InfoPath Team Blog

InfoPath 2010 Performance Highlights

2009-10-27T15:40:00Z

At last week's SharePoint conference in Las Vegas, Rick Severson, a test lead on the InfoPath product team presented a session called Performance Best Practices for SharePoint Forms Services 2010. This session covered best practices and performance improvements in InfoPath 2010. In this post, we will cover the highlights from this session.

InfoPath Team Members who attended SPC:

(From Back Row Left to Right: Daniel Witriol (Program Manager Lead), Darvish Shadravan (Technology Specialist), Rick Severson (Test Lead), Nick Dallett (Program Manager Lead), Roberto Taboada (Program Manager), Bojana Duke (Program Manager), Peter Allenspach (Group Program Manager), Umut Alev (Development Lead))

We had about 100 people in the room for this deep dive of InfoPath performance best practices. Rick opened the session by defining what fast forms are. He used a sample 1040EZ form to demonstrate a "lightning fast form" out of the box. In InfoPath Forms Services 2010, we've improved performance by achieving initial form load times of .8 seconds and subsequent form loads of .4 seconds. A sample passport form with 60 controls and some simple rules and data validation was used to demonstrate that requests per second (RPS) have increased. With this form, 1200 requests can be processed per second. That's a total of 2.1 million users per hour.

Rick then moved on to cover some of the scalability highlights in this release.

Requests per second (RPS) have doubled.
We can now scale out to 8 Web front ends for a single backend.
Performance of SharePoint lists that have been customized using InfoPath is comparable to the default, out of the box SharePoint lists.
Forms with Sandboxed code can process 340 RPS in a 1x3 topology
Our new State Service allows for better scaling and faster session performance
We’ve ported many fixes into 2007 SP2 so you can take advantage of many of these performance gains today

Performance improvements include -

Our new, enhanced rich text control which is optimized for multiple instances on a form
OnHover rendering of secondary data which improves rendering time
Performance in customized SharePoint lists ensures that you get the richness of InfoPath without sacrificing performance
New State Service
Optimized .js for Ajax behavior rendering

In the next part of the session, Rick covered some best practices for optimizing the performance of your forms. He focused on the following 4 areas - Data Connections, Controls, Data size and business logic.

For optimal performance, he recommended that you filter data at source rather than returning large data sets when querying data sources.
InfoPath 2010 users can now take advantage of our new browser form filtering capabilities.
Users should avoid running data queries on form load and instead run them on demand.
It's a good practice to combine data queries with other actions, such as view switches to minimize the number of postbacks.
To further improve performance, we recommend that you reduce form complexity, avoid out of context controls and avoid postbacks.
When possible, you should take advantage of first request optimized forms. You can do this by avoiding logic in your form that has to be calculated on load. For example, if you use a default value of DateTime.Now(), then this has to be calculated on load so the form cannot be first request optimized.

The key takeaways from this session were high performance out of the box, complex solutions can be tuned easily and performance matters!

Additional Resources for improving the performance of your InfoPath forms:
Designing Browser enabled forms for Performance in InfoPath Forms Services
http://blogs.msdn.com/infopath/archive/2008/05/09/designing-browser-enabled-forms-for-performance-in-infopath-forms-services.aspx

Capacity Planning Document For IPFS
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc879113.aspx

InfoPath Forms Services 2007 Web Testing Toolkit
http://www.codeplex.com/ipfswebtest

InfoPath 2010 is unveiled at the SharePoint Conference

2009-10-20T22:51:00Z

As many of you may know, the SharePoint Conference 2009 is taking place this week in Las Vegas, Nevada and it's been a particularly exciting week for the InfoPath product team. Over the past 3 years of product development, we have made huge investments in integrating with the SharePoint platform. Finally, this week, we got the opportunity to unveil the fruits of these investments to the world, and so far, the reception has been tremendously positive! (Check out what people are saying about InfoPath 2010 on Twitter.)

SPC is taking place at the Mandalay Bay Hotel:

InfoPath Booth:

(from left: Umut Alev - development lead, Peter Allenspach - group program manager, Rick Severson - test lead):

InfoPath 2010 is well represented at this year's conference with a total of 5 sessions. The 1st session took place on Monday and was presented by Peter Allenspach and Bojana Duke from the InfoPath program management team.

The InfoPath session drew big crowds:

The session opened with an introduction to InfoPath 2010, followed by 3 feature demos which illustrated just how easy InfoPath 2010 makes it for Information Workers to create their own solutions without reliance on IT departments. Some highlights below -

InfoPath 2010 Overview:

Demo 1: Customizing a SharePoint list form

In this demo, Peter and Bojana walked through a real Microsoft internal College Recruiting scenario. Employees use SharePoint lists to sign up for recruiting trips. Bojana wowed the audience by taking the Recruitment Trip list form and customizing it in InfoPath in under a minute!

Peter and Bojana then went on to show how this form could be further enhanced and customized. Our new out of the box rules were used to add data validation and to conditionally show or hide sections in the form. A data connection to the Colleges list was added to pull details about the colleges into the recruiting trip sign-up form. The form layout was customized using our new pre-built layout tables and themes. They then showed how in a single click, the form could be published to SharePoint. Not only that, but they then showed how the list, including the customized form could be taken offline in SharePoint Workspace.

Last but not least, they opened the form in Firefox showing that you can use your browser of choice to fill out your forms.

Before Form:

After Form:

Offline Form in SharePoint Workspace:

Demo 2: Creating Mashups using the InfoPath Form Web Part
The 2nd demo took the Recruiting scenario to the next level. In this demo, Bojana created a simple portal page with 2 Web Parts, the Recruiting trip list and the new InfoPath Form Web Part. In only a few clicks, she connected the 2 Web Parts. Now when she selected an item in the recruitment list, the details for that trip were displayed in an InfoPath form.

Portal Page:

They concluded the 2nd demo by showing that both SharePoint solutions and InfoPath forms are truly portable and reusable. The site was saved as a template (WSP) and a new site was created from this template. The SharePoint list, portal page and InfoPath form were fully functional on this new site.

Demo 3: Office Business Applications: Procurement scenario
In this final demo, Peter and Bojana showed the audience how InfoPath helps IT departments develop full Office Business Applications on the SharePoint platform. They used a procurement scenario to demo these capabilities. In this scenario, an employee submits a request to purchase a new laptop computer. The solution used an InfoPath form that connects to a vendor database, that brings in details about the goods you can purchase.

Procurement Form:

This type of application can be built in SharePoint Designer, using web part pages to create the user experience. The data can be stored in form libraries, SharePoint lists, and external systems using Business Connectivity Services. If InfoPath rules don’t do the job of defining the desired form behavior sandboxed or full trust code can be added to the forms. SharePoint workflows can be used to send e-mail notifications and track status. And once you’re all done, you can package your application so it can be tested and eventually deployed to the production servers.

Procurement Portal Page:

This first session set the stage for the remaining InfoPath sessions of the week:

Building Applications with InfoPath and SharePoint Designer (this session took place on Tuesday - more details to follow)
Performance Best Practices for Forms Applications
InfoPath 2010: Form Design Best Practices
Form-Driven Mashups using InfoPath and Forms Services 2010

Stay tuned for more updates from Las Vegas!

InfoPath 2010 Overview Video

2009-08-25T18:55:00Z

Check out the InfoPath 2010 overview video created by the InfoPath Product Marketing team on http://www.microsoft.com/officebusiness/office2010/. Click on the Videos tab and then click the InfoPath link.

New Demo Video Posted: Creating Forms in InfoPath 2010

2009-08-19T23:56:00Z

The first in a series of feature demo videos created by the InfoPath Product team is available for your viewing pleasure on Youtube.

In this video, Bojana Duke, a Program Manager on the InfoPath team, covers the basics of creating forms in InfoPath 2010 using some of our great new features including Page and Section Layouts, Quick Rules, Rules Manager and the Picture Button control.

To learn more, check out the video on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKJ3A12RfE8.

Office 2010 Technical Beta recruiting update and contest rules

2009-08-05T04:54:00Z

Hey folks,

Since we posted the information about the Office 2010 technical beta a couple of weeks ago, and our "Win an XBox" contest, we've had quite a few folks sign up for the program. Welcome to all the new folks in the technical beta! There are still slots available for folks interested in InfoPath, and we'll continue to take nominations until we're full.

Please note that the Technical Beta is different from the Technical Preview program. Individuals and companies who are accepted into the Technical Beta sign a non-disclosure agreement and get access to both Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010.

The InfoPath 2010 Technical Beta Solution Contest is open only to members of the Technical Beta. In order for you to come into the program by being sponsored by the InfoPath team, you must indicate on your nomination form that you are primarily interested in InfoPath. Also, you must include a valid e-mail address so that we can contact you to invite you into the program.

Here are the official eligibility rules for the contest:

******************************

CONTEST DESCRIPTION:

This is a skill-based Contest. The object of this Contest is to create a video demo of an application built by the entrant using Microsoft InfoPath 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. For purposes of this Contest, each video demo you create and submit in the Contest will be called an “entry.” All eligible entries received will be judged using the criteria described below to determine the winners of the prizes described below.

WHAT ARE THE START AND END DATES?

This Contest starts at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time (PT) on 8/1/2009, and ends at 11:59 p.m. PT on 10/15/2009 (“Entry Period”).

CAN I ENTER?

You are eligible to enter this Contest if you meet the following requirements at time of entry:

· You are actively enrolled in the Office 2010 Technical Beta program with a valid program ID and are a legal resident of the 50 United States and District of Columbia, or Canada; and

o If you are 18 of age or older, but are considered a minor in your place of residence, you should ask your parent’s or legal guardian’s permission prior to submitting an entry into this Contest; and

You are NOT an employee of Microsoft Corporation or an employee of a Microsoft subsidiary; and
You are NOT involved in any part of the administration and execution of this Contest; and

· You are NOT an immediate family (parent, sibling, spouse, child) or household member of a Microsoft employee, an employee of a Microsoft subsidiary, or a person involved in any part of the administration and execution of this Contest.

This Contest is void outside the geographic area described above and wherever else prohibited by law.

******************************

The full rules of the competition, including instructions on how to submit your video demo, are posted on the official forums that are accessible to members of the Technical Beta.

The link to nominate yourself for the program is here: http://connect.microsoft.com/InvitationUse.aspx?ProgramID=3343&SiteID=160&InvitationID=Beta-PRJM-HVCM

I'm really looking forward to seeing the great solutions you come up with using the great new features in InfoPath 2010 and SharePoint 2010. Thanks for your continued support!

-Nick Dallett

Lead Program Manager, Microsoft InfoPath

InfoPath 2010 feature videos

2009-07-17T18:15:00Z

Check out some of the new InfoPath 2010 features in action in the following videos on youtube:

InfoPath 2010 Richer Browser Forms

InfoPath 2010 Picture Button

InfoPath 2010 Oneclick Publishing

What's New in InfoPath 2010?

2009-07-16T04:20:00Z

Here's a quick overview of some of the great new features in InfoPath 2010. Stay tuned for upcoming posts with more details!

Microsoft InfoPath 2010 makes it easier than ever to design electronic forms. InfoPath now includes the Office Fluent UI and allows the creation of powerful, interactive forms, without having to write any code. With a few clicks, Office users can customize SharePoint list forms, add custom layouts and rules to validate the data, and take them offline in SharePoint Workspace.

IT professionals can create custom forms for document workflows and Office Business Applications that include managed code, digital signatures and that connect to line of business data.

In InfoPath 2010, we’ve made some big investments to make it much easier to build rich forms-based applications on top of the SharePoint Server 2010 platform.

Quickly Design Forms with Easy-to-Use Tools
New features to help you quickly and easily create forms include our new Fluent UI, pre-built layout sections, out-of-the-box rules, improved rules management, and varied styles.

The New tab in the Designer Backstage presents you with the available form templates that you can choose from. Most templates start you off with a default layout table.

Stay tuned for more details on our new and improved form design features!

Layout your Forms Using Pre-built Page and Section Layouts
Laying out your form and making it look more attractive is now easier than ever. Insert one of our pre-built page layouts to give your form structure. Then, insert some section layouts into the page layout to start building your form.

Page and Section Layouts in InfoPath Designer:

New and Improved Controls
We’ve added some new controls and narrowed the feature gap between client and browser forms, ensuring a more consistent form filling experience for all our users.

New controls in InfoPath 2010 include:

Picture buttons – Instead of the default gray button, use any image as a button in your form.
Hyperlink capabilities –Allow users to insert their own hyperlinks when filling out forms.
Date and time picker – Allow users to insert dates and times in their forms
Person/Group pickers – Updated! This is now a first class control and is included by default in the Controls gallery.
Signature Line (Editor Only) – Allow users to digitally sign a form

Controls and functionality that are now supported in browser forms include:

Bulleted, numbered, and plain lists, multiple selection list boxes, Combo boxes, Choice group and sections, and Filtering functionality.

Add Rules to your Forms
With our new out-of-the-box rules (or quick rules) and improved rules management UI, you can easily add rules to validate data, format your form, or perform other actions with just a couple of clicks, and without any code.

Quick Rules in InfoPath Designer:

Publish Forms Quickly
Our new “quick” publish functionality allows you to publish forms in a single click (no more clicking through the Publishing Wizard every time you want to make an update to your forms!)

Create Forms for SharePoint Lists
Using InfoPath, you can now extend and enhance the forms used for creating, editing and viewing items in a SharePoint list. In a browser, simply navigate to a SharePoint list, and on the SharePoint Ribbon under List Tools, choose the Customize Form option. This will automatically generate a form which looks very similar to the default out-of-the-box SharePoint list form.

You can then customize and enhance this form by modifying the layout, creating additional views or pages, and adding rules to validate your data, show or hide sections of the form or set a fields value (to name just a few of the options).

Example of Customized SharePoint List Form:

Stay tuned for more details on SharePoint List Customization!

We recommend using a form associated with a SharePoint list when possible. This provides the most straightforward design and form management experience. However, there are more complex scenarios where using a form associated with a form library is preferred e.g. if your form has a complex schema or if you need to add code to your form.

Create SharePoint Applications
With InfoPath 2010, SharePoint Server 2010, and SharePoint Designer 2010, you can easily create powerful team, departmental or enterprise applications on top of SharePoint Server.

Form-based applications: InfoPath forms can be integrated with components such as workflow, reporting, and custom Web pages to create rich form-based applications.
Document Workflows: InfoPath can be used to design custom workflow initiation and task forms that drive document management processes.
Business Connectivity Services: Integrating with BCS, it is straightforward to design InfoPath forms that create, read, update, and delete business data from a back-end system.

Stay tuned for more details on creating SharePoint applications!

Create Mashups using the InfoPath Form Web Part
Now, without writing a single line of code, you can host your InfoPath browser forms in Web pages by simply adding the InfoPath Form Web Part to a Web Part page. You can also connect it to other Web Parts on the page to send or receive data.

Stay tuned for more details on the InfoPath Form Web Part!

Build Forms with Code
Using Visual Studio Tools for Applications, you can add managed code to your forms.

Stay tuned for more details on programming with InfoPath!

InfoPath Editor
The InfoPath 2010 Editor Fluent user interface provides a much improved, simpler user experience for filling out forms.

Form opened in InfoPath 2010 Editor:

SharePoint Workspace
InfoPath 2010 is the forms technology used by SharePoint Workspace 2010 for creating and filling out forms.

InfoPath Forms Services Administration and Management
We have invested in many improvements to make it easier to manage your InfoPath Forms Services as a component of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010.

We hope you enjoy using InfoPath 2010 and look forward to getting your feedback!

The InfoPath Team

Install the Office 2010 Technical Preview and win an Xbox 360 Elite!

2009-07-13T22:22:00Z

We on the InfoPath team are delighted to announce the release of Microsoft InfoPath 2010 (Technical Preview). We’re really excited to share all of our great new features with you!

(Click the thumbnails for higher-resolution images.)

Highlights

Use InfoPath to customize SharePoint list forms
Design forms more quickly and easily with page and section layouts, themes, and Fluent user interface.
Add smarts to your forms with pre-built rules
Publish your forms with one-click

Where do I sign up?
The Office 2010 Technical Preview is a limited-availability release. To sign up to be considered for the Office 2010 Technical Preview program:

Log on to Microsoft Connect with your Windows Live ID, using the following link:

http://connect.microsoft.com/InvitationUse.aspx?ProgramID=3343&SiteID=160&InvitationID=Beta-PRJM-HVCM

Complete the registration form for Microsoft Connect
Read and complete the Technical Beta Nomination Form
When the forms asks “Which Microsoft Office Application are you most interested in testing?”, choose InfoPath.

How do I win the Xbox?

Build a real-world end to end application using InfoPath 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010.
Download the Community Clips Recorder from http://communityclips.officelabs.com/
Record a walkthrough of your solution, showing us how you used InfoPath forms and other Office technologies (5 minutes maximum)
Submit the finished video to us

Contest is limited to eligible members of the InfoPath 2010 Technical Preview program referenced above, and additional limitations may apply. All submissions will be reviewed by the InfoPath team, and prizes will be awarded in several categories, including best overall solution, best video, and best bug. Contest details will be posted on the technical preview site at http://connect.microsoft.com.

We will post more details on our new features in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

New book on SharePoint content types

2009-02-03T02:08:00Z

Have you ever wanted to do more with content types in SharePoint, but weren't quite sure how? There's a new book by David Gerhardt and Kevin Martin which goes deep on the subject, including a chapter on creating Document Information Panels using InfoPath.

Check it out!

http://www.amazon.com/Building-Content-Type-Solutions-SharePoint/dp/1584506695/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221580433&sr=8-1

Estimate performance and capacity requirements for InfoPath Forms Services environments

2008-10-04T04:22:00Z

A new document went live today on Technet around capacity planning for IPFS. Have a look and let us know what you think:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc879113.aspx

Do you have what it takes to define the future of InfoPath?

2008-09-03T19:43:00Z

Program Manager Wanted
The InfoPath clan is looking for a new member who’s skilled in the dark arts of user experience design. We are looking for someone who can help vanquish the evil of complex interfaces that tax a helpless populace. We are searching far and wide for a PM who can wield UI heavy feature areas and who can fiercely impart their passion for user experience excellence upon our kin. For those who dare to cross us, know that we are a young and boisterous clan, we move quickly to keep our territory growing and our ranks fun.

The great and triumphant history of the InfoPath clan
Once upon a time those of us seeking the path to information settled upon the land of electronic forms. It was the year MMIII, a time immediately following the failed invasion of the great bubble. Ours was a chaotic and grim landscape dominated by old and decrepit offerings. In response, our people focused on creating a new generation of e-form, one that was fully ‘e’ from its inception, one without a history tied to the ancient convoluted ways of papyrus. Our people created an e-form that fully embraced the interoperability of the ‘e’ world, being compliant with the scriptures of XML and sending/receiving information using the silky services that permeate the great Web of truth. We called ourselves “InfoPath”, forever symbolizing our mission as the righteous seeking the path to information. Today our craftsmen are forging the next incarnation of e-forms. Working under the protection of the great rulers of the Office Kingdom, we fashion the Microsoft Office InfoPath product which provides both an e-form designer and an e-form filler. Moreover, our clan provides components that are used throughout the isle of Office, finding their way into offerings including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Groove, and SharePoint Designer. Those who would evade the clients of the Office Kingdom, utilize our Web-based technology to fill out InfoPath forms on Web sites hosted within the famed and cavernous Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. With the upcoming renaissance number XIV of the Office Kingdom a great many changes have been set afoot to satisfy humans and giants alike.

The Oracles
Our oracles tell us that in future times our craftsman will continue lowering the bar to entry for e-form design. We will move away from InfoPath’s early days as a tool wieldable only by developers and the strongest of Office users. We will target a broad base of Office citizenry including those who like the creature comforts available in the Babbage-like sheets of Excel and the Morton-like sites of SharePoint. We will integrate more tightly with those in the Office Kingdom, mixing ourselves completely into the bricks that bond to form the citadels of Office client and Office server. We will seek out new life and new civilizations… we will find the mythical creature known only as ‘Silverlight’. Its glow is rumored to be able to improve the visual look and feel of forms. It is said to be able to make them fly… or at least float.

Dost thou have what it takes?
-- I am skilled in user experience design and have proven experience working in the design field. Please bring or send us a portfolio of your work.
-- I like enterprise software, it’s not all about games and music for me…
-- I have passion to spare, I was born to drive the value of a great user experience across a team.
-- I like working in a team environment, my peers describe me as a “people person”.
-- I have an educational background that would lead me to succeed at Microsoft in the Program Management role such as a BS or MS degree in Computer Science or a related field, or a minimum of 3 years industry experience.

(Note: Despite the flavor of this job posting, no experience in Renaissance Fairs, Dungeons and Dragons, or Old British Reenactments is expected or required. You don’t even need to have enjoyed Harry Potter. Just knock our socks off and you're in!)

http://members.microsoft.com/careers/search/results.aspx?FromCP=Y&JobCategoryCodeID=&JobLocationCodeID=&JobProductCodeID=10212&JobTitleCodeID=&Divisions=&TargetLevels=&Keywords=&JobCode=&ManagerAlias=&Interval=10

Are you ready to join the InfoPath dev or test team?

2008-09-03T19:30:00Z

Are you ready to take the next step, and make the move from writing tools that use InfoPath, to writing InfoPath itself? We currently have open positions in Development, and Test.

To search for positions on the InfoPath team, have a look at these positions on the Microsoft careers site: http://members.microsoft.com/careers/search/results.aspx?FromCP=Y&JobCategoryCodeID=&JobLocationCodeID=&JobProductCodeID=10212&JobTitleCodeID=&Divisions=&TargetLevels=&Keywords=&JobCode=&ManagerAlias=&Interval=10

Software Development Engineer

InfoPath is an integral part of Microsoft Office and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (one of the fastest growing businesses at Microsoft). We are a team that is tasked with delivering some incredibly powerful scenarios that will greatly enhance the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server brand. Do you want to be part of a team that will deliver to our customers some incredibly rich forms and views using the latest AJAX/web-service technology? If the answer to these questions is yes and you have the qualifications noted below, we want to talk to you.

Qualifications:

You must have a proven track record of shipping software through at least one product cycle while dealing with challenges such as cross-team dependencies and a constantly evolving ecosystem. You must also be able to extend your impact by working with other team members to instill strong design principles.

You must also have solid fundamental computer science skills and have a passion for cutting-edge software development. Proficiency in C++, C# and JavaScript are required. Experience with AJAX, Dynamic HTML, and web services are big pluses. A Good understanding of basic algorithms and data structures, effective communication and cross-group skills are essential. A BS/MS in Computer Science or Engineering, or equivalent, and 1 to 5 years of software development experience are required.

Software Development Engineer in Test

Are you passionate about XML and related technologies? Do you want to help millions of users migrate from paper forms to electronic forms?
Started in Office 2003, InfoPath provided the ability to easily design and fill out electronic forms. InfoPath enables information workers to hook up their forms to various XML data providers like databases, SharePoint Team Services, and web services. In our latest version, we expanded our product to integrate with other Office 2007 applications, such as Word, Excel, and Outlook. This is just the start for InfoPath and you can be part of the force to change how people fill out forms in the future!
In the next release of InfoPath, we are committed to improve the user experience. We will add many new feature sets and move to a new rendering framework. We’re looking for a strong SDET who is passionate about shipping highest quality product and has shipping experience in at least 1 complete product cycle. Ideal candidate would be technical, self-motivated, and customer focused. You can work directly with developers and program managers under minimal supervision. You have excellent communication skills and able to work with test counterparts across Office. The job involves owning and testing features end-to-end, providing feedbacks to product design, creating test design spec and test cases, writing automation, analyzing and troubleshooting manual and automated test cases.
The position requires a Bachelors degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience. Familiarity with XML, .NET technologies, C#, C/C++, VBscript/Jscript is a plus.

Consuming Excel Data using InfoPath Database Data Connections

2008-08-22T23:13:00Z

InfoPath data connections can be one of the most powerful features of the product. However, sometimes the out-of-box support for various data sources just doesn't seem to cut it when you get out into the field. How in the world can I get data from an Excel spreadsheet into my InfoPath form? A typical response might include externally automating Excel via COM or the managed PIA to create InfoPath forms. Or you might try using the Excel 2003 XML spreadsheet file format with the InfoPath XML data connection. While both solutions are feasible, they can be a bit clunky to manage multiple files generated from your spreadsheet…

Here is your question answered! Access 2007 provides support for linked tables, virtual tables that pull data from a data source external to an Access database. Since InfoPath has a built-in database data connection that can query data directly from an Access database, Access 2007 can effectively act as a router for data sources that aren't directly supported by InfoPath. In this post, we'll step through setting up an InfoPath database data connection that queries data from an Excel spreadsheet.

Prepare your Excel spreadsheet
Once you've added all the necessary data to your Excel spreadsheet, save the Excel workbook to a shared network location that will be accessible to all users filling out your InfoPath form.

Create the Access database to link the Excel data
Launch Access 2007 and create a new blank database. When you create a blank database, a default table will be created. Go ahead and delete the table (just closing the query view should remove the table.)
Switch to the "External Data" tab in the Ribbon

Click the "Excel" icon in the "Import" chunk to launch the "Get External Data - Excel Spreadsheet" wizard.
Browse to the Excel workbook that you saved in the "Prepare your Excel spreadsheet" section, above.
Select "Link to the data source by creating a linked table" and then click "OK".

Choose the Sheet or Named Range that you want to import, then click "Next >". If the first row of the spreadsheet contains column headers, check the "First Row Contains Column Headings", then click "Next >".

Type a name for the linked table (I'll call it "Spreadsheet" for this post), then click "Finish".
Click "OK" when Access tells you it's done linking the table. When the dialogs close, you'll see the linked table listed in the "All Tables" task pane

Save the Access database to the same directory where the Excel file was saved, then close Access.

Design the InfoPath Form Template to Query the Linked Table
Design an InfoPath Form Template based on a "Database" (you could also add the data connection as a secondary database data connection in an existing form template).

Once you've clicked "OK", the "Data Connection Wizard" will open. Click "Select Database…" to open the "Select Data Source" file browser dialog.

Click "New Source…"

NOTE: At this point, it's tempting to just browse to the Access database as you normally would. However, the default provider used in that case does not support linked tables, so InfoPath will see no tables in the database. In order to select the appropriate provider, you have to click "New Source…"

Select "ODBC DSN", then click "Next >".
Select "MS Access database", then click "Next >".

Browse to the Access database that you created in the "Create the Access database to link the Excel data", above, then click "OK".

NOTE: This browse dialog can be a bit confusing. If you get mixed up by the unusual browsing experience, you can just type or paste the full path to the database in the "Database Name" field (boxed in green in the screenshot below).

Select the name of the linked table, then click "Next >"
Finish the data connection wizard as you would for any other database data connection.

At this point, you're good to go. The data connection to your Excel data will behave the same as a query-only Access database data connection.

- Forrest Dillaway, InfoPath Test

New InfoPath articles on Office Online

2008-07-31T06:35:00Z

The following new article and video demos are now available on the InfoPath Home Page on Microsoft Office Online:

Get started: Create a meeting note system with InfoPath and SharePoint-shows you how to use a sample form template included with InfoPath and a SharePoint document library to create a meeting note system.

Demo: Store InfoPath forms in a document library on a SharePoint site-watch how you can publish a sample form template to a new document library.

Demo: Populate a drop-down list box from a SharePoint list—watch how you can put that SharePoint list into a list box control on an InfoPath form template.

At the end of each article, you can let me know if you like or hate these articles by answering the question, Was this information helpful?, and then entering your comments and suggestions in the box. I read your comments every month and either write new or modify existing articles based on your comments.

Thank you for using InfoPath!

Arsenio Locsin

InfoPath Technical Writer

Designing browser-enabled forms for performance in InfoPath Forms Services (Part 6)

2008-06-30T20:46:00Z

Part 6 – Addendum: Links to related performance resources

Welcome to the sixth article in our series about designing InfoPath browser-enabled forms for better performance and scalability. In our previous articles we defined performance in terms of responsiveness, listed a number of conditions that cause postbacks, and looked at some of conditions that make postbacks more expensive, reducing the responsiveness and scalability of a form system. We also described some of the issues that affect form-rendering performance in the browser and suggested using the Design Checker to monitor browser compatibility issues while designing a form template in the InfoPath Designer. Finally, we listed some useful performance monitoring counters available in PerfMon.

In this addendum, we list a variety of links to additional resources you might want investigate if you are interested learning more about designing forms with InfoPath 2007. In keeping with our theme, the emphasis is on performance, but you will also find other related resources that you can use to broaden your understanding of the online forms environment. Since InfoPath is built on SharePoint technologies, the following resources provide information not only on InfoPath Forms Services and browser-enabled forms, but also SharePoint, ASP.NET, and SQL Server. In addition, we’ve included some general resources on monitoring and testing, and thrown in a few good blogs as well.

Hope you’ve found this series helpful in demystifying InfoPath browser-enabled forms performance. Be sure to let the InfoPath team know if you have comments or questions about your own forms requirements by adding comments here or on the InfoPath newsgroup listed below!

Thanks,

Brad Valantine
Technical Writer

InfoPath

Improving the Performance of InfoPath 2007 Forms
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb380251.aspx
A whitepaper about performance and the InfoPath rich client. Because of differences between the client and browser-enabled forms, not everything applies to Forms Services and browser forms, but a must read nonetheless.

InfoPath Forms Services best practices
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc261832(TechNet.10).aspx

Microsoft Office Forms Server TechNet TechCenter
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/bb267350.aspx

InfoPath Forms Services roadmap
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262885.aspx

InfoPath 2007 features that are unavailable in InfoPath Forms Services
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/infopath/HA102105871033.aspx

Forms Server 2007 Home Page
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/formsserver/FX100490391033.aspx

InfoPath 2007 Home Page
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/infopath/FX100487661033.aspx

Planning and architecture for Office Forms Server 2007
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc303371(TechNet.10).aspx

Plan InfoPath Forms Services
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262498(TechNet.10).aspx

Office Developer Center: InfoPath 2007 Resource Center
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/aa905443.aspx

InfoPath Forms Services Architecture
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms772323.aspx

Form Development and Deployment Lifecycle
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms772031.aspx

Creating InfoPath Form Templates That Work With Forms Services
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/aa945450(VS.80).aspx

Support: Microsoft Help and Support: Forms Server 2007 Solution Center
http://support.microsoft.com/ph/11846

SharePoint

Plan for performance and capacity (Office SharePoint Server)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262971(TechNet.10).aspx

Plan for performance and capacity (Windows SharePoint Services)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288124(TechNet.10).aspx

White paper: Intel Performance Testing of Windows SharePoint Services (WP)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288383(TechNet.10).aspx

How to Optimize a SharePoint Server 2007 Web Content Management Site for Performance
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727371.aspx

White paper: Planning and Monitoring SQL Server Storage for Windows SharePoint Services: Performance Recommendations and Best Practices
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc287996(TechNet.10).aspx

ASP.NET

ASP.NET Performance
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/44e5wy6k.aspx

ASP.NET Session State Overview
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms178581.aspx

Developing High-Performance ASP.NET Applications
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/5dws599a.aspx

Monitoring ASP.NET Application Performance
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/3xxk09t8.aspx

SQL Server

Performance (Database Engine)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb510669(SQL.100).aspx

Monitoring (Database Engine)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb510705(SQL.100).aspx

Monitoring and Testing

Life-Cycle Performance Testing for Eliminating Last-Minute Surprises
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb905531.aspx

Server Performance and Scalability Killers
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms951773.aspx

Performance Counters in the .NET Framework
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/w8f5kw2e.aspx

Books

Designing Forms for Microsoft Office InfoPath and Forms Services 2007 (Microsoft .NET Development Series)
By Scott Roberts and Hagen Green
Publisher: Addison-Wesley (c. 2007)
ISBN 0321410599
http://www.informit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0321410599

A couple of great online books from the folks in Patterns and Practices:
Improving .NET Application Performance and Scalability
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms998530.aspx

Performance Testing Guidance for Web Applications
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb924375.aspx

Blogs and Newsgroups

Pashman's InfoPath Goldmine: Tips and Tricks for Tuning Forms Services Performance
http://blogs.msdn.com/timpash/archive/2007/08/02/tips-and-tricks-for-tuning-forms-services-performance.aspx

Performance Research, Part 1: What the 80/20 Rule Tells Us about Reducing HTTP Requests
http://yuiblog.com/blog/2006/11/28/performance-research-part-1/
The first article in a series about research done by Yahoo into web page performance optimization.

Agile Testing: Performance vs. load vs. stress testing
http://agiletesting.blogspot.com/2005/02/performance-vs-load-vs-stress-testing.html

Ben Curry: Using Performance Monitor (perfmon.exe) to Monitor SharePoint Server 2007
http://mindsharpblogs.com/ben/archive/2007/02/14/1569.aspx

Ben Curry: SharePoint Server 2007 Performance Counters
http://mindsharpblogs.com/ben/archive/2008/05/07/4806.aspx

Thom Robbins .NET Weblog: InfoPath Tips and Tricks
http://blogs.msdn.com/trobbins/archive/tags/InfoPath+Tips+and+Tricks/default.aspx

Joel Oleson's Blog - SharePoint Land:
Performance & Scale
http://blogs.msdn.com/joelo/archive/tags/Performance+_2600_amp_3B00_+Scale/default.aspx

Good List of Performance Counters
http://blogs.msdn.com/joelo/archive/2007/01/16/good-list-of-performance-counters.aspx

S.Y.M. Wong-A-Ton: Enterprise Solutions
http://enterprise-solutions.swits.net/

Paul Vick - Panopticon Central: The Ten Rules of Performance
http://www.panopticoncentral.net/archive/2004/02/10/270.aspx

Technorati - infopath Blogs, Photos, Videos and more on Technorati
http://technorati.com/tag/InfoPath

Discussions in Infopath General Questions
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx?dg=microsoft.public.infopath&lang=en&cr=US
Use this newsgroup to communicate with the InfoPath community.

MSDN Forums: SharePoint - InfoPath Forms Services
http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=1206&SiteID=1
This forum is another place you can ask questions about Forms Services.