Can InfoPath be used for "automatic document production" ?

[BlueChippy]

I'm looking for a solution to a problem we have.
We need to be able to produce "documentation packs" from system. These
packs contain multiple documents, or parts of documents, each one with
possibly multiple data sources, but need to end up as a single "document".

A simple Word mail merge falls over because of the multiple data source
issue and at the moment we are using a "replace bookmark" system, which is a
little cumbersome.

Can InfoPath be used for this? There will be no, or very little, data
actually collected from the user, and this data will not be stored anywhere
other than the resulting doc/pdf file. However, some documents will be
triggered automatically and therefore need to be produced on the server, with
no user interaction.

Summary:
User triggers doc production.
"key" passed to template.
Doc produced automatically (i.e. all data populated into correct places,
based on key/keys).
Doc saved (as doc/pdf) and possibly printed.

Any advice very gratefully received.

 

[S.Y.M. Wong-A-Ton]

I think you've kind of answered your own question when you say: "There will
be no, or very little, data actually collected from the user, and this data
will not be stored anywhere other than the resulting doc/pdf file.".

While you could do this using InfoPath, it is not useful or practical to,
because your requirements do not have much to do with data gathering,
storing, or sharing. I'd recommend writing a .NET application to do this. The
user can click a button to trigger the doc production, and you'd have totally
flexibility generating your documents.

 

[BlueChippy]

Cheers...however, the problem is that we need the users to define/develop
their documentation.

At the moment they produce word templates with bookmarks in, and then there
is a huge set of rules in C# to process these and replace them with the
required data.

We have a solution, whereby the users define the templates and then use a
web front end to also define the rules, within a given set of available
rules...but there has to be a better way to do this!

 

[S.Y.M. Wong-A-Ton]

Yes, but unfortunately I don't think InfoPath will make the process any
easier. Have you already tried posting your question in one of the .NET or
the VSTO newsgroups?