Customer Reviews

Beginning InfoPath 2003 (Programmer to Programmer)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you are new to InfoPath, do yourself a favor and get this book first. In fairness to prior books, writing a book on InfoPath really was not an easy or pleasant task before Service Pack 1 came along. Before SP1, InfoPath was a less useful product that required more effort to understand and use for real-world solutions.

The book is well organized and follows a logical progression from basic to more complex subjects. The first 60% or so of the book covers the basic matter with the remainder devoted to more advanced and quite current topics such as using .NET managed code with InfoPath. Lastly there is a case study to illustrate the thought processes around using InfoPath in real-world solutions. If you need to get up-to-speed on InfoPath quickly, this book can be lightly read in no more than 2 days and used as a guide and reference from there.

There are two aspects about the way this book is written that appealed to me. First, Scott Barker makes practical use of the "Try It Out" and "How it works" technique. Second, any prior bleeding-edge experience with InfoPath, especially pre-SP1, will make anyone purchasing this book totaly appreciate the expanded coverage of topics like security and deployment. InfoPath was designed to comply with standards/laws that address privacy like HIPPA, which make deployment "lots of fun".

On the downside, there are a number of typos in the book, but my guess is that the editing done by Wrox was rushed and it's not due to the writing per se. Fortunately, the errors are pretty obvious.

Those who are reading this review on my blog must be wondering if I've ditched my Notes/Domino roots and migrated to the dark side. The answer is no. I just wanted to know a bit more about InfoPath. To do that, I got a copy of Beginning InfoPath 2003 by F. Scott Barker. If I were inclined to start working with the product, this would offer a good start.

Chapter List: InfoPath - The Journey Begins; Getting Started Designing with InfoPath; Understanding Data; Creating an InfoPath Form from an Existing Data Source; Utilizing XML and Web Service Data Sources; Working with Controls in General; Looking at Some Useful Controls and Techniques; Working with Sections; Managing Views; Publishing InfoPath Forms; Working with Code in Your InfoPath Form; Getting Started Using Scripts; Working with .NET Managed Code; Real-World Tasks and Coding Examples; Creating and Working with Web Services; Implementing Security; Working with InfoPath and Windows SharePoint Services; Manufacturing Plant Case Study; Answers to Exercises; Index

As I said in the opening statement, I'd feel very comfortable using this as an initial text to start learning InfoPath if that were my next learning chore. Barker does a nice job explaining the overall concepts behind the product, and then gets into the actual building of applications based on InfoPath. There's a good mix of examples using various data sources, like Access, SQL Server, and web services. As a beginning text, this focuses more on the basic form design and how you can build useful forms using wizards and the basic controls. There isn't the focus on doing a lot of scripting in your application, which is OK as this is labeled a "beginning" book. In fact, there's a follow-on Wrox title labelled Professional InfoPath 2003. If that book covers scripting and more of the internals, then I'd consider the coverage in this book to be perfect for the division between the two titles.

It's really tough to not want to get off on a tangent of comparing this technology to the Notes/Domino platform. But this *is* a book review, not a technology review. As a result, I'll restrain myself and stop here. :-) This is a well-done book, and worth getting if you're going down the Microsoft path of "collaboration" based on their definition of the day...

OK... that last one just slipped out. :-)

Wow! I am elated. This is great self help book. Mr. Barker, the author did an excellent job. His methodology is awesome. I was able to teach myself. By the Way, I had to learn this application in one week and I am happy to report I now know the basics after a few hours, I am up to chapter nine. Also, the forum is great for answers at [...].

It's a book for beginners. It's a good book if you want to learn Infopath from scratch. Written well , easy to understand etc. but i did not really use all the concepts described in the book.

I personally feel that InfoPath can be learned easily with Microsoft Online Help and by playing with the software. The book did not help me in any way to improve my skills.

The book's value has now depreciated to ashes after the release of the new office 2007 package.

the first several chapters are good if you are a beginner as I consider myself. However, I wanted to learn some techniques not covered. The last chapters seemed rushed and most of the c# examples do not work with Visual Studio 2008. The Infopath application examples worked fine on InfoPath 2007, just anything with Visual Studio code samples did not work on Visual Studion 2008. There may have been some drastic changes between VS 2003 to VS 2005 to VS 2008. I also noticed more errata towards the end of the book with words appearing multiple times and misplaced words more noticable in the last 3 chapters.

I am new to Infopath. I am a quick learner. Most subjects we usually buy our first "beginners" book then 1 week later need another book to pick up where things leave off.

"Beginning InfoPath 2003" is a great book for beginners and takes you right into some more meaty stuff.

--HIGHLY RECOMMENDED--

This book guide you through infopath step by step. Very very helpful for beginers!

Beginning InfoPath 2003 (Programmer to Programmer) is excellent. The book was new and the price was great. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning and using InfoPath. Easy to read and understand.

I can't say enough good things about this book. I chose to buy it because of all the other positive reviews before mine. I already knew what InfoPath was capable of, I just needed someone to explain "how to." The tutorials and examples in the book are great. This book really helped me figure out everything I needed get my forms created and hooked up to a database. It's a very easy and quick read.

I have been thrust into the InfoPath world. I had trouble getting a grasp
on things searching on-line etc.
I got Scott Barker's book and it's simply excellent. Going thru the first 6 chapters, and doing the examples has given me the foundation to move forward. This is a beginning book, but it covers all the things to get you productive. Thank you Scott.