February 2006 Entries
Here's a little diddy that I find used often when wanting to pass xml data From / To InfoPath Managed Code and other interfaces such as Web Services...
Private Function ConvertNodeToSystemXML(ByVal node As IXMLDOMNode) As Xml.XmlNode
Dim xmlAsString As String = node.xml
Dim document As Xml.XmlDocument = New Xml.XmlDocument()
document.PreserveWhitespace = True
document.LoadXml(xmlAsString)
Return document.DocumentElement
End Function
Private Function ConvertNodeToMsXML(ByVal node As Xml.XmlNode) As IXMLDOMNode
Dim xmlAsString As String = node.OuterXml
Dim document As IXMLDOMDocument = thisXDocument.CreateDOM()
document.preserveWhiteSpace = True
document.loadXML(xmlAsString)
Return document.documentElement
End Function
For the C# translation you can refer to the following link...
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/odc_ip2003_ta/html/ODC_INFDigitallySigningData2.asp
I got my collectible SourceFource MSDN Webcast Guy in the mail today. Casey Picker got his too, as well as other coworkers of mine - call us geeks, go ahead. MSDN has three other Courageous Coding Heroes on the way in the coming months. They've lowered the requirements from 4 live webcast events to 2. So, if you haven't gotten onto the SourceFource bandwagon, jump on board and start sippin' the caffeine and pull some all nighters.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/events/hero
I caught this over at Don Box's Blog. This is about a month old - but better late than never. It is available on MSDN.
Some impressive highlights of this newbie include:
LINQ (Language INtegrated Query) - Query Statement Intellisense
XML Integration
Editing Support for Xml Literals
XML Late binding
Check out the details...
New VB LINQ CTP
When it comes to deploying your InfoPath 2003 Managed Code Solution with Full Trust, it is best to use the RegForm command line utility to create an MSI file. For Visual Studio 8 (VS 2005) I found the RegForm utility embedded in my c:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Visual Studio Tools For Office\INFOPATH subfolder.
In order to make it Fully Trusted you can execute the RegForm command like such:
RegForm /U urn:myForm:myCompany /T Yes /MSI C:\Projects\InfoPathProjectFolder\InfoPathApp.xsn
This produces a file called InfoPathApp.msi ready for user installation.
For a more in-depth article, refer to Understanding Fully Trusted Forms [InfoPath 2003 SDK Documentation
I recently came upon an article by Mike Gunderloy titled Sharepoint and Web Services. It's very informative in how to code and get into the Sixteen (16) Windows Sharepoint Services.
Read the entire article, SharePoint and Web Services
[via AC]
Jeff Teper from the SharePoint team explains the many components that make up a page in the new SharePoint Server 2007 including:
Master Pages
Web Parts
General Purpose Web Parts
Page Layouts and Pages (simlar concept to Templates in CMS 2002)
» Page Anatomy
Found this on Andrew Connell's blogsite...
Things to note:
A new client SKU named Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 is what you know as Office Professional Plus 2007 (including Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Word, Access, InfoPath, Communicator, & Publisher) but also includes Microsoft Office Groove 2007 & Microsoft Office OneNote 2007.
Office SharePoint Server 2007 includes publishing, collaboration & search. In today’s terms, think SharePoint Portal Server & SharePoint’s Shared Services, and Content Management Server.
Office Project Server 2007, Office Project Portfolio Server 2007, Office Forms Server 2007 (think webified InfoPath), and Office Groove Server 2007 are separate SKU’s from Office SharePoint Server 2007....
[via InfoPathDev.com]
One very useful feature of Microsoft SharePoint is its ability to create and maintain lists that users can leverage to store, view, and share items with other users of the SharePoint site. It is often desirable to be able to view these items and to add additional items with an InfoPath form; one such example is a list of contacts. In this example we will add items to the automatically generated Contacts list in SharePoint, but this technique can be used to add list items to any SharePoint list.In this task we will add three data connections to a...
I was getting tired of buying batteries for my FujiFilm FinePix 2 megapixel camera. I inherited it after we finally splurged on a Canon Digital XT Rebel (sweet camera, btw). I use this Fuji camera to take pictures of things I sell on eBay from time-to-time. Anyways, it seemed like I was using this camera about 2 or 3 settings max and the batteries would expire. Well, I found this accessory, including rechargeable batteries on eBay called a Picture Cradle. Transfers pictures, recharges, etc. I got it for like $5 when it retailed for $75 brand new. This guy was...
Are you taking advantage of Microsoft's online training Webcasts? If not, you're missing some valuable information that will improve your coding development skills. For those who don't have big corporate funds to send you off for training this is a godsend. Where else can you learn all the cutting edge .NET development coming at us - FOR FREE?!?! Take advantage of it if you're not...
http://msdn.microsoft.com/events/
Also, if you are an MSDN webcast junky AND have a blog - add your name to the MSDN Webcasts and Events Bloggers...
Add Your Blog
How many of you attend a local MSDN event? Is it just...
This is a very well written article on InfoPath. I've included some things that really stood out to me below.
[via Sébastien Bouchet]
In a nutshell, InfoPath is both a form design environment allowing a form designer to create form templates, and a client viewer allowing a business user to fill out a form based on a template. Nothing really new : after all, Acrobat forms, Word-based forms have allowed us to do this for a long time. What's so sexy about InfoPath is that it is both standards-based (a form template is associated to a particular XML Schema definition, and all...
[via InfopathDev.com]
To display your InfoPath form data in a Web page, you can write XSL to translate your form into HTML. With a little knowledge of XSL this is a straightforward task. To display the contents of a rich text field you must use xsl:copy-of instead of xsl:value-of. This allows the XHTML content to be displayed in the Web page.
But you will quickly discover that this works for everything in a rich text field except pictures. This is because InfoPath stores pictures using base64 encoding, and then embeds the resulting string directly into the XML content...
If you need solid example...
[via Scott Hillier]
Solutions that automate business processes are becoming increasingly common, and the combination of SharePoint, InfoPath, and Visual Studio 2005 definitely streamlines the development process. In fact, the special relationships between these technologies make them an ideal platform for developing process-based solutions. A similar solution developed in ASP.NET, for example, would take considerably longer to create and deploy. That's why I think you'll see more and more solutions built on the Office System in the next few years.
This is an excellent article by Scott Hillier on integrating InfoPath, Excel, and Sharepoint. It has some great infopath coding examples too. Check...
[via Patrick Tisseghem]
Some time ago, I had the opportunity to have a talk at the Belgium MSDN community regarding opportunities for .NET developers to extend the Windows SharePoint Services. In addition to the Web Part development (see also my 2 articles on building Web Parts), and the access to the SharePoint object model and related XML Web Services, I demonstrated how to create document event handlers in VS.NET that hook up to a SharePoint form library. The goal of the .NET code was to process the incoming InfoPath XML. In this article I provide an overview of how to accomplish...
[via Microsoft TechNet]
Here are some links for frequently asked questions related to Microsoft InfoPath 2003...
InfoPath General Information
InfoPath vs. Other Tools
InfoPath and Standards
InfoPath 2003 Edit Mode
InfoPath Design Mode
InfoPath Deployment
InfoPath Technical Resources
[via Scott Robinson]
It's easy to look at Microsoft's InfoPath 2003 as a frivolous add-on to Office 2003 (specifically the Enterprise Edition, which includes InfoPath). It's hard to believe that something that seems an extra, dropped into a desktop product suite like a basket of breadsticks at an Italian restaurant, can be a powerful and flexible desktop application tool. Designed for the not-particularly-technical, it does not appear at face value to be particularly powerful—and therefore not particularly useful to the enterprise-minded developer.
But InfoPath will surprise you, not only with its considerable fundamental capabilities but with the added utility and features beneath...