Once the form designer is displayed, the fun
begins. Figure 7 shows the InfoPath Form
designer after the Wizard has created the
form. At the top of the form there is
information for the novice InfoPath user
about the presence of two views. I like to
see instructions on the form where it is
impossible to miss. However, this is not for
the end user of the form so I have started
by deleting the section and adding
instructions of my own.
Figure 7 InfoPath Forms Designer After
the Wizard is Done.
In addition to changing the instructions,
I took the following steps:
- Deleted the Data Entry view, making
the Query view the default.
- Dragged the dataFields for Region
into a new "Repeating Section with
Controls" section on the form.
- Added a Submit Button to submit to
the database.
- Removed the RegionDescription from
the query.
After a little reformatting the form is
complete and I can preview it as seen in
Figure 8 after the Run Query button was
pressed.
Figure 8 A Preview Window
Here, all the records have been
retrieved. However, you can also run the
query to retrieve a particular record or use
the New Record button to add one. Once you
are done making changes, press the Submit
button and all the modified records are
updated. In this case, I have added an Asia
region and modified the descriptions of the
other Regions so that they are more
international. You can see the results in
Figure 9. This is after I submitted the
changes and reran the query.
InfoPath will only write a very simple
query using the equal operator. If you would
like to have a more complex query, for
example using the LIKE operator, you will
have to handle the proper events and
construct your own select string. This is
only one of many opportunities that you have
to intercede as InfoPath processes the form.
Sharing the Form
InfoPath forms can be distributed on file
shares, web sites, or even via e-mail.
However, to use them with a database the
recipient must have access to the database
and a correct Office Database Connection (ODC)
file. The easiest way to achieve this is to
publish the form on a file share on your
network and let users get to it from there.
The published file is has a type of XSN.
It is actually a CAB file with multiple
compressed files inside. Most of them are in
one type of XML format or another. If you
would like to see them, open the form in the
designer and use the menu command
File/Extract Form Files.
One of the interesting aspects of
InfoPath is that the user can save the form
to a file. Come back to it later and submit
it then. This feature allows a limited type
of offline work.
Conclusion
This article has shown how to connect an
InfoPath form to SQL Server and use it to
create a simple GUI update form for a simple
table. Seeing how this can be done in just a
few minutes leaves me very hopeful about
what can be done with InfoPath. I am looking
forward to the full product release and
updated help files.
I am not so sure that the direct database
connection is going to be usable for
anything but a pretty simple application.
For applications that are more complex a
WebService may be a better way to go. That
is the next avenue that I will investigate
for connecting InfoPath to SQL Server data.
