Designing Forms for Microsoft Office InfoPath and Forms Services 2007 (Microsoft .NET Development Series) (Paperback)

by Scott Roberts (Author), Hagen Green (Author) "The rapid adoption of XML-based technologies over the past decade has precipitated the need for a tool that helps end users interact with and share..." (more)
Key Phrases: text box, repeating section, optional section, Forms Services, Visual Studio, Microsoft Office (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

"Microsoft Office InfoPath represents a revolutionary leap in XML technologies and a new paradigm for gathering business-critical information. I am delighted that Scott Roberts and Hagen Green, two distinguished members of the InfoPath product team, decided to share their experience in this book."

--From the Foreword by Jean Paoli, cocreator of XML 1.0 and Microsoft Office InfoPath

Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007 offers breakthrough tools for gathering, managing, and integrating business-critical information, and creating efficient forms-driven processes. Two longtime members of Microsoft's InfoPath product team have written the first comprehensive, hands-on guide to building successful XML-based solutions with InfoPath 2007.

The book opens with a practical primer on the fundamentals of InfoPath form template design for information workers and application developers at all levels of experience. It then moves into advanced techniques for customizing, integrating, and extending form templates--with all the code examples and detail needed by professional developers.

Learn how to:

• Design form templates: create blank form templates, insert and customize controls, use advanced formatting, and construct and lay out views
• Work with data: start with XML data or schema, manually edit data sources, and understand design-time visuals
• Add custom business logic to forms, and integrate them with other applications
• Retrieve and query data from external data sources, including XML files, databases, SharePoint lists, Web services, and ADO.NET DataSets
• Submit and receive form data using ADO.NET
• Save, preview, and publish to e-mail, SharePoint, and more
• Build reusable components with template parts
• Create workflows with SharePoint and InfoPath E-Mail Forms
• Administer Forms Services and Web-enabled form templates
• Build advanced form templates using C# form code, custom controls, add-ins, and the new InfoPath 2007 managed object model
• Design form templates using Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO)
• Update, secure, and optimize your form templates

List of Figures
List of Tables
Foreword
Preface
About the Authors

PART I: Designing Forms
Chapter 1: Introduction to InfoPath 2007
Chapter 2: Basics of InfoPath Form Design
Chapter 3: Working with Data
Chapter 4: Advanced Controls and Customization
Chapter 5: Adding Logic without Code
Chapter 6: Retrieving Data from External Sources
Chapter 7: Extended Features of Data Connections
Chapter 8: Submitting Form Data
Chapter 9: Saving and Publishing
Chapter 10: Building Reusable Components
Chapter 11: Security and Deployment
Chapter 12: Creating Reports
Chapter 13: Workflow
Chapter 14: Introduction to Forms Services
Part II: Advanced Form Design
Chapter 15: Writing Code in InfoPath
Chapter 16: Visual Studio Tools for Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007
Chapter 17: Advanced Forms Services
Chapter 18: Hosting InfoPath
Chapter 19: Building Custom Controls Using ActiveX Technologies
Chapter 20: Add-ins
Chapter 21: Importers and Exporters
Appendix: Further Reading
Index 

About the Author

Scott Roberts is a Senior Development Lead on the InfoPath team at Microsoft Corporation, and has been involved with InfoPath since its inception. He leads development on features ranging from controls and template parts to the Word/Excel importers. Scott is also the author of Programming Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 (Microsoft Press) and numerous technical articles and publications.

Hagen Green is a Software Design Engineer in Test II at Microsoft Corporation, and has been a member of the InfoPath team since its inception. He leads a team focused on the next version of Windows SharePoint Services. He contributed chapters on InfoPath to Visual Studio Tools for Office: Using Visual Basic 2005, and Visual Studio Tools for Office: Using C# (Addison-Wesley).

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Product Details

• Paperback: 1296 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional (February 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321410599
• ISBN-13: 978-0321410597
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #93,318 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #19 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Microsoft > Applications > Office
  #32 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Microsoft > Development > .NET
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• This item is part of The Microsoft .NET Development Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars XML with little or no programming, March 3, 2007

By	W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

As XML has become the industry standard, Microsoft has increasingly oriented its Office suite to use it. The latest result is this enhanced InfoPath, in its 2007 incarnation. The book is divided into two parts. Each targeting a different audience.

The first part is aimed at a general purpose Office user, who is not assumed to be a programmer. It addresses what is a problem plaguing XML. If you want to make a new XML schema to use as a template for future data instances, you often have to write the explicit XML tags. Unfortunately, the syntax can be overwhelming to many. Plus, explicitly writing the tags is extremely error prone. What InfoPath has done is make an easy to use graphical front end. Far friendlier to the user. This user interface then can generate a schema in a robust fashion. Even people capable of editing schemas directly might still want to use what Microsoft has provided.

Along these lines, chapter 5 is a good example. While not perhaps directly concerning schema, it tackles the problem of validating what the user types into a form. It follows the approach that you should clean up your data as early as possible. Preferably before it even gets into the database. The UI lets you impose constraints on the user input into various fields of your form, by offering dialog windows with many options.

All commendably straightforward.

The second section of the text is mostly for programmers, who have already written code for Office.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Detailed InfoPath 2007 Book , March 29, 2007

By	Kyle Wilson "SharePoint Guy" (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is a great narrative style resource for learning all of the elements and techniques in InfoPath 2007. The style of writing is a bit different as it has more of a reading focus than a reference focus. So if you are looking for solely a reference book you might want something different. The authors are TOP NOTCH though and do an excellent job.(Especially with Forms Services gotcha's/warnings) The demos/samples/sample forms they let you download from the Addison Wesley website are WELL WORTH THE EFFORT of getting and are a great learning tool.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The InfoPath book to judge all other InfoPath books by, June 15, 2007

By	Ben Walters "InfoPath MVP" (Melbourne, Vic, Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is the first InfoPath book I have found answers every question I have had about InfoPath. The beauty of this book is although it does cover a lot of the technical side of InfoPath it also deals with some of the simpler solutions that are best achieved with just the InfoPath designer and declarative logic. With an easy to read style and lots of samples this book has become the definitive InfoPath resource in my technical library.

If you're just beginning with InfoPath this book is for you. If you've creating solutions with InfoPath since day one I'm still confident that this book would be a worthwhile investment.

Good job guys!