performance reviews Collaborative budgeting Status reports Service requests Recruiting New project initiation New hires / terminations Clinical forms Examples of InfoPath at Work

Tie into objectives Provide help to user regarding rating guidelines Schedule appointments Performance Review

Collaborate on multiple projects All users can fill in their data for estimates Collaborative Budgeting

Sales team fills in reports Sales Managers get visibility into activities Sales Activity Tracking

Coordinate and schedule service Leverage data from multiple systems Service Request

Patient tracking through Ed Collect all vitals Submit to backend systems Emergency Department Tracking

Leverage Tablet PC Easily document with ink and images Offline user Insurance Claim Adjuster

Good Starting Point Demonstrates Features Sample Forms

Q & A