Problems opening Infopath form in Outlook

[tim2u]

Help!
When our Infopath solution submits a form via email, the receiver can't open
it correctly. This is because another application has taken over the .xml
extension and now tries to open the Infopath form. (It was working properly!)


1) Is there a way to change the extension of the form that is
submitted(emailed), that will always open it in Infopath (especially in our
situation)?

2) Is there a way to force Outlook to use Infopath (or the MS XML Editior)
even if the default .xml extension is mapped to another application?


Other suggestions? Thanks in advance.
-Tim

 

[Ben Walters [MVP]]

Tim,
All InfoPath files contain a set of Process instructions at the beginning of
the file indicating what program should be used to open the file. It's
possible depending how the file in the email has been created that the
processing instructions may have been removed. The other possability is that
simply the mapping between the XML file type and the application to open it
has become mixed up

- Try opening the windows explorer then click on Tools>Folder Options
- Click on the File Types Tab and locate the XML file extension
- Click the change button and select Internet Explorer from the list (IE
will interrogate the processing instructions and redirect the open command to
InfoPath)

If your still having problems opening the form then try opening the XML file
in notepad and search for a node similar to the following
<?mso-application progid="InfoPath.Document"?>

personally I think if you change the file association you should be fine.

cheers
Ben

 

[tim2u]

Ben,
Thanks for your response. Let me reword my question/problem a little bit.

You said there are 2 possibilities that could have caused this. I know for
a fact which one that you mentioned is causing the problem (xml file type
mapping has changed). This is because at one of our business locations,the
coorporate IT folks installed another application that 'hijacked' the xml
extension (the program is called Epic Editor-an xml editor).

Anyway, I am trying to find a solution in which I won't have to change the
..xml mapping back because then it would cause their Epic Editor to not open
the .xml files if double clicked.

So my questions are:
Is it possible to a) force outook to open infopath on xml files without
remapping the .xml extension on every computer or b) have infopath mail the
forms in another extension (other than .xml) that would always open in
infopath or c) work around this another way?

I could see this being a HUGE problem for developers considering using
Infopath as a possible solution because of the increasing number of
applications that use .xml extensions. As .xml becomes more popular (as it
is every day), there are a multitude of applications that can use/edit/create
..xml files and there will be no gaurantee that Infopath (or IE, or 'Microsoft
XML Editor) will always be mapped to the .xml extension. Once this mapping
changes, it breaks a MAJOR part of the Infopath process (submitting Infopath
forms (.xml files) via email).

Thanks again for your help. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Ben Walters [MVP]]

Tim,
Unfortunately it looks like you might be stuck between a rock and a hard
place. The processing instructions at the beginning of and InfoPath XML
document are what determine which program should handle the file. If another
application has been installed that takes control of all XML files then this
application should also be interrogating the Processing instructions to
determine which app should be used to open the file.
My suggestion to you is to get in contact with the people at Abortext and
see if they have an update that may help.

One last option and I say this with out knowing your business process, is
rather than attaching the XML of the form to the email to attach the .mht
export. This will only suffice howver if the data you are emailing does not
need to be updated.

 

[Gerard]

Hi Ben,
I was browsing the discussion group and came accross your post....

Is there an easy way to tell InfoPath to attach the .mht file instead of the
xml file when submitting as an email from a data connection?

Thanks,
Gerard McMahon