Infopath 2007

Articles, tips & tricks, and guidance on how to create electronic forms solutions using InfoPath 2007.

InfoPath Basics: InfoPath Resource Files – purpose and benefit

Learn what resource files in InfoPath are and when you should use them.

Display the same repeating table in different places in InfoPath

Learn how you can display data from a repeating table in other repeating tables that are located on different places on an InfoPath form.

How to open an InfoPath form and template that were moved or copied

Learn how you can change the contents of an InfoPath form that is linked to an InfoPath form template that was moved or copied to a different location or computer, so that you can open the InfoPath form again in InfoPath.

How to set the maximum field length in InfoPath

Learn how you can use a data validation condition to check the maximum field length in InfoPath and display an error message to the user if the maximum field length is exceeded.

Quick Tip: Display button text on two lines in InfoPath

Learn how you can use a secondary data source to display text on two lines on a button in InfoPath thereby creating a multi-line button label in InfoPath.

Display Excel data in InfoPath via SharePoint or XML connections

Learn which 2 methods are available if you want to display data from Excel 2007 as a secondary data source in InfoPath 2007.

3 Ways to use InfoPath forms in Office SharePoint Server and WSS 3

Learn what InfoPath forms can be used for or as in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 or Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) 3.0.

InfoPath Q&A: How do I copy or transfer data between InfoPath forms?

This post discusses two possible solutions for a reader's question about how to automatically transfer or copy data entered into one InfoPath form to the same fields in a second InfoPath form.

InfoPath Basics: How to make fields in InfoPath the same size

Learn how you can use Layout Tables and the Width property on InfoPath fields to make fields in InfoPath the same size.

Filter and sort a SharePoint list in InfoPath using a DataView

Learn how you can use C# code and the DataView class that comes with ADO.NET to sort and filter items from a secondary data source to a SharePoint list in InfoPath.

How to upload a document to SharePoint from an InfoPath form

Learn how you can write code in the FormCode.cs file of an InfoPath form template to be able to extract and upload a document attached to the InfoPath form to a SharePoint document library.

InfoPath Basics: Make a control required based on a condition

Learn how you can use data validation in InfoPath to make a field required based on a condition or the value of another field.

2 Ways to retrieve the SharePoint site collection URL of an InfoPath browser form

Learn how you can write C# code in an InfoPath browser form to be able to retrieve the URL of the SharePoint site collection that the InfoPath form is part of.

Display SharePoint Tasks assigned to the current user in InfoPath

Learn how you can use the userName() function and Conditional Formatting in InfoPath to display only those tasks from a SharePoint Tasks list that have been assigned to the user who has opened the InfoPath form.

Displaying InfoPath forms on an ASP.NET web page

Learn how you can retrieve InfoPath forms that are stored as XML from a SQL Server database, convert them to HTML, and then display them on an ASP.NET web page.

10 most popular InfoPath / SharePoint articles on BizSupportOnline

Learn which SharePoint and InfoPath articles and videos on BizSupportOnline received the most views and were found to be the most helpful in the past few months.

Delete, remove, or clear an attachment from an InfoPath form

Learn how you can delete or clear an attachment field on an InfoPath form manually or through code.

Use a custom SharePoint Designer workflow activity to upload images from InfoPath to a SharePoint Picture Library

Learn how you can use an InfoPath browser form, file attachment controls in a repeating table, and a custom SharePoint Designer workflow activity to upload and store images in a SharePoint Picture Library.

Using InfoPath to create tasks and appointments in Outlook

Learn how you can use the Outlook Object Model in InfoPath to create Outlook appointments and tasks.

Programmatically restrict the size of an attachment in InfoPath

Learn how you can write code in the Validating event of an InfoPath File Attachment control to restrict users to only uploading files of a particular size.

Writing to the Windows Event Log from an InfoPath browser form

If you're writing code in VSTA for an InfoPath browser form, want to debug it, but do not have Visual Studio, you can use the workaround described in this post.

Trick: Clear or reset fields in InfoPath using only 3 lines of code

Learn how you can use just 3 lines of code and a 'special setup' in an InfoPath form to be able to clear or reset all of the fields or a subset of fields on an InfoPath form, whether it is browser-enabled or not.

Top 10 bestsellers among InfoPath and SharePoint books in 2009

Learn which InfoPath, SharePoint, and SharePoint Designer books were bought in 2009 and read by visitors to BizSupportOnline.NET.

2 Ways to store InfoPath VSTA projects in a source control repository

Learn which 2 methods you can use when you create an InfoPath form template that is bound to a VSTA project and want to store the files in and then later fetch the files from a source control repository such as e.g. Visual SourceSafe.

Pre-filtering large SharePoint lists in InfoPath using WSS's owssvr.dll

Learn how you can take advantage of Windows SharePoint Services' owssvr.dll to filter a long or large list of data in a SharePoint list before the data is returned to an InfoPath form and used to populate InfoPath controls.

Understanding the Multiple-Selection List Box in InfoPath

Learn how multiple-selection list boxes differ from other list boxes in InfoPath, how they store data, and how you can use this information to apply rules and conditional formatting, or to write code in InfoPath.

Add a logo from a SharePoint library to an InfoPath browser form

Learn how you can use a Rich Text Box control and code to display an image for a logo that is stored in a SharePoint Picture Library on an InfoPath browser form.

Quick Tip: Select the latest date from a repeating table in InfoPath

Learn how you can use the max() function in a formula and conditional formatting in InfoPath to select and/or highlight the latest (newest) date in a repeating table.

Trick: Create InfoPath forms using a SharePoint Designer workflow

Learn how you can change the settings and default template on a SharePoint Form Library in such a way that it enables you to use a SharePoint Designer workflow to automatically create InfoPath forms in that SharePoint Form Library.

InfoPath Q&A: Can you put a repeating table in a repeating table?

Step-by-step instructions for adding a repeating table in a repeating table on an InfoPath form.

Root element is missing in InfoPath when loading a MemoryStream in an XPathDocument

Learn how you can solve the 'Root element is missing' error if you're trying to load a MemoryStream into an XPathDocument in InfoPath.

Use a custom SPD action to extract an attachment from an InfoPath form and add it to a SharePoint document library

Learn how you can create a custom SharePoint Designer activity that can be used as an action in a workflow that runs on InfoPath forms to extract an attachment from an InfoPath form and upload it as a file to a SharePoint document library.

Archive or move InfoPath forms in SharePoint

Learn how you can use a SharePoint content type and a SharePoint Designer workflow to move InfoPath forms in SharePoint from one library to the other as a way of archiving InfoPath forms in SharePoint.

How to set the programming language in InfoPath 2007

Learn how you can set the programming language in InfoPath for both the current and all future InfoPath form templates you create.

3 Ways to deploy InfoPath form templates to SharePoint

Learn which methods are available for deploying InfoPath 2007 form templates to SharePoint 2007.

Send email from SharePoint based on values in an InfoPath form

Learn how you can access InfoPath form fields from a SharePoint Designer workflow and use a condition in the workflow to take action based on the value of a field in the InfoPath form.

Which programming language to use for writing code in InfoPath?

Learn which programming languages are available in InfoPath when you want to write code for InfoPath form templates, which language to choose, and which tool to use to write code in InfoPath.

Pre-selecting the year for an InfoPath Date Picker control

Learn how you can save time and increase efficiency by pre-selecting and setting the year at which an InfoPath date picker control should start displaying dates in its calendar.

InfoPath Q&A: Can InfoPath be used with Oracle databases for data gathering and reporting?

Programmatically set properties on InfoPath controls

Learn why you can only use conditional formatting on controls to programmatically set properties to hide, disable, or change the color for InfoPath controls.

Quick Tip: Finding "hidden errors" in an InfoPath form template

Learn how you can prevent errors from suddenly popping up in your InfoPath form by using the Logic Inspector to find unused business logic.

Switch to read-only view on submit in InfoPath

Learn how you can use either rules or code to switch to a read-only view immediately after a form has been submitted.

Quick Tip: Making InfoPath form fields read-only

Learn when it is appropriate to use the read-only property on an InfoPath control, conditional formatting on an InfoPath form field, or create a read-only view to make fields on an InfoPath form read-only.

2 Ways to loop through InfoPath forms in a SharePoint Form Library

Learn how you can write C# code that uses the SPList, SPListItem, SPFolder, and SPFile classes of the SharePoint Object Model to loop through and retrieve all of the InfoPath forms that are stored in a SharePoint Form Library.

How to programmatically rename an InfoPath file attachment

Learn how you can write C# code to programmatically rename a file that has been attached to an InfoPath form.

How to programmatically retrieve selected items in a Multiple-Selection list box in InfoPath

Learn how you can write C# code to get the values or display names of the items that were selected in a Multiple-Selection List Box on an InfoPath form.

InfoPath Q&A: Where is InfoPath form data stored?

Learn how and where you can store InfoPath forms and what the difference is between InfoPath forms and ASP.NET forms.

How to retrieve InfoPath form data in a SharePoint workflow

Learn how you can retrieve data that is stored within an InfoPath form either in a SharePoint Designer workflow or in a Visual Studio workflow that runs on that InfoPath form in a SharePoint form library.

How to submit a file attached to an InfoPath form as an attachment to a SharePoint list item

Learn how you can programmatically save a file attachment from an InfoPath form as an attachment to a SharePoint list item when the InfoPath form is submitted to the SharePoint list.

Understanding the Update Form button action in InfoPath

Learn what the Update Form action on a button in InfoPath does and how you can use it to your advantage to improve the performance of InfoPath browser forms.

How to execute code and close an InfoPath web-based form

Learn what the limitations of InfoPath are and which options are available to you when trying to write code that closes an InfoPath web-based form.

Specifying namespaces to use XPath queries in InfoPath

Learn how to define XML namespaces in InfoPath to be able to retrieve data using XPath expressions.

Create a Word 2007 document from an InfoPath form using the OpenXML SDK 2.0

Learn how you can use the OpenXML SDK 2.0 to programmatically create a Word 2007 document from an InfoPath form and deal with complex data conversions such as those for rich text boxes and repeating tables.

How to add, update, and delete SharePoint list items via InfoPath

Learn how to write code in InfoPath that makes calls into the SharePoint object model to insert, edit, and delete items in a SharePoint list.

2 Ways to place a Date Picker in a Repeating Table in InfoPath

Learn how you can add or convert a text box control that is located within a repeating table on an InfoPath form template into a date picker control.

How to submit an InfoPath form to a SharePoint list and attach the form to the list item

Learn how to use the Attachments collection of a SharePoint list item to save the XML of an entire InfoPath form as an attachment to a SharePoint list item.

Best of BizSupportOnline – 2008

Learn which InfoPath articles on the BizSupportOnline.NET web site and blog got the most attention during 2008.

The Office Open XML file cannot be opened because there are problems with the contents.

Learn what steps to take to avoid getting a Word 2007 error that tells you that the file is corrupt when you have manually modified the DOCX file by unzipping it.

Submit repeating table rows from InfoPath to a SharePoint list using the SharePoint Object Model

Learn how you can combine two InfoPath solutions to be able to submit rows of a repeating table in an InfoPath form to a SharePoint list using the SharePoint Object Model (OM).

InfoPath form uploaded to SharePoint seems to remain stuck in the 'Installing' or 'Upgrading' status

Learn how you can use the stsadm command line utility to run the administrative timer jobs for InfoPath forms that get stuck during an administrator-approved deployment.

5 Ways to submit an InfoPath form to a SharePoint list

Learn which workarounds are available if you want to submit the data from an InfoPath form to a SharePoint list.

"Microsoft.SharePoint.SPException: The security validation for this page is invalid." error in InfoPath browser forms

Learn how you can use the SPWeb.AllowUnsafeUpdates property to prevent the 'The security validation for this page is invalid.' error from taking place when you run code that calls directly into the SharePoint object model from within an InfoPath browser form.

InfoPath Q&A: How can I use InfoPath forms without having InfoPath installed on users' PCs?

Learn which software products are required if you want to use InfoPath 2007 forms, but not install the InfoPath client application on the PCs of users who must fill out forms.

How to enable InfoPath Forms Services in WSS v3

Learn which components you need to install before you can enable InfoPath Forms Services to work in WSS version 3.0 and display InfoPath forms in a web browser through SharePoint.

How to create a 'hidden' field in InfoPath

Learn how to add a field to an InfoPath form template so that it exists in the InfoPath form but remains invisible to a user.

Quick Tip: How to create a dynamic label in InfoPath

Learn how to use a text box or an expression box control together with rules and filters to create a dynamic label in InfoPath.

InfoPath to DOCX – An alternative to using XSLT for conversion

There are several ways to convert InfoPath forms to Word documents. This post lists the options available for InfoPath to DOCX conversion.

InfoPath Basics article series

The 'InfoPath Basics' article series is a series of articles on the most basic stuff in InfoPath and each article deals in depth with only one topic. The articles in this series are listed in this post.

Extracting day, month, and year numbers from dates in InfoPath

Learn how to use the substring() and number() functions in InfoPath to extract the day, month, and year numbers from an InfoPath date string.

Learn to use list boxes in InfoPath

Microsoft Office InfoPath lens on Squidoo

Recently published InfoPath articles on BizSupportOnline.NET

InfoPath Q&A: Does InfoPath support cascading drop-down list boxes in a repeating table?

Learn which options are available to you if you want to filter lists on an InfoPath form to create cascading drop-down lists.

How to retrieve field values in InfoPath

A compilation of links to articles and video tutorials on how to programmatically set the value of a field on an InfoPath form.

Quick Tip: How to create a Stream from an InfoPath form

Latest web site updates and InfoPath articles

How to copy data from a secondary data source (SharePoint list) to a repeating table in the Main data source of an InfoPath form

Learn how you can use code that either loops through a repeating node or uses an XSL transformation to copy data from a secondary data source to a repeating table in the Main data source of an InfoPath form.