Can Infopath Client form initiate and control Workflow

[Mohit]

We need to initiate the workflow from the desktop Infopath form.
The users which are participating in the workflow should be able to control
the state of the item on which workflow is running?
Can we do this programmatically in C# in desktop Infopath Client?

 

[Sundar Narasiman]

Mohit,

The biggest challenge here is how & whereto host the workflow runtime.
Infopath 2007 software can't be the workflow.
At the sametime there is a way to achieve the functionality you had
asked for.
You neee to develop add-ins (custom components) using VSTO (Visual Studio
Tools for Office) and call a custom application (custom assembly) to host you
workflow. In this case the custom application (custom assembly) is your
workflow host. The custom application can be a console application/desktop
application/windows service for your case.

Hope this clarifies !

 

[Mohit]

Thanks Sundar for your reply.
But the workflow runtime will be in the Sharepoint server. The Infopath form
is also in the document library of the MOSS. But these Infopath forms are not
web enabled and the user though opens them from the Sharepoint site but they
get opened on the Desktop Infopath not in the IE.

Now I am wondering how I can initiate a workflow from the Desktop client and
how I can change the state if the document using code?

 

[Sundar Narasiman]

What you are achieving by having the workflow to run on the sharepoint
server and the form to run independently as the client form ???

 

[Mohit]

The User do not want to go to the task list and enter the review comments and
approve it. What he wants to it from one single place by looking at the
infopath form. We are not able to use Web enabled form because we are putting
images in the infopath Richtext box field which will only be viewable if we
use Client Infopath forms.

 

[Sundar Narasiman]

Where will you track the status of the worflow ?
Let's say you've the serial workflow traversing from users A--->B-->C ??
Where will the users track the approval ??
Where will the users approve this case ??
Are you going to provide the worflow status tracking functionality to the
client-side infopath form ??

 

[Mohit]

Yes we will create a infopath form which will show option of approval etc on
the infopath form clicked by the user based on their roles.
We will be using State machine workflow so we want to know how we can
intiate and control the document status using Infopath form.
Can we programmatically do this?