Opening external template forms from a doclib (bypass FormServer)

[Nebelstreif]

Hi guys.

My company has a legacy InfoPath application which is being staged out. The
new forms are placed in a SharePoint forms library (http://a/DocLib). The XSN
template resides at the legacy server (http://b/forms/tempate.xsn). The form
is currently not browser compatible. The DocLib setting explicitly favors the
full-blown InfoPath client over the Forms Services.

But.

The newly designed form uses a custom task panel displaying the filtered
SharePoint doclib content. But when a user tries to open a form from this
task pane, they get a FormServer error page stating the the form template is
unavailable because it resides in a different site collection (another server
actually) and the only option is to close the form.

Can I somehow tweak the MOSS farm to bypass FormServer.aspx for
non-browser-compatible forms?

Can anyone help?

Thanks for your time.

 

[Ben Walters]

Hey Nebelstreif
If you've updated the settings for the document library in MOSS to "Open in
client" and your still getting the error then I would suggest looking at the
following link
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms772417.aspx
it details how to use the query parameter options when opening forms and
templates from SharePoint,

Hope this helps
Ben Walters

 

[Nebelstreif]

Hey Ben, thanks for the link, but the actual question is how to open the
files from the DocLib without tampering with the DocLib Views and links, so
that "http://a/DocLib/Form31525.xml" would actually download the XML and
launch the client.

 

[Ben Walters]

Hey Nebelstreif,
So According to the article quoted opening this file would be done with the
following query parmeters

http://a/DocLib/Form31525.xml?OpenIn=Client

Assuming your not had coding a link you can always click on the little arrow
next to the form in question and from the action menu select "Open in
Microsoft Office InfoPath"


Hope this helps

Cheers

 

[Nebelstreif]

Hey Ben,

Thanks a lot. I can code that and part of the problem will be solved.
Interestingly, the users then won't be able to right-click and
Save-Target/Link-As... Might make sense...

 

[Nebelstreif]

But still the direct links to xml files will fail :-(

 

[Nebelstreif]

Ben, the querystring parameters are helpful, but one problem remains
unsolved: how can we open a form that references an XSN template _outside_
the site collection that hosts the Xml files?

When you navigate with IE to a page containing SharePoint specific
JavaScript, it opens in the client.

When you use other clients like custom toolpanes in InfoPath, the form errs
out with "Form could not be opened because the template is published in a
different site collection" (translated from Russian, may not match what you
will see).

 

[Nebelstreif]

Ben, the querystring parameters are helpful, but one problem remains
unsolved: how can we open a form that references an XSN template _outside_
the site collection that hosts the Xml files?

When you navigate with IE to a page containing SharePoint specific
JavaScript, it opens in the client.

When you use other clients like custom toolpanes in InfoPath, the form errs
out with "Form could not be opened because the template is published in a
different site collection" (translated from Russian, may not match what you
will see).

 

[Nebelstreif]

Ben, the querystring parameters are helpful, but one problem remains
unsolved: how can we open a form that references an XSN template _outside_
the site collection that hosts the Xml files?

When you navigate with IE to a page containing SharePoint specific
JavaScript, it opens in the client.

When you use other clients like custom toolpanes in InfoPath, the form errs
out with "Form could not be opened because the template is published in a
different site collection" (translated from Russian, may not match what you
will see).