Welcome to the Minnesota SharePoint

User Group

• Quick Intro

• Announcements

• SharePoint and InfoPath

• Quick demo of InfoPath

• What is InfoPath?

• How does InfoPath integrate with SharePoint?

• Leveraging Web Services with InfoPath

• Extending InfoPath with Workflow

• Examples of InfoPath solutions / Common Scenarios

• Q & A

• Giveaway

Agenda

• Inetium (www.inetium.com)

• Twin Cites based Microsoft consulting company

• Microsoft Gold Certified Partner

• Practice Area focused on Information Worker Technologies

• New Horizons – Minnesota (www.newhorizonsmn.com)

• Microsoft Gold Certified Partner

• Training on many technologies

• Microsoft (www.microsoft.com)

• I’m guessing you’ve heard of them

Introductions – MNSPUG Sponsors

Build a local community focused on Microsoft SharePoint Technologies

• Educate user group members about SharePoint Technologies

• Transfer knowledge within the community

• Communicate best practices

• Introduce new products / solutions

User Group Goal / Objectives

• Website for user group

• SharePoint resource documents

• SharePoint resource websites links

• RSS Feeds

• Meeting Schedule

• Past User Group Presentations

www.sharepointmn.com

www.sharepointmn.com

• Next Meeting

• November 9th TBD 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM

• Microsoft’s Bloomington Office

• Topic: Groove

• Ongoing Schedule

• 2nd Wednesday of every month

• 9:00 to 11:00 am

• Microsoft’s Bloomington Office

Upcoming Schedule

InfoPath and SharePoint

DemoBasic Expense Report Form

• Digital Form Tool

• Newest Member of Microsoft Office

• Natively supports XML

• Allows digital data capture

• Flexible and Dynamic

• Multiple Submission Options

What is InfoPath?

• Form Design – Designer builds form

• Form is published – Form is published to a location where users will ultimately go to fill out the form

• Users fill out form – Users will navigate to the published location and fill out the form and submit it

Typical InfoPath LifecycleForm is Designed

Form is Published

Users Fill Out Form

• Five primary design tasks

• Task pane provides visibility into tasks

• Each task pane expands to display functionality

• Layout

• Controls

• Data Source

• Views

• Publish Form

InfoPath Design Tasks

• User establishes the overall layout of the form

• Based on a table design approach similar to of Word and HTML tables

• Layout task pane provides numerous styles including custom table

• Tables can be nested within one another

InfoPath Design Task: Layout

• Broad control library with many built-in controls

• Familiar interface for those with Access experience

• Drag and drop design interface

• Form designer

• Powerful capabilities such as optional and repeating sections

• Ability to add custom controls

InfoPath Design Task: Controls

• Defines the data sources for the form

• Defines the data as XML

• Allows data to be established in hierarchical fashion

• Multiple data sources can be established in a form

• User can define a data source schema before hand and design the form based on the structure

• User can drag and drop data source fields and controls will automatically be created as defined by the type

InfoPath Design Task: Data Source

• Can display the same data in a different way on the form

• Multiple views can be created of the form

InfoPath Design Task: Views

Demo“Under the Hood”

of the Expense Report form

• SharePoint Form Library is designed for InfoPath

• InfoPath can publish data that has been submitted into the form as columns in a form library

• SharePoint makes a great location for users to fill out forms

• InfoPath can make use of information from SharePoint in controls such as drop down lists, list boxes

InfoPath Integration w/ SharePoint

• Form Libraries are a special kind of document library

• Same things that can be done in a document library can be done in a form library

• Alerts

• Events

• Versions

• Individual columns from form can be published to display in list view of library

What is a SharePoint Form Library?

• Primary Design Task

• Multiple options for publish destination

• SharePoint Form Library

• Shared Folder

• Web Server

Publishing an InfoPath form to SharePoint

• Create new form library

or

• Modify an existing one

Publishing an InfoPath form to SharePoint (cont)

• Pick a location of a SharePoint site

• SharePoint Portal Server or Windows SharePoint Services

Publishing an InfoPath form to SharePoint (cont)

• Choose a name of the form library

• This will create a form library in your destination SharePoint site

Publishing an InfoPath form to SharePoint (cont)

• Publish columns to SharePoint

• Multiple columns can be published

• These show up in the form library

Publishing an InfoPath form to SharePoint (cont)

• Optionally notify users via email directly to form

• Finishing the wizard creates the Form Library and assigns the InfoPath form template to it

Publishing an InfoPath form to SharePoint (cont)

• InfoPath form template is bound to this library

• Submitted InfoPath forms will be stored as XML in the form library

• Published columns show up in the library

SharePoint Form Library

• Step 1 – Basic InfoPath Expense Report form that highlights the core principles of InfoPath and highlights the integration with SharePoint.

• Step 2 – Building on the basic InfoPath form in step 1, adds ability to connect to multiple sources of data including web services including CRM and Mapping data.

• Step 3 – Taking the form in Step 2 a little bit further by discussing workflow options and leveraging a 3rd party workflow tool to extend InfoPath and SharePoint by allowing the expense report to be routed to a manager for approval.

Our Example: “The Expense Report”

DemoPublishing an

InfoPath form to SharePoint

• InfoPath controls can be connected to SharePoint Lists

• Drop Down List Box

• List Box

• Allows users to leverage info on SharePoint without having to create a database

• Information can be filtered from list

Leveraging Data in a SharePoint List in InfoPath

• Right clicking on the drop down and selecting properties

• Select look up values in

• Database

• Web Service

• SharePoint Library or List

Connecting an InfoPath Drop Down to SharePoint

• Adding a connection to data

• Select look up values in:

• XML Document

• Database

• Web Service

• SharePoint Library or List

Connecting an InfoPath Drop Down to SharePoint

• SharePoint Site Details

• Connect to a site (list or library) via URL

Connecting an InfoPath Drop Down to SharePoint

• If connecting to site, lists / libraries are displayed

• Select which library / list contains the values

Connecting an InfoPath Drop Down to SharePoint

• Selecting fields to choose from

• Check which fields will be available in the drop down

Connecting an InfoPath Drop Down to SharePoint

• Name the connection to the SharePoint data

• Data can be retrieved when form is opened or based on a button action

Connecting an InfoPath Drop Down to SharePoint

• Select the field to display

• Can select a different Value and Display name

Connecting an InfoPath Drop Down to SharePoint

DemoConnecting InfoPath to

SharePoint Data

• Submit

• Database – Only available when creating a Form

• Web Service

• Sharepoint Library/XML File

• Email Message

• Receive

• Database

• Web Service

• XML File

• Sharepoint List

Secondary Data Connections

Identity Service

SharepointList

InfoPath

Demo: Making the Form User Aware

• Custom Identity Web Service

• Determines Current User

• Retrieves Manager

• Company Specific Customizations

• Perform Actions on a Control

• Change Visibility

• Modify Style and Fonts

Conditional Formatting

• Allow simple calculations

• Created in a dialog box

• Commonly used functions

• Avg

• Min

• Max

• Sum

Functions

• Verify Correct Data

• Uses same functionality as Validation

• Can set different controls

• Control Can have many Rules

Rules

Mileage Rate Identity Service

SharepointList

InfoPath

Demo: Getting the Mileage Rate

• Conditional Formatting

• Optional Sections

• Lookup Values

• Functions

• Verify Correct Data

• Compound expressions together

• Gives Detail on Validation error

• Won’t allow submission

Validation

Mapping Service

CRM Accounts Mileage Rates

Identity Service

SharepointList

InfoPath

Demo: Calculating Mileage

• Validation

• Code Behind

• Manually Calling Web Service

• Accessing the DOM

Workflow Options

• Most organizations want to go beyond just filling out the form

• Most organizations want to automate the process once a user has completed a form

• Multiple Options

• SharePoint Alerts

• Custom coding

• 3rd party workflow tool

• BizTalk

InfoPath and Workflow

• InfoPath can submit via email

• Great for sending info to a particular user

• Leverage SharePoint alerts on a Form Library when forms are submitted

• Automatically sends emails to those that have created alerts on that library

Basic Workflow using InfoPath and SharePoint

• InfoPath forms can be submitted to Form Library

• Form Library has document library events associated to it

• Cancel Check Out

• Check In

• Check Out

• Copy

• Delete

• Insert

• Move / Rename

• Update

• User submits form to Form Library and .NET code runs to process form and execute code

Leveraging .NET to Extend SharePoint

• Multiple vendors have products

• Most integrate directly with InfoPath and SharePoint

• K2

• Captaris Teamplate

• Skelta

• Ascentn

3rd Party Products for Workflow

SharePoint Workflow Options – Pros / Cons

Pros Cons

Out of the Box (Alerts / Email)

Quick

Power user can setup

Limited functionality

Custom .NET Blank slate

Customizable

Slower development timeline

Code reuse

Lack of monitoring

Costly

3rd Party Products

Flexible

Rapid development

Technical support

Process visibility

Costly

DemoLeveraging 3rd Party Workflow Tool K2 to Automate Workflow

• Time cards

• Performance reviews

• Collaborative budgeting

• Status reports

• Service requests

• Recruiting

• New project initiation

• New hires / terminations

• Clinical forms

Examples of InfoPath at Work

• Tie into objectives

• Provide help to user regarding rating guidelines

• Schedule appointments

Performance Review

• Collaborate on multiple projects

• All users can fill in their data for estimates

Collaborative Budgeting

• Sales team fills in reports

• Sales Managers get visibility into activities

Sales Activity Tracking

• Coordinate and schedule service

• Leverage data from multiple systems

Service Request

• Patient tracking through Ed

• Collect all vitals

• Submit to backend systems

Emergency Department Tracking

• Leverage Tablet PC

• Easily document with ink and images

• Offline user

Insurance Claim Adjuster

• Good Starting Point

• Demonstrates Features

Sample Forms

Q & A