Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003 Technical FAQ and the InfoPath Viewer

Looking for some of our answers to questions we get a lot? Pull up the Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003 Technical FAQ - if you don't find the answer you need in the FAQ, please ask your question on the newsgroup microsoft.public.infopath where MVPs, experienced InfoPath users, and Microsoft InfoPath team members can all help.

One question that comes up often regards a no-cost InfoPath Viewer. Here are three Q&A's in the FAQ worth pointing out:

Q. Do employees need to have InfoPath installed on their PCs in order to fill out forms created with InfoPath? Is InfoPath required for viewing or reading an InfoPath form?

A. Information workers will need to have InfoPath 2003 installed on their PCs to enter information into InfoPath forms and to take advantage of the rich client functionality such as structural editing, business-logic validation, rich-text formatting, AutoCorrect, and spell-checking. That said, you can read an InfoPath form that has been saved to .MHT in your browser or within an HTML-enabled e-mail client, as the body of your mail message. Because InfoPath generates XML belonging to any customer-defined schemas, other software could be used to reuse and display that XML document.

Q. How do users fill out an InfoPath form if they do not have InfoPath?

A. In order to fill out forms created in InfoPath and to take advantage of InfoPath’s rich-client functionality, data validation and offline capabilities, users will need a copy of InfoPath installed on their workstation.

It is possible to build browser-based solutions based on InfoPath forms. For example, you can build a solution in InfoPath (building a schema and Web services) that can be used for collecting information within the firewall, then use the same schema and Web services for building an ASP.NET solution for collecting information outside the firewall. For business solutions that require a “reach” (browser-based) solution, yet still use the power of InfoPath for the parts of the process that occur within an organization (where InfoPath can easily be deployed), there are two options:

• Use ASP.NET forms in the solution to front-end the process. Data is gathered in the browser-based forms, then moved into the InfoPath forms where available. This combines the reach experience for initial data collection and the rich experience of interacting with that information via InfoPath. Customers can use the same schema and Web services for both the InfoPath and ASP.NET solutions.
• Work with one of the many partners that have developed solutions based on InfoPath including Sourcecode, Teamplate, Ultimus and Cardiff.

Q. Do I need to touch every desktop to deploy InfoPath? Can you host an InfoPath form in the browser?

A. In order to fill out or design an InfoPath form, InfoPath needs to be installed on the desktop. However, once you have deployed InfoPath, you can easily roll out the form templates that users need to use InfoPath. InfoPath provides transparent deployment and maintenance of solutions via a Web-like model that downloads solutions on demand. InfoPath form templates are downloaded silently and seamlessly to the client when a user clicks on a link to an InfoPath form or clicks on an InfoPath attachment.

---

A process to create an InfoPath Viewer experience if read-only is all you want: note that if you just want to be able to have a read-only rendering of an InfoPath form beyond what InfoPath can generate directly (save as MHT or via an email body), you should take a look at the SDK downlevel tool (http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/ipsdk/html/ipsdkUsingTheDownLevelTool.asp ) which provides a way to modify your form XML to pull in a stylesheet to use for rendering the form when InfoPath is not on the user's machine.

Comments

• Anonymous
  April 11, 2004
  Any one can tell me how to pass data from a infopath form to asp.net page.
  i require the help pls do the needful
  Urgent
  Thanks

• Anonymous
  July 11, 2004
  I still don't get it. InfoPath seems like the ideal tool for gathering data into our system, but since our primary need is for a "reach" system for inbound information over the web, it is simply impossible for us to provide copies to all potential customers.
  
  All three of the FAQs above are asking the same question (as am I), but the answers are all equally and completely unsatisfying. There must be SOME way for us to spend more money on a useful Microsoft XML form creation tool which would let us deploy fill-out-only forms to a "reach" user base! Otherwise InfoPath (at least for now) is useless for our purposes, despite its myriad advantages.
  
  Am I misreading this? Or doesn't a need like ours (plus everyone else, judging from the most frequent FAQs) point to a crying demand for a fill-out-only deployment solution that can be integrated into a public-facing site??

• Anonymous
  June 12, 2007
  Hi, If somebody could help me out in my scenario! I have a Form library on MOSS 2007. A InfoPath 2003 form is the default template for this Form Library. This I have done using the Advanced Settings -> Edit the Template. Now I have a link on the portal, so that users click on this link to get the new blank InfoPath form to open (in InfoPath 2003 clients on their machine). They need to fill the form and submit the form to the same Form Library. Now, I need to have a workflow in MOSS 2007 attached with this Form Library, so that a mail is sent to the manager of the submitter. This mail should contain a link to the InfoPath document submitted. Any Idea as to how to accomplish this. I was trying to look in the SharePoint Designer 2007. Any help would be highly appreciated!! zullu.

• Anonymous
  August 08, 2007
  If you publish InfoPath forms, do they appear as .aspx pages or as .html pages or something else?

• Anonymous
  June 15, 2009
  PingBack from http://debtsolutionsnow.info/story.php?id=598

• Anonymous
  June 15, 2009
  PingBack from http://unemploymentofficeresource.info/story.php?id=13761