MOSS 2007 & MS Office InfoPath 2007 (part1)

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MOSS 2007 & MS Office InfoPath 2007 (part1)

Introduction
MS-Office Sharepoint Server 2007 is a new server program that is part of 2007 MS office system which your organization can use it to facilitate collaboration, provide content management features, implement business processes & supply access to information that is essential to organizational goals & processes. Here, in this article we’ll show how MS office InfoPath 2007 works with office sharepoint server 2007 in designing a browser- compatible form template, publish them to an office sharepoint server 2007 site and enable them for use in a web browser.

General Objective
How to use InfoPath forms services capababilities in office sharepoint server.

Article Target
Using MS office InfoPath 2007 to create forms and making them compatible to display on a web page & then publish this compatible form to a document library in a sharepoint portal site.

Steps
A) Creating a sharepoint portal site:

Open “sharepoint 3.0 central administration” from (Start > All Programs > Microsoft Office Server > Sharepoint 3.0 Central Administration) , as shown in the figure:

Then , you’ll find three tabs: (Home , Operations , Application Management) , So , Click on the Application Management tab as shown in the figure:

In “Sharepoint Site Management” section , click on “Create site collection” as shown in the figure:

In :

i) Web Application:

You can change your web application according to the port which will be used. (Here, I’ll create my sharepoint site on 80 – port). So, click on the web Application drop-down list and select “Change web Application” as shown in the figure:

Then, click on: sharepoint 80 link as shown in the figure:

Then, you see that your web application changed as shown in the figure:

ii) Title and Description:

You can type a title and description for your site where, the title will be displayed on each page in the site, as shown in the figure:

iii) Web Site Address:

You can specify the URL Name & URL Path to create the site or choose to create a site at a specific path so , your site can be personal or public site according to your purpose (Here, I’ll choose to be a personal site) , as shown in the figure:

iv) Template Selection:

You can select a predefined template for your site or you can design your own template and add it to this list which we’ll discuss it later in other articles, So, here I’ll select a Team Site template which is specific for a site for teams to quickly organize, author & share information which provides a document library & lists for managing announcements, calendar items, tasks & discussions, as shown in the figure: (Collaboration tab > Team Site)

v) Primary site collection Administrator:

You can write an administrator user names to specify the administrators for this web site collection , So , Click on the browse icon which looks an open book shape then in the Find textbox write the user name and then click search , which shown in the figure:

vi) Secondary site collection Administrator:

It’s optional to specify the secondary administrator for this web site collection (Here, I don’t need for it so, I’ll leave it blank).

vii) Quota template:

You can select a predefined quota template to limit resources used for this site collection (i.e.: in order to have a storage limit for this site), or we can design our own quota template which we’ll discuss it in another articles, (Here, I’ll leave it as it is “No Quota”), as shown in the figure:

Then finally click ok button, and wait while your changes are processed, then you’ll find that your top-level site successfully created and the link for your new site will be given as shown in the figure:

Then click on the link to open the new portal site, then your new site will be like this:

Now , we’ll create a new document library in order to publish our InfoPath form to it as a compatible web page , So , Click on Site Actions menu > Create , as shown in the figure:

Then in the “Libraries “section, click on “Document Library” link, as shown in the figure:

Then,

i) Name and Description:

You can type a new name as you want it to appear in headings & links throughout the site .Also, you can type a descriptive text in the description area that will help site visitors to use this document library.

ii) Navigation:

You can specify whether a link to this document library appears in the quick launch which found in the homepage or not.

iii) Document version history:

You can specify whether a version is created each time you edit a file in this document library or not.

iv) Document Templates:

You can select a document template to determine the default for all new files created in this document library. (Here, I’ll select: Microsoft office word 97-2003 document, template)

All shown in this figure:

Then click create button ,then in your new document library which is called“DocLib1” here , you’ll find four tabs (New , Upload , Actions , Settings), So , when you click on New tab there is two sub-items in it which are : New Document (Empty Document) & New Folder(Empty Folder to hold Documents) which shown in this figure:

Also , we want to publish the compatible InfoPath form as a web page to this document library So , there are some settings for this document library needed to be done. So that, click on Settings tab > Document Library settings > General settings > Click on, Advanced Settings. Then:

i) Content types:

Select , Yes, in order to allow the management of content types on this document library where, each content type will appear on the new button and can have a unique set of columns, workflows and other behaviors.

ii) Browser-enabled documents:

Select, Display as a webpage , in order to display documents that are enabled for opening in a browser.

Then you can leave others as they are, as shown in the figure:

Then click Ok button.

B) Creating compatible InfoPath form:

Start > All Programs > Microsoft office > Microsoft office InfoPath 2007 , as shown in the figure :

Click on , “Design a form template ”, as shown in the figure :

Select , Form Template > Blank , as shown in the figure , and click OK:

Design Tasks> Tasks > Click on Layout > Table with Title , then add some controls via (Tasks>Controls) , as shown in the figure :

Then to make sure that this form is compatible to web page , Tools menu > Forms options > Compatibility > Check Design a form template that can be opened in a browser or infopath, as shown in the figures:

Then at the Category section > Select Compatibility, as shown in the figure:

Then , it’s time now to publish this compatible InfoPath form to the document library of our sharepoint portal site : File menu > Publish > Save (template1.xsn) > To a Sharepoint server with or without infopath forms services > Next > (Enter Location of your sharepoint site link) > Next > Enable this form to be displayed out by using a browser, Site content type (Advanced), which allows this form template to be used in multiple libraries and sites > Next > Create a new content type > Next > Type name and description for this content type > Browser button, to select the created document library which called “DocLib1” , then write file name: with extension ‘.xsn’ > Next > Next (Leave it as it is) > publish, as shown in these figures:

Then choose a location at your file system in order to save the template, as shown in the figure:

Then select, to a sharepoint server with or without InfoPath forms services, as shown in the figure:

Then enter the location of your sharepoint site, as shown in the figure:

Then, Enable the form to be filled out by using a browser and select site content type (advanced), as shown in the figure:

Then create a new content type, as shown in the figure:

Then, Type a name and description for the content type, as shown in the figure:

Then, select the document library location that created before, as shown in the figure:

Then, write a name for the content type, as shown in the figure:

Then, click on publish button, as shown in the figure:

Then, Click on close button, as shown in the figure:

Then, go back to the created sharepoint site and click refresh button at the DocLib1 page and you’ll find the published form there as shown in the figure:

Then, we want to add our created content type in order to appear a as a sub-item in New tab items, So that: Settings tab > Document Library settings > Content types > Add from existing site content types > Select (CT1) content type > Add > ok, as shown in the figure:

Then, Select the content type that we named before and Click on Add, as shown in the figure:

Then we want remove also other sub-items (Document – New Folder), so that to achieve this: Click on Settings tab > Select (Document Library Settings), as shown in the figure:

Then , in “Content Types” section , click on “Change new button order” and default content type , then uncheck visible check box , as shown in this figure , then click ok:

Now, when click, new tab its items will be as shown in the figure:

Also, to remove New Folder sub- item, so that, Settings > Document library settings > General settings > Advanced settings > Folders> No > Ok, as shown in the figure:

Then, go back to the DocLib1 page then, click New > click CT1, as shown in the figure:

And then , you’ll find your InfoPath compatible form in a web page where you can save , save as , close ,and print view the current page , as shown in these figures: