Try It Yourself: Create a Form Library and Departments List

1. Create a new document library named Training Feedback using the Form Library template.

2. You also need to create a custom list that acts as the data source for the Department field in your InfoPath form. Create a new custom list and name it Department. Add the following values to it:

• HR

• Sales

• R&D

Try It Yourself: Create a Custom Form Template

To add a new InfoPath Form Template, follow these steps:

1. Open Microsoft InfoPath Designer 2010. You are presented with a screen showing the available form templates to create a new InfoPath form as shown in Figure 24.7.

Figure 24.7. New InfoPath form

2. Selecting a template shows the details of the template in the right section. Select the Blank Form template and click the Design Form button in the right section.

3. You are presented with a blank form with two sections. The top section has options to add a title for the form. Enter the Title Business Conduct Training Feedback.

4. Click the bottom section, go to the Insert tab in the ribbon, and click the fourth table (Two Column-4 No Heading), as shown in Figure 24.8.

Figure 24.8. Insert Table

5. A table with two columns and three rows is inserted. Add two more rows. You can add a new Row by right-clicking on a row and clicking on Insert, Rows Below.

6. You now need to add the controls to the table. To make it easier to add the control, click the arrow at the bottom right of the Controls section in the Home tab of the ribbon. The Controls pane appears on the right side as shown in Figure 24.9.

Figure 24.9. Controls pane

7. Add the controls as shown in Table 24.2.

Table 24.2. Control for Training Feedback InfoPath Form

8. Add a button in the second column of the last row.

9. Remove the text that was added automatically above the drop-down list and the rich text box controls.

Try It Yourself: Set the Data Source and Default Value for Controls

1. Right-click the Person Picker field for User Name and click Person/Group Picker Properties. In the Person/Group Picker Properties dialog change the field name to user_name and click OK.

2. In the Fields pane on the right, click the DisplayName node under the pc:Person node and open the Properties dialog. Click the fx button in the Default value section to open the Formula dialog. Click the Insert Function button, and in the Insert Function dialog select userName function under the User categories as shown in Figure 24.10. Click OK three times to close all the dialogs.

Figure 24.10. Insert Function dialog

3. Next you need to configure the Department drop-down list to retrieve data from the Departments list. Right-click the Departments drop-down list and open the Drop-Down List Box Properties.

4. Change the field name to Departments. Under the List Box Choices section select the Get Choices from an External Data Source option as shown in Figure 24.11.

Figure 24.11. Drop-Down List Box Properties dialog

5. Click the Add button beside the Data Source drop-down list. This opens the Data Connection Wizard. Select the Create a New Connection To option and select the Receive Data button as shown in Figure 24.12. Click Next.

Figure 24.12. Data Connection Wizard—Receive Data

6. Select the SharePoint Library or List option as the source of the data and click Next.

7. Enter the location of the SharePoint site where you created the Departments list and click Next.

8. The subsequent screen shows a list of the SharePoint lists and libraries in the selected SharePoint site. Select the Departments list as shown in Figure 24.13 and click Next.

Figure 24.13. Data Connection Wizard—Select List/Library

9. In the next screen select the Title field. Set the Sort By field to Title, as shown in Figure 24.14, and click Next.

Figure 24.14. Data Connection Wizard—Select fields

10. In the next screen select the option Store a Copy of the Data in the Form Template and click Next. This option enables users to work with the InfoPath form offline.

11. Click the button next to Value and select the Title field as shown in Figure 24.15. Do the same for Display Name.

Figure 24.15. Drop-Down List Box Properties—Select a field for Value and Display Name

12. Right-click the Rating drop-down list and open the Drop-Down List Box Properties.

13. Change the field name to Rating. Select the Cannot Be Blank check box under the Validation section.

14. Add 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 as the list box choices as shown in Figure 24.16 and click OK.

Figure 24.16. Drop-Down List Box Properties—Rating drop-down

15. Right-click the Comments rich text box to open the Rich Text Box properties and change the field name to Comments.

Try It Yourself: Handle the Submit Button Click

Follow these steps to handle the Submit action:

1. Configure the button to submit the form to the library. Right-click the button and open the Button Properties. Select the Action as Submit. Change the label to Submit Feedback as shown in Figure 24.17.

Figure 24.17. Button properties

2. Click the Submit Options button. Select the Allow Users to Submit This Form check box. Select Send Form Data to a Single Destination and select SharePoint Document Library from the drop-down list.

3. Click the Add button, which is next to the Choose a Data Connection for Submit drop-down list as shown in Figure 24.18.

Figure 24.18. Submit Options

4. Give the URL of the Training Feedback library. Select the Allow Overwrite if File Exists option. Click the fx button next to File Name field. Enter the text “concat(“Feedback_ “, userName())”, as shown in Figure 24.19, and click OK. This submits the InfoPath form for each user uniquely.

Figure 24.19. Insert Formula

5. Figure 24.20 shows the Data Connection Wizard. Click Next. The wizard validates the information.

Figure 24.20. Data Connection Wizard

6. Enter the name of the connection as Feedback Submit in the subsequent screen and click Finish.

7. Click OK to close the Button Properties window. The final form should look as shown in Figure 24.21.

Figure 24.21. Business Conduct Training Feedback InfoPath form—final layout

Try It Yourself: Publish the Custom Form Template

Follow these steps to publish the form template:

1. Save the InfoPath form template. Since you want to enable your form to be edited in the browser you need to validate it for any design errors that can prevent the form from being opened in the browser.

2. Click the File menu and click the Design Checker button as shown in Figure 24.22.

Figure 24.22. Design Checker

3. The Design Checker panel is shown with any warning or errors. You can get more information about these by clicking on them. Your form shows one warning that you can safely ignore.

4. Now publish this to the Training Feedback form library.

5. Click the File menu and click the Publish Your Form button.

6. Click the SharePoint Server button on the Publish screen as shown in Figure 24.23.

Figure 24.23. Publish InfoPath

7. The Publishing Wizard appears. Enter the URL of the SharePoint site and click Next.

8. In the Next screen select the Enable This Form to Be Filled Out By Using a Browser option, select the Form Library option, and click Next.

9. Select the Update the Form Template in an Existing Form Library option, select the Training Feedback library, and click Next.

10. The next screen allows you to specify which fields in the InfoPath form can be promoted to the Training Feedback library. This means that these fields will be available as the columns of the Training Feedback list. Add all the fields as shown in Figure 24.24 and click Next.

Figure 24.24. Publishing Wizard—Select Fields to Promote

11. Finally click the Publish button.

12. Once Publishing has been completed successfully, browse to the Training Feedback library. Browse to the Document tab and click the New Document button.

13. The form opens in the browser. You can see the current username populated in the User Name field. Also the Department drop-down list is populated from the Departments list. Fill out the form and submit as shown in Figure 24.25.

Figure 24.25. Business Conduct Training Feedback InfoPath form

14. You can see the form is submitted to the Training Feedback library with the name as Feedback_<current user name> as specified in the form template.