1.Infopath forms are wholly xml-centric ie the forms are based on xml schema.
2.Designers have a choice of designing form either from a scratch or to design a form based on preexisting schema.
3.Infopath views are based on XSL transforms.
4.Form developers can build various views of data and those views are rendered by XSLT automatically generated by Infopath.
5.All the Infopath data is saved in XML which helps infopath to coexist with other industry standard tools and processes in an XML oriented solution.
6.The power of XML tools also enables infopath to serve as form User Interface in an environment which is not XML based.
7.An additional benefit with infopath since it has a rich client to fill the the forms,the user that has infopath installed doesn't need to be online to fill the forms.
8.Infopath has capability to capture the form locally to open it later.
9.If the form is hosted in server when user opened the form,infopath captures the form template locally so that user can continue working with the form even its original template location is no longer available.
10. Infopath has set of controls like radiobuttons,checkboxes etc.
11.In addition it provides spell checking out of the box.
12.Finally in an organisation that has public key infrastructure ,infopath provides capability to digitally sign the forms.
Limitations Of Infopath 2003:
1.Users were required to have infopath installed on their desktops to fill in infopath foms.This limited usage to internet scenerios form for users outside the organisation still had to be implemented by other means.
2.In the area in which it was best suited -internet applications-a form solution generally requires a workflow solution.
These limitations were overcomed in infopath 2007:
1.The new Microsoft Office Infopath Forms Services provides a capability to publish infopath forms to browser based forms.As a result developer can design an infopath forms,levereage the form UI capabilities inside the firewall and publish the same form in Office SharePoint Server for consumption of user outside the firewall.
2.Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server is built on Windows Sharepoint Server and provides all collaboration capabilities inherent in that platform.In addition the newest versions of Windows Sharepoint Services provide powerful new workflow capabilities based on Windows Workflow Foundation.
Other Benefits:
1.Controls templates with which developer can create templates of controls in frequently used layouts or combinations.
2.Integrates with Outlook for offline folder capabilities.
3.Design checker to validate the forms.
4.Multi-select listbox.
5.Ability to publish form directly to installable MSI file.
6.Data connection libraries in Microsoft office 2007 server.
7.Built-in ability to publish to PDF or Microsoft new XPS format.
8.The trust center,to manage trusted forms.
9.Additional form events.
10. Offline caching of lookup data.
11. Infopath forms hosted in the designer when working in visual studio.
Infopath Client:
1.Infopath client is straight forward: it opens a wizard that allows you to select from a number of forms in a gallery of samples,from a list of recently used forms,and from an online library of forms.
2.In addition you can design and publish forms guided by wizard in the client.
Form Templates Vs Form Data:
1.Form template is seperate from form data.Form tempelate is a new format with .xsn extension.
2.The difference is that in paper form ,you get both question and answers,but in electronic forms the form data is stored seperately from form template.This eases storage requirements but introduces a new concern thatis meaning of answer depends upon question asked.
3.While designing electronic forms,you should put as much thought in the storage and maintainence of form template as form data.
4.Infopath makes it easier by using a schema to define form as well as automatically understanding and maintaining of form template version.
Form Maintainence:
1.Not only infopath can open form templates from network locations for which it is designed to but it can open from network shares,web servers, and sharepoint.
2.When a developer publishes form template,form template is tagged with a location in which it is published.
3.When a form template is opened,infopath caches the form template locally so that it can be opened again when computer is offline or data files referring to form template can be opened even if the template is unavailable.
4.When the form is filled out ,the form data is tagged with parent location of the form template-this enables data file to find out template file when it is opened again.
5.When the form is reopened ,it checks to see whether parent locations is available.If yes it checks the version of current formand version of parent form.if it is diiferent infopath asks user whether it want to download newer version of form template.
6.if the parent form is not available ,it opens the form from cache.
Tour Of The Infopath:
1.When you first open infopath you will get Getting Started Dialog from which you can select a form or open an existing form or design a form template.
2.Ribbon icon in the toolbar indicates that the form can be digitally signed.
Rich Text Fields:
1.Multi-line fields can be rich text fields,which means you can apply Word-formatting to text in the field.
Repeating and Optional Sections:
1.Infopath has the capabilities of repeating and optional sections-areas of control that can be added by the user by rules depending on the data on the form or by code.
Optional section: Optional sections can be added either by the user or by the form.
Optional section only insert single instance of the section.
Repeating Section:
In this mutiple copies of a section of form can be inserted.It can be added either by the user or by the form.
Repeating Table:
It has additional capability of adding header and footer.Header can contain title information and footer can contain summary information.
Horizontal Repeating Table:
This table allows user to dynamically add columns to a defined table.
Master/Detail:It has the capability of managing and navigating large quantities of data.Master control is linked to child control and filters the data presented in it based on the record selected on the master
Bulleted list,numbered list,and plain list:- These offers various ways of simply listing data bound to repeating nodes.
Multi-select List Box- This simple variation allows the user to select multiple choices from preconfigured list.
File and Picture Controls:
Infopath 2003 Service Pack1 added some powerful file and ink controls to infopath and they remain in infopath 2007.
When used on tablet PC,Infopath will perform text recognition on handwriting inked into text boxes and other text fields.
The ink drawing enables you to draw using a tablet stylus and save the image into the form.
Infopath also allows the user to attach image or file to a form.
Infopath provides multiple views of form.This multiple views helps designer to make it easy for user to understand and fill the form.
a.Multipurpose Forms. b.Forms with multiple pages c.Forms in which different users get different representation of data.
Digital Signatures:
1.Digital Signatures are the way of guarenteing that the digital content has not changed since it was submitted by the user that has signed the form.
2.To obtan digital signatures user should have digital certificate.
3.Digital certificate is a small encrypted file that acts as a private key in public/private key pair.
4.It is useful in the case when the form data is be sent outside the comany or organisation.
5.For the internal use,user can create their own certificates either by using Windows Server 2003 or other package.
6.Thus infopath provides adhoc digital signatures using either the user's typed name or an image of an actual signature.
7.In addition ,section of a form can be either co-signed or counter-signed.
8.Co-signed means multiple users can sign the form.
9.Counter signed means later signatures is in effect than prior signatures.
Form Settings
1.You can change form settings in infopath by clicking on option button in tools menu.
2.Various settings are:
a.General: You can change most recently used file list,print background pictures and colors,show the fillout a form dialog on startup,and enable or disable auto advance.
b.System:You can change internet security settings for infopath.This leverages security dialog for intenet explorer.
c.Office;You can set office as default program for opening XML files.
d.Advanced:You can set autorecover options .Infopath will automatically store form data while you are filling out forms.
e.Offline mode:Infopath cache the results of data connection queries so that form operates correctly when used offline.
Infopath Designer:
Data Type:
Data Type Example Comments Allows Formatting
Text Mr.Prince Any Text String No
Whole Number 3245 Any String Of Digits Yes
Decimal 34.546 A decimal value Yes
True/False True Can be either true/false No
or 1/0
Hyperlink //ftpserver/path Correspond to any URL
datatype in XML schemas No
Date 1/13/2005 Accepts various date formats Yes
Time 12:23:45 PM Accepts various time formats Yes