1. Advanced InfoPath Development InfoPath / SharePoint 2010
Prepared By: Suzanne George
Sr. Architect
Perficient - Microsoft West Region

2. About Perficient
Perficient is a leading information technology consulting firm serving clients throughout North America.
We help clients implement business-driven technology solutions that integrate business processes, improve worker productivity, increase customer loyalty and create a more agile enterprise to better respond to new business opportunities.

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

4. InfoPath – Love it or Hate it!?!
The Promise of InfoPath
Where is the developer??
Why Me??
The Developer Dream

5. InfoPath - Start with the basics!
To use or not to use InfoPath? Just because you can doesn’t mean you should!
Pros:
Easy to use interface, integration with SharePoint Lists and Form Web Parts, Office Integration.
Power Users can do simple stuff.
Lookups and repeating tables are easy to do.
Cons:
Advanced developers find it frustrating
Can’t publish people picker fields
Publishing columns / changes to column names
No CSS type support (expand/collapse regions)
evaluate the requirements and prioritization of features over simplicity and maintainability

6. Designing Your InfoPath Form for Success
Design first!
Where is the data? Database, List or Library, in the form?
Where does the business logic belong – Workflow, Code-Behind, or InfoPath Rules? Where will approval happen?
Form Views – how many views will you need, when will they show, and who has access to update?
Form Controls – what types of controls are needed for the data, which controls will be exported, etc.
Styles – how will the form look and does it make sense to the user?

7. The InfoPath Need to Know List
Deployment – Central Admin vs. Publish (Form Options)
Know how to retrieve your InfoPath Form w/Powershell
Export-SPInfoPathAdministrationFiles -path d:\Temp\file.cab
Know how to export source files before checking in to TFS. (Also possible to rename FormName.xsn to FormName.cab to view/extract contents)
When removing exported columns, the are not removed from a list! Here is how to fix it…
Add-PSSnapin microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell
$web = Get-SPWeb
$list = $web.Lists["ApplicationSupport"]
$field = $list.Fields["SR Assigned To"]
$field.AllowDeletion = “true”
$field.Sealed = “false”
$field.Delete()
$list.Update()
$list.Fields | Select-Object InternalName
$web.Dispose()

8. Debugging an InfoPath Form
Debugging Essentials
Check form with Design Checker
Set debug mode
click the Build tab and then, at the bottom, click Advanced. In the Advanced Build Settings dialog box, click the Debug Info list and then click full
In the Options dialog box, in the area to the left, expand Debugging and then click General.
Clear the Enable Just My Code (Managed only) check box.
Select the Suppress JIT optimization on module load (Managed only) check box.
Build/Deploy
Set Central Administration Logging for InfoPath
Use ULS Viewer for log information
Urls:

9. An example… Vacation Form
The requirements
User to input form
All data stays inside form, certain fields are exported to list
Version History
After approval start SharePoint workflow
SharePoint list views need to have People “is [Me]” functionality

10. Form User Input
Demo

11. More things you can do with InfoPath
Conclusion
Design first, code once!
InfoPath can be powerful and leverage both PowerUsers and developers capabilities
More things you can do with InfoPath
Automatically check-in / out forms
Populate dynamic approvers in form based upon information in the form
Dynamically hide and show data
Mash-ups
Read/Write to database tables
Questions?

12. Suzanne George Microsoft® SharePoint® 2010 Administrator's Companion
For further information, please contact: Suzanne George Sr. Technical Architect Perficient - Microsoft West Region Twitter: spgenie Books co-authored:
Microsoft® SharePoint® 2010 Administrator's Companion
The SharePoint 2010 Handbook: A Collection of Short Chapters for Delivering Successful SharePoint Projects