A
Alex Irazabal
I just finished a fairly involved project to do a tablet PC data collection
system using infopath and I wnated to share my pet peeves with you guys.
First of all, I think InfoPath is heads and shoulders above any other
product that deals with multiple data sources, formating screens, and writing
to multiple sources. It's just a great tool for rapid development. OK. now
for the good part.
1) if you want to take in an XML file, modifiy it and write it back, it's
not as straigh-forward as you would wish. If you need to have temporary
fields to store data and add to the "Main" data source, thiose changes will
be reflected when you save the resulting XML. If would be very convenient to
have a "temporary" data source that you can access through the DOM but does
not affect the "main". I guess you can have secondary data sources in Submit
mode and accomplish the same thing, I never did. It would also be great to
have an architectural guide to kind of guide you as to how to best use all
the feautes! But that's real wishful thinking - I know.
2) I'd would be nice to be able to change the mail attachment to a
designated file. I wanted to send a separate file along with the form's file
as an ATTACHMENT. The only way to do this is to embedded it in the form. Not
clean. You should also be able to choose what is attached to the mail message
- not default to the form's XML. I know you can choose a field or an
expression, but if you wanted an external piece of data you are stuck.
3)Open it up for any SQL data base. Make the spec for writting a data
adapter open so third parties can (and will) contribute.
4) allow for the creation of HTML output as an option of deployment. This
way you can use InfoPath as the default "forms-creation" tool and deploy it
in a variety of formats.
That's all for now - Great Job in creating this tool. I can't wait so see it
mature and integrate to other front-ends and databases.
Alex
system using infopath and I wnated to share my pet peeves with you guys.
First of all, I think InfoPath is heads and shoulders above any other
product that deals with multiple data sources, formating screens, and writing
to multiple sources. It's just a great tool for rapid development. OK. now
for the good part.
1) if you want to take in an XML file, modifiy it and write it back, it's
not as straigh-forward as you would wish. If you need to have temporary
fields to store data and add to the "Main" data source, thiose changes will
be reflected when you save the resulting XML. If would be very convenient to
have a "temporary" data source that you can access through the DOM but does
not affect the "main". I guess you can have secondary data sources in Submit
mode and accomplish the same thing, I never did. It would also be great to
have an architectural guide to kind of guide you as to how to best use all
the feautes! But that's real wishful thinking - I know.
2) I'd would be nice to be able to change the mail attachment to a
designated file. I wanted to send a separate file along with the form's file
as an ATTACHMENT. The only way to do this is to embedded it in the form. Not
clean. You should also be able to choose what is attached to the mail message
- not default to the form's XML. I know you can choose a field or an
expression, but if you wanted an external piece of data you are stuck.
3)Open it up for any SQL data base. Make the spec for writting a data
adapter open so third parties can (and will) contribute.
4) allow for the creation of HTML output as an option of deployment. This
way you can use InfoPath as the default "forms-creation" tool and deploy it
in a variety of formats.
That's all for now - Great Job in creating this tool. I can't wait so see it
mature and integrate to other front-ends and databases.
Alex