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MS Office Forum / General MS InfoPath Questions / November 2007No infopath forms server - what ar my options?
We have MOSS 2007 here. And I need to create a change-management form with some basic workflow. We have a limited # of users - about 200, and all are on our network. Not going to see a lot of traffic from this form... but its still critical that it render quickly on a page (or in Office). I've already created a forms-library and defined my fields. I even created some of the workflow. Now I'm struggling with how users at my company are going to input the data. Not being a SP expert, I notice a few options: * Saving the forms-library as a template, a .DOC file is created that shows all my fields. Cool! But there are no permissions on that .DOC file - who can see what etc. I suppose I have to save that down to my PC and I can try to modify it (e.g. with VBA?) to tell it how to disable certain controls depending on who sees it. * I can do the same thing as above, creating an Excel file from scratch. Again, VBA, and somehow linking to the fields in the forms library. * Infopath? Not sure if this is even an option since we don't have infopath forms server. And users don't have Infopath on their PC. I love the interface... but how is it going to render. * I have VS.NET 2008 (beta). I know ASP.NET fairly well, but am not sure how to create forms that would submit to the forms-library and initiate the workflow. We sorta started down the road of Excel, but not sure if this is the easiest option. I know I'm not as comfortable with VBA as with .NET, but I don't see any resources out there explaining how to create ASP.NET forms for Sharepoint... Thanks for any advice! ZX How about using a list instead of a doc lib and using the build-in CRUD functionality? -- Bryan Phillips MCT, MCSD, MCDBA, MCSE Microsoft MVP - Client Application Development Blog: http://bphillips76.spaces.live.com Web Site: http://www.composablesystems.net > We have MOSS 2007 here. And I need to create a change-management form > with some basic workflow. We have a limited # of users - about 200, [quoted text clipped - 29 lines] > > ZX Ha... ok Bryan this kinda took me by surprise. You're suggesting that instead of killing myself pulling data out / pushing data in to SP from an ASP.NET form or an Excel form, just do it in a SP list? I haven't tried that before, although seems like an obvious solution. The problem in my mind is my asumption that I won't be able to disable / hide certain fields from users. E.g., there are 4 types of users: 1. business guy that submits the change request 2. Manager who approves the request 3. IT person who implements it 4. someone to test it I don't want the business guy approving the request he himself submitted. And I don't want an IT person submitting, approving and testing his own change either. So some basic validation here - I'm not sure this can be put into the SP list? Thats why my initial assumption was I have to go out of Sharepoint. Considering this, is doing this all within a SP List still possible? Yes, all of that is possible with a combination of SharePoint permissions and workflows. You may have to use two lists instead of one though each with an approval workflow. The first list would track submit/approval for users 1 and 2. When the item in list 1 is approved, create a new item in list 2 and have a workflow for the final signoff. -- Bryan Phillips MCT, MCSD, MCDBA, MCSE Microsoft MVP - Client Application Development Blog: http://bphillips76.spaces.live.com Web Site: http://www.composablesystems.net > Ha... ok Bryan this kinda took me by surprise. You're suggesting that > instead of killing myself pulling data out / pushing data in to SP [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > assumption was I have to go out of Sharepoint. Considering this, is > doing this all within a SP List still possible? Wow. This idea, to simply have 2 workflows and 2 lists - one for the submitter, one for the approver, might actually be easier to maintain because I don't need to bother with creating separate forms (in Infopath, Exel or ASP.NET) ! I can do it all right in the Custom list. I always assumed I had to stick with 1 WF and somehow start hiding controls on the form - and allowing the WF to interrogate which controls had data in them to decide what the next step would be. Are there any minuses going down this path, vs having to write custom code in asp.net or infopath (or Excel even) to do this. The only thing thats gonna be a pain is having to define all my fields all over again in a new list. I wish I could say "See that list over there? Copy those fields - definition only - to a new list here..." > You may have to use two lists instead of one though each with an > approval workflow. The first list would track submit/approval for users [quoted text clipped - 32 lines] > > - Show quoted text - When you get deeper into workflows, you will see that there are logical workflows which are what the user understands and then there are physical workflows that are the real implementation (just like database datagrams). The minuses are that you are giving up a little UI control (positioning, format, etc...) in order to use a non-code solution. There should be no pain in making the second list. Save the first list as a list template (without content) and use the new template to create the second list. -- Bryan Phillips MCT, MCSD, MCDBA, MCSE Microsoft MVP - Client Application Development Blog: http://bphillips76.spaces.live.com Web Site: http://www.composablesystems.net > Wow. This idea, to simply have 2 workflows and 2 lists - one for the > submitter, one for the approver, might actually be easier to maintain [quoted text clipped - 45 lines] > > > > - Show quoted text - Ok thinking about this a little more: 1. Business manager sees List-A which has only the fields he needs to fill out an IT change request. 2. The workflow copies the List item (record) to List-B (which has additional fields that IT needs to see - such as how the change will be implemented, implementation dates etc). 3. IT agrees to make the change - workflow sends a cute email back to business manager. [At this point, the change is actually made in a test environment. Now someone has to test it there] 3. IT enters something in the record (still in List-B) indicating the change is ready to be tested. This sends an email off to the Business manager telling him to test it. 4. Business manager needs to sign-off that he tested the change and it looks good. Whoa - this is where I run into a problem. In #4 above, I want the List item (record) to go back to the business manager so he can sign-off that he tested the change and it looks good. This sign-off could be simply entering in some text into an Implementation_Test field, and saving it to the List item. But I can't copy from List-B back to List-A cause List-A has fewer fields (how does that work?). And if I give the business manager access to the List-B record - then it defeats the purpose of having 2 lists since he can modify all those other IT-related fields I didn't want him to touch. If you say to copy it to a third List - List-C - ok thats fine - but I don't want all the fields copied over - just the ones that are defined in List-C. If the fields in List-B are more than List-C, what happens - does the workflow break or something :) Thanks again! ZX On Nov 27, 11:00 am, "Bryan Phillips" <bphill...@nospam.spamcop.net.spammenot> wrote: > When you get deeper into workflows, you will see that there are logical > workflows which are what the user understands and then there are [quoted text clipped - 70 lines] > > - Show quoted text - well I answered my own question when I copy to List-C only the fields defined in List-C are copied over. Very cool. One problem I have remaining is with all these lists (I'll need another one presumably for rejections), I have a separate workflow for each. Is there any way to see the entire history of the change request? E.g., it was requested by Joe on 11/1/07. On 11/2/07 it was approved (different list). On 11/4/07 the change was made. On 11/5/07 the change was tested (again different list). On 11/6/07 the change was deemed complete (back to the previous list). With all these lists (to get around not being able to enable / disable or hide / unhide columns in a List dynamically thru workflow) going around, how is it possible to get a single view of the history of the change request. Thanks well I answered my own question when I copy to List-C only the fields defined in List-C are copied over. Very cool. One problem I have remaining is with all these lists (I'll need another one presumably for rejections), I have a separate workflow for each. Is there any way to see the entire history of the change request? E.g., it was requested by Joe on 11/1/07. On 11/2/07 it was approved (different list). On 11/4/07 the change was made. On 11/5/07 the change was tested (again different list). On 11/6/07 the change was deemed complete (back to the previous list). With all these lists (to get around not being able to enable / disable or hide / unhide columns in a List dynamically thru workflow) going around, how is it possible to get a single view of the history of the change request. Thanks
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