About DBF databases

[DimonD]

In our solution all the reference books are implemented in DBF format. How
can we use this tables in InfoPath?

 

[Scott L. Heim [MSFT]]

Hi Dimon,

The only databases that InfoPath can "directly" connect to are Microsoft
Access and Microsoft SQL Server. However, for other formats you would
simply create a web service to retrieve/update your data and then bind your
InfoPath solution to the web service.

I hope this helps!

Scott L. Heim
Microsoft Developer Support

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[DimonD]

Thank you Scott for the quick response. May be you can help me with the other
q-ns?

Nobody answered my q-ns about solution design: "Solution design: XSD with
ANY type". Can you review it?

 

[Scott L. Heim [MSFT]]

Hi Dimon,

In regard to your other question, InfoPath is not supported inside of
another host (if I understood correctly); however, based on what you are
trying to achieve, I don't see why you could not use InfoPath itself. You
can create an InfoPath solution directly from a database or web service,
you can implement digital signatures for data, can submit the forms to a
centralized location (i.e. Sharepoint), you have the ability to use Roles
to determine who sees what View and data, etc.

If you have not seen or reviewed this site yet, it may be worth a peek:

InfoPath Developer Site
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnanchor/ht
ml/odc_ancinfo.asp

I hope this helps!

Scott L. Heim
Microsoft Developer Support

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[DimonD]

Thank you, Scott for the advice.
What I really did not find on all the MS resources on InfoPath is how to
build SOLUTION, not just one simple form.

Here is the problem.
The business process is the following:
- a user enters several fields
- this fields are sent to the server
- the server returns information according to this set of fields. this can
be an
error (the record doesnt exist) or a needed information (lots of data in xml)
- the user should see an error desc or a report based on the returned
information.

All the communication between the client and server is based on IBM MQ
Series transport and the data is sent in special XML-envelopes with header
and body, where body is of ANY type - this can be an error desc or a needed
information. For every object in this process we have XSD-scheemas.

But how can I create a form with XSD scheem where there is a body of ANY
type? InfoPath doesnt understand this. What is the best way to implement this
solution in InfoPath?

 

[Scott L. Heim [MSFT]]

Hi Dimon,

Let's see if some of this is of benefit:

- If you can create a web service that talks to your data source and
accepts/returns a dataset, then you can bind your InfoPath solution to the
web service and you will have built-in query/update functionality.

- We also have a Knowledge Base article on modifying an external schema for
use with InfoPath:

How to modify an external schema for an InfoPath form
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;827006

Let me know if this is of any benefit.

Thanks Dimon,

Scott L. Heim
Microsoft Developer Support

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.