confusion around publishing infopath to sharepoint

[keith brickey]

I am new to both infopath and sharepoint, so I hope someone will take pity
and answer what may be a dumb question. I created an infopath form named
bss.xsn and populated it by entering data and saving the result in a file
named form1.xml. Next, I uploaded form1.xml to a sharpoint version 2 web
site. I am able to open form1.xml from the sharepoint web site from my
computer and add additional data. When someone else tries the same thing
from a different computer, they get a message saying that the form file is
not available. How can I make the form available to other sharepoint users?
I did try publishing the form to sharepoint, but the result was something
like an excel spreadsheet and did not resemble my form at all.

Thanks,

Keith

 

[Daniel Rajkumar]

Create a form library from within sharepoint and upload your xml files to there

Hope this helps

 

[Brian Teutsch [MSFT]]

While you're designing your form, use Publish. That will let you put the
form template (XSN) onto SharePoint, where everyone can access it. It
creates a form library in the process, with the "New Form" link.

The form (XML) files your template creates can be stored on SharePoint for
everyone to view, or they can live on your desktop until you want to upload
them to SharePoint.

Brian

 

[Michelle]

Keith:

When you fill out a form from an InfoPath form template, the xml
document created (form1.xml) contains a processing instruction that
states where the template used to create the xml file is located.
What happens when you open the xml is that InfoPath tries to reference
the template in order to apply transformations to get the form's
"look".

I am reading a little into what you have explained, but what I believe
happened is that you developed the form template on your computer.
Then filled out the form to create an xml document. Then uploaded the
xml document to the Sharepoint library. The xml document is looking
for the template at a certain path such as c:/.../.../bss.xsn.
However, the template does not exist on the Sharepoint server at that
location nor on the other person's computer, so when someone else
tries to open the xml from another computer (other than yours) an
error will occur as you are experiencing.

There are a few ways around this. The easiest is to publish your
infopath form template to a form library in sharepoint and then use
the fill out this form feature.

Michelle

 

[keith brickey]

Sharepoint does not exactly publish the form. Instead, it has you select
certain form elements that it displays in rows and column like a
spreadsheet. How can I publish a form so that web site users can open the
form and add to or edit the underlying xml data?

 

[keith brickey]

Michelle, you are correct in what you assumed. Sharepoint does not exactly
publish the form. Instead, it has you select
certain form elements that it displays in rows and column like a
spreadsheet. How can I publish a form so that web site users can open the
form not as a spreadsheet, but as it was designed, and add to or edit a body
of xml data?

Thanks,

Keith

 

[Lee Newson]

Hi Keith,

If you publish your form to a sharepoint library, when the form is used and
subsequently saved (to the form library on sharepoint) users then have the
option to either use the "New Form" link to create a new form or to select
an existing form from the form library (*.xml). Either way, remember that
any user that wants to either create a new form or edit an existing form
must have InfoPath installed on their local machine, publishing a form just
makes it available to users with access to that library.

The elements you can select are basically so that you can make some
information from each form saved to library visible, for example if it was a
customre order form or some such, you could select the order date and order
total elements to be shown in the library alternatively you dont need to
select any elements at all and just have a list of the filled out form files
(.xml). this functionality of a form library is for summary purposes only
and could prove useful if for example you have a number of forms that have
been saved with non-descript filenames, this summary information could help
you decide which file you need to open instead of opening them all. (To add
or edit information users will have to open the form, they will not be able
to do it in the "spreadsheet" view)

if a user opens a file (*.xml) it will not open as a spreadsheet but as the
form so long as the user either has the form on their local machine or it
has been published to the form library, but they still need infopath on
their local machine (and it will need to be the same version as the version
used to initially design the form - if the form was designed in InfoPath SP1
using SP1 features then the users version will need to be SP1 aswell)

I hope this helps you understand the relationshipe between form libraries
and infopath forms a littel better. If it doesn't reply and let us know
what is still unclear.

regards

Lee

 

[Michelle]

When you develop the form, you need to publish it to a Sharepoint Form
Library. The publishing wizard will prompt you as to what fields you
want to promote as metadata into the library when a completed form is
saved into the form library. This is for summary information so
people can know what the form is about without having to open it (this
helps with searching for the correct document or data aggregation)

The template itself is not stored inside the form library as an item.
The template (xsn) can be found at
..../formlibraryname/forms/template.xsn

VERY IMPORTANT:
Please note the difference between the template and the xml document.
Both are referred to as forms, but there is a distinct difference.
The template contains information as to how the data should be
displayed, rules etc. The xml only contains the structured data and a
couple processing instructions that hold the location of the template
and the program which should be used to view the data (InfoPath in
this case).

Once the form (template) is published in Sharepoint you would fill out
the form by opening it *from* the Sharepoint Form Library you
published it to (Use the fill out this form link). When you save the
xml document, by default it will be saved to that same Form Library as
an item within the list.

When another user opens the xml (which they can do by clicking on the
icon or the title of the document in the library) it will open inside
InfoPath. The promoted values for that document will be visible also
within the Sharepoint Form Library list.

Note: The other computer *must* have InfoPath installed and if the
form is fully trusted must have the form template installed on their
machine also.

Hopefully this is a little more helpful.
Michelle

 

[Keith Brickey]

Thanks. I published a form to SharePoint and the users are able to enter and
edit data. I need to access the content body that is being entered by the
users with other, different forms exposing only selected portions of the
entered xml data. I have not been able to figure out how to create another
form and "point it" at the xml content residing in the SharePoint Forms
Library.

Thanks again,

Keith

 

[keith brickey]

Thanks. I published a form to SharePoint and the users are able to enter and
edit data. I need to access the content body that is being entered by the
users with other, different forms exposing only selected portions of the
entered xml data. I have not been able to figure out how to create another
form and "point it" at the xml content residing in the SharePoint Forms
Library.

Thanks again,

Keith