Datasource Connectivity Performance and Best Practices

[Lee Vance]

I've been linking a lot of data to an InfoPath form. I am having a couple of
issues:

1) All the datasource connections are set to pull data each time the form
is opened, which causes the form to open slowly. Once it is opened, there
are no issues. All of the appropriate indexes are in place on the database
side. Is there something that can be done to bring the data up quicker? I
would prefer not to cache the data because this data is updated frequently.

2) I am using Windows Authentication to connect to the SQL database. Even
though we are just needing SELECT privileges right now, I don't want all the
users to have that privilege. Because of that, no one else is able to open
the form. What is the best practice for maintaining a connection for
everyone without creating a security issue?

Thanks,

 

[Clay Fox]

Hey Lee.

For 1.
I usually only load the first data I need automatically at form load. Then I
query additional sources as needed with rule actioins so that I can control
the experience. I find this works much better, users get the form opened
quicker and do not notice the other connections running as they use the form
as much. If you can spread them out, then often they do not really notice or
at least it is more tolerable than one long wait before they see the form.

For 2.
It all depends on how secure you want it. If you only want certain users to
have select then you only give them or a group select permissions on the
data. You can give everyone select and then identify users of your form and
perform security there but obviously the savvy user who knows how to use ODBC
could look at the data on their own without Infopath and you would have to
evaluate the likelihood and risk.
--
Thanks

Clay Fox

Qdabra Software
http://www.qdabra.com

InfoPathDev.Com
The Largest InfoPath Forum in the World
http://www.infopathdev.com

 

[Lee Vance]

Thanks for responding, Clay. On the first item, the data is stored in the
form so it doesn't actually have to load from a secondary datasource. But I
am interested in the query rule that you mentioned. Would you just add a
query rule for say a dropdown that pulls from a secondary datasource with no
condition? Will that cause it to trigger when someone clicks on it?

On the second item, I'm somewhat new to this company so I'm not all that
sure how many savvy users there are within the organization. Pretty much
everyone in the organization will need to be able to fill out these forms.
One option that we are exploring is creating a single SQL account for the
secondary datasource and using that account to create the connection. Would
you recommend that as an option? If so, would it be possible for someone
with XML knowledge to pull that login and password out of the form itself?

On a related item, we are publishing these forms to SharePoint. Is there a
way to publish them so that only a select few have the ability to go into
design mode, but everyone else can only fill out the form?

Thanks,