InfoPath Forms Services and Alternative Access Mappings

[zdvsoftware]

Hi all,

Note: this is a cross-posted message - please remove non-relevant
groups when replying.

I have a SharePoint site that is accessed from the intranet using its
server name, and from internet using its IP address. To make this work
I added an Alternate Access Mapping.
The site has a forms library, and I uploaded an InfoPath form for
creating and modifying the files. The form is handled by the browser,
end-users do not have InfoPath installed. I added some settings for
the Submit button, and this all works nice.

But... When someone created a form while being connected on the
intranet, this file cannot be opened from the extranet! The first time
one tries to do this he sees a browser window just stating that an
error occurred - no clue what error occurred or anything helpful.
Every next time he tries to open a file (could be another) he just
gets a message in the browser: "The form has been closed".

And this works the other way too. When someone on the extranet creates
a file, it cannot be opened from the intranet: the same messages
occur. AFAIK no other traces are left in the event log etc.

Anyone have a clue?

 

[David Dean]

This problem occurs because the form XML document is stored with a processing
instruction that references the URL of the form template .xsn file.
Unfortunately, that means without using some custom code, the form will only
open if the processing instruction has a URL that is valid for the user who
is opening it. You might be able to work around the problem by writing a
custom HTTP handler that adjusts the processing instruction when a request is
received to access an XML document from your form library.

If you can get away with it, a simpler way to address the problem is to ask
your network admin to assign a DNS alias to the server that uses a consistent
name for both your intranet and extranet. The internal DNS server would point
to the machine's internal IP address, and an external DNS name would need to
be registered for the external IP.