Presented 6/9/2012 @ SharePoint Saturday Orlando

1. InfoPath 2010 Jumpstarter:
My trip from Zero to Hero
Justin Reed
IT Expert, Application Development

2. About me
• Currently
• “The SharePoint Guy” for
UF Housing & Residence Education
• Division of Student Affairs
• Previously
• Dept. of Corrections
• Dept. of Transportation
• Sears Holdings
• Contact Info
• Twitter – @Jreed637
• Email – JustinR@housing.ufl.edu
• Blog – jcrtek.com

3. Agenda
• InfoPath Overview
• InfoPath Benefits
• Tips and Best Practices
• Demo: Template Parts
• Demo: Tabbed Sections
• Demo: Web Services
• Wrap-up and Questions

4. InfoPath Overview
• Easy-to-use form creation tool
• Help get users away from Word/Excel/PDF forms
• Streamline business processes and increase efficiency
• Forms can be created by your power users
• Create advanced solutions without writing code
• Can be extended further with C# or VBA code behind
• Built on existing standards
• XML – Industry standard language for working with data

5. InfoPath Overview
• Connect with multiple types of data sources
• Receive
• SOAP Web Service
• REST Web Services
• SharePoint libraries/lists
• MSSQL DBs and XML
• Submit
• Web Service
• SharePoint Library
• ASP.Net hosting environment

6. InfoPath Overview
• InfoPath comes in two flavors
• Designer: used to create the forms
• Filler: used to fill out the forms
• Included with Office Pro Plus or Standalone
• Form Types
• List forms
• Filler Forms
• User needs InfoPath to fill out the form
• Browser-based forms in your SharePoint environment
• Form Library or Admin-deploy as a Content Type
• User doesn’t need Office at all

7. InfoPath Benefits
• Efficient data collection
• Data Sources help automate form filling
• Error reduction
• Add simple validation before submit
• Dropdown list boxes pre-populated with defined choices
• Audit compliance
• Form security, retention, and workflow history via SharePoint
• It’s green!
• Think of the trees

8. Tips and Best Practices
• Plan Ahead
• Meet with stakeholders or end users
• Discuss what end result they desire
• Since we’re moving paper forms to electronic
• Iron out issues with existing business process
• Identify improvements to be made during upgrade
• Consolidate functions of various forms
• Establish workflow for new form
• Who will use it? Where to put it?
• Who gets access to the information

9. Tips and Best Practices
• Design your Data Source first
• Name your fields and groups!

10. Tips and Best Practices
• Consistency
• Look and feel – Theme forms to your Org
• Buttons and navigation
• Instead of Ribbon UI, use buttons w/ custom actions
• Use Groups/Sections
• Keep your fields organized into logical units
• Use conditional formatting to show/hide
• Help direct form flow based on input or roles
• Keep things simple
• Don’t overload users with too many fields
• Move things to another view… or use groups and
sections

11. Demo Time
• Demo: Template Parts

12. Demo Time
• Demo: Tabbed Sections

13. Demo Time
• Demo: Web services

14. Resources
• Blogs
• Clayton Cobb
• http://claytoncobb.wordpress.com/
• Laura Rogers
• http://sharepoint911.com/blogs/laura/default.aspx
• Forums
• Stack Exchange – http://sharepoint.stackexchange.com/
• TechNet – SharePoint Designer/InfoPath Forum
• InfoPathDev – http://www.infopathdev.com/
• Training
• Qdabra Software – http://www.qdabra.com/

15. Questions

16. Thanks for attending!
And a big thanks to our sponsors!