InfoPath: Part 1 – Starter Template
I’ve been working a great deal with InfoPath in the last month or two and I’ve realized that I follow a certain pattern with all of my forms. I think that this pattern is widely followed, at least for certain kinds of forms, so I decided to put this in place as a “Starter” template. It includes all the common bits that a form ought to have as well as some structure for the data elements of the form.
Template features:
- Naming convention for views.
- Standard form layout, including an instructions section, “main data” section and save/discard buttons.
- Pre-built views for showing a “successfully saved” type of message for when users save the form but continue to work on it (as opposed to save and return to SharePoint).
- Pre-built views and some logic for handling “discard my work” scenarios. Basically, it forces the user to confirm they want to discard their work.
- Password controlled access to an “admin” view of the form.
- A “developer notes” view to provide a logical place for developers to write notes about their forms and help to reduce the cost of form maintenance. Ideally, it will provide a good answer when maintenance programmers ask the question, “What in world was he he thinking when he created this form?” The developer view can answer that.
- Standard logic / place holder to assign a file name to the form for when it is eventually saved back to SharePoint.
The template itself is reasonably self-descriptive / documented.
The default view of the template looks like this in preview mode:
Feel free to contact me or my partners about the form at [email protected].
Alternatively, use this lnk: http://cid-1cc1edb3daa9b8aa.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/SharePoint and select “InfoPath Single Page…” for download.
Paul Galvin, Microsoft MVP – SharePoint
Web site: Paul Galvin’s SharePoint Space
Paul is a Solutions Architect currently working most closely with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. He was recently awarded Microsoft MVP – SharePoint status for his work with the SharePoint community.
- InfoPath: Part 1 - Starter Template
on
Very Nice! Wish’t I’d had it.
This form cannot be opened because it requires the domain permission level and it currently has restricted permission. To fix this problem, open the form from the location it was published to.
Published location: file://c:\users\paul\documents\personal\inforpath single page form starting point.xsn
Note: You must open the form in DESIGN view
If you rename your template to template.cab instead of .xsn, then browse with Windows Explorer. Are there identifiers, etc in the schema and .xslt files that are being carried forward? I always advise people start with blank forms and do not use the templates offered with the products.