Apr 29
Asif RehmaniInfoPath, SharePoint, SharePoint Designer InfoPath 2010, SharePoint 2010, SharePoint Designer, SharePoint Videos
Do you learn best by watching examples/demonstrations? Do you want the ability to be able to watch the videos anywhere you are regardless of presence of an internet connection? If the answers to these are yes and yes then you might find that our DVD-ROM based video tutorials are just what you need! We are dedicating this newsletter to highlight our top DVDs and provide you with some more information on what you should expect to find inside of each video tutorial package.
SharePoint 2010 Business Connectivity Services
Business Connectivity Services (BCS) is one of the Most powerful features in SharePoint 2010. You can use BCS to easily integrate data from your external systems into your SharePoint environment. The videos in this tutorial show you how to take advantage of this functionality in your SharePoint environment. Create lists in SharePoint which show your line of business application data (such as from custom databases, SAP, PeopleSoft and more) or show that information using pre-built BCS web parts. You will also learn about how to make BCS associations to relate two different connections. All of this and a whole lot more is all taught in this video tutorial package.
Reporting Services using SharePoint 2010
The introduction of Reporting Services 2008 R2, using the SharePoint 2010 add-in with the free Report Builder 3.0 authoring tool, provides an excellent way to create powerful reports for your business needs. These video tutorials show you how to take advantage of Report Builder’s design concepts to create reusable datasets and report parts from multiple sources. Also, easily create visualizations of your data such as sparklines, databars, charts, indicators and more. The end result is transformation of live data from multiple sources into powerful and meaningful reports inserted right within your SharePoint sites.
SharePoint 2010 Fundamentals
If you need to start out with the basics of SharePoint, this is the video tutorial to pick up. However, even if you are an intermediate SharePoint user already, you are guaranteed to pick up other tricks and tips along the way. It covers topics such as customizing sites, navigation, document management, list management and more.
SharePoint Designer 2010 Fundamentals
Once you have mastered the fundamentals of SharePoint 2010, it’s time to dive into this video tutorial which will present you with all of the opportunities you have to create no-code customizations and solutions on top of SharePoint using SharePoint Designer 2010 (a free product). SharePoint Designer lets you create views of your data (fetched from lists, libraries, databases, web services and more) directly on any page within your site. In addition, you can automate processes using workflows, customize site metadata, security, list/library schema and a whole lot more.
SharePoint Designer 2010 Workflows
Ready to dive deeper into all that SharePoint Designer 2010 Workflow capability has to offer? Pick up this DVD for demonstrations of various opportunities you have to produce workflows in SharePoint Designer. Learn how to create list based, reusable or site workflows and what the difference is between the three. Also, you will see how to package these workflows and transport them from one site collection to another when needed.
InfoPath 2010 Fundamentals
InfoPath is ‘the recommended tool’ to create and modify forms in SharePoint. Learn how to create form library, list and workflow forms using InfoPath designer. Already have forms created using Microsoft Word or Excel? The videos in this DVD will guide you on how to migrate those forms into InfoPath. You will also see how easy it is to fetch information from your data repositories like lists, libraries and even databases into your InfoPath forms to present to your users.
Check out our complete collection of video tutorials on DVDs. Have an idea on a subject area we should consider for our next batch of DVDs? Just comments on this post or fill out our contact form to let us know and we’ll definitely consider it!
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Nov 15
Asif RehmaniInfoPath, SharePoint Designer Books
Our Real World SharePoint 2010 book is finally available now. One chapter each from 22 MVPs. That’s a lot of ‘expert’ content and hopefully will be beneficial for folks looking to get deep into SharePoint 2010 (this book is also available on the Kindle).
The chapter that I wrote in the book focused on ‘Automating Business Processes using InfoPath 2010 and SharePoint Designer 2010’. Wrox publishing has decided to make this chapter available to download for free here. Enjoy!
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Jun 29
Asif RehmaniInfoPath InfoPath 2010
I have been asked enough times now about the licensing requirements of SharePoint to be able to show InfoPath forms in the browser that I’m finally putting together this blog entry about it 
. With InfoPath 2010, you can create SharePoint Form Library Forms, SharePoint List Forms and SharePoint Workflow Forms. Let me try to break down each of these briefly and talk about the licensing requirements.
SharePoint Form Library Forms
InfoPath’s ability to create form templates that can be posted to a form library in SharePoint dates back to to 2003 when InfoPath 2003 first came out. Once the form is published to that library, your users can click on the New Document link/button and that will open up the form. This form can only be opened in the browser if you have SharePoint Enterprise license. No exceptions here. If you don’t have enterprise licensing on your server then your users will require at least the InfoPath filler application (or InfoPath Designer application) on their machine to open up the form. If that’s not the case either, they will get an error saying that no compatible application can be found to open up the form (just like the error you would get if you didn’t have MS Word installed and you tried to open up a .doc document).
SharePoint List Forms
This functionality is new in 2010 products. SharePoint lists (such as Tasks, Announcements, Links etc.) come out of the box with ASP.NET forms that let you take actions on the list (viewing a list item, editing an item, creating a new item). You can see these forms in the browser or through SharePoint Designer 2010. If your SharePoint server has SharePoint Enterprise license, you can modify these out of the box forms or create new forms (recommended) using InfoPath 2010. If you don’t have enterprise licensing, you can still customize or create new list forms without code. However, you will need to use SharePoint Designer 2010 to do that and the resulting forms will be ASP.NET forms as well.
SharePoint Workflow Forms
This functionality is also new in 2010 products. When you create a workflow using SharePoint Designer 2010, it creates forms that users interact with as needed (for example task forms, initiation forms, association forms, forms to collect data from users etc.). If your SharePoint server has SharePoint Enterprise or Standard license applied to it, you can use InfoPath 2010 to modify these forms. If you are instead running SharePoint Foundation, you can still modify these forms, but that would have to be done using SharePoint Designer 2010 and the forms will be ASP.NET forms.
I hope this breakdown eliminates some confusion. InfoPath 2010 is an Awesome product! If you have the proper licensing, I would definitely recommend using it!
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Jun 25
Asif RehmaniInfoPath DVD, InfoPath 2010
The InfoPath 2010 video tutorials DVD contains all of our video tutorials on InfoPath 2010. This DVD contains demonstrations showing you exactly how you can build form solutions using InfoPath 2010 by itself or on SharePoint 2010… without using any programming! Here are some of the topics you will learn by watching the videos on this DVD:
- Introduction to InfoPath 2010
- Convert Word and Excel forms to InfoPath
- Enhance forms using Validation and Formatting
- Fetch data from SharePoint Lists and Databases into your forms
- Publish form templates to form library
- Publish forms using content type
- Create SharePoint list forms using InfoPath
- and more…
Note: Just in case there is any confusion – this is a DVD to be played on a computer and not your DVD player.
You can use the following coupon code to get 10% off the price of the single user license DVD: SPVideos10.
The complete list of all videos and purchase information are available on the site: http://www.sharepoint-videos.com/products/
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Jun 17
Asif RehmaniInfoPath InfoPath 2010, Tricks and Tips
The Customize Form button in the List Settings page lets you customize the list form using InfoPath 2010 (if InfoPath 2010 is installed on your computer and you are running SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise). If this button is not working, your site is not trusted by your computer and that’s why it is not letting you open up the form in InfoPath. Check out the animated image below to see how you can add your site as a trusted site.
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Jun 03
Asif RehmaniInfoPath InfoPath 2010
The InfoPath 2010 Video page is now ready. We now have 13 videos already on the page and more to come in the future. Check it out here:
http://www.sharepoint-videos.com/infopath-2010/
Topics include the following:
- Introduction to InfoPath 2010
- Converting Microsoft Word documents to InfoPath 2010
- Enhance InfoPath 2010 form with Rules (Validation, Formatting and Action Logic)
- Use cascading drop-downs in InfoPath to display parent-child information
- Create a SharePoint List form using InfoPath
- Publish InfoPath form through a site Content Type
- Fetch data from Databases and SharePoint Lists into InfoPath form
- And more…
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Apr 07
Asif RehmaniInfoPath InfoPath
I have always been a big fan of InfoPath and all the possibilities that it offers. We already have a bunch of videos demonstrating some very cool functionality within InfoPath here: http://www.sharepoint-videos.com/infopath/. A ton more videos will be created in the future for InfoPath 2010 to show you all that it can do.
Aside from all that InfoPath can do, you can of course put code behind the forms to extend it a lot further. However, my recommendation to my clients and students has always been to look at all of the other possibilities first before jumping into code because once you do go that route, there is no turning back. Also, the management of code requires a developer and most times that means that it creates a bottleneck for fixing any current bugs and implementing new features. If the original form designer, hopefully the business analyst with the business knowledge, can take ownership of fixing the issues and extending the functionality as needed, the process is usually a whole lot smoother and faster.
To that end, I would like to introduce you to Qdabra qRules. Think of this as packaged features that you can just turn ON in your forms – plug and play! Qdabra qRules lets you use rules in place of code to quickly add common features to your InfoPath forms. qRules 2.1 (the most recent release) contains 25 of the most commonly requested functions accessible via rules—even things that aren’t available in InfoPath today like encrypting fields.
Functions in Qdabra qRules include:
- Password Protect – Hide sensitive data using client-side encryption
- Format Date – Format your dates from SharePoint or SQL and show just the year, month, or day
- Get Week Day – Get the date value for a day of the week and improve your forms’ usefulness. Use Get Week Day in an open rule to quickly calculate the date for a weekday and populate your form based on it
- Input Parameters View Switching – copy Input Parameters to your main data source on load and use to switch views (codeless!)
- Submit To SharePoint List – Submit your XML form to a SharePoint list—now browser compatible
- Copy Table – from secondary source of main data source
- Set Value – filter target value
- Generate GUID, Sort Table, Save To SharePoint, and more
Here is some additional information about qRules:
If you are an avid user and a fan of InfoPath, IMHO you would be doing a disservice to yourself and your company by not checking out this product since it can make your current processes much much easier!
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Feb 25
Asif RehmaniInfoPath, SharePoint Designer Data View, Single Sign On
If you have worked with the XSLT Data View web part before, you know how much power it has. You can point to virtually any repository of data (web services, databases, xml files, SharePoint lists and libraries etc) and bring it into SharePoint. The data gets retrieved as standard XML and you can modify it to look however you like using SharePoint Designer 2007 without having to do any coding whatsoever! Here is a snapshot of a Data View web part showing information from a database table.
When connecting to the database, there are a couple of options for authentication. The first one (and the one that’s shown in most of the demonstrations ) is by supplying it database credentials. Making the connection this way assures that only these credentials would be used by this web part… always! Meaning, no matter who is viewing this web part (reader, administrator or someone in the middle), they will all get the same experience. More often than not, this is not the user experience that organizations want. They want the user experience to be dependent on the user’s access level. For example, a sales person in the organization should be able to view the sales revenue data while an IT analyst should not. To make that happen, you need to configure the Single Sign On functionality which comes built into SharePoint Server. Single Sign On in SharePoint simply means that once the user logs on to their machine, SharePoint will take care of supplying their credentials to the backend applications or databases that the user needs access to. The image below shows how the Data View web part can utilize single sign on to access a database.
Want to see how the process works from end to end – configuring SSO and utilizing it in the Data View web part? Check out our free video of the week on Configuring Single Sign On. Enjoy!
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Apr 05
Asif RehmaniInfoPath InfoPath
While teaching the InfoPath/Workflow class last week, I had the need to restrict a textbox control in an InfoPath form to only contain emails. If an invalid email is inserted, it should throw a validation error. Out of the box, the patterns provided by InfoPath are very limited. It only provides patterns for Phone Number, SSN, and Zip code:
I thought surely somewhere out on the web I would find the pattern needed for this, but to my surprise, I couldn’t find “a working one” (doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist, but I just couldn’t find one after an extensive search). Here are the ones I did find and either they just didn’t work or were limiting in nature:
So I ended up creating a simple pattern myself:
.+@.+\..+
This might not catch All types of invalid emails, but it does catch quite a lot of them. Hope this post helps someone experiencing the same frustration as I did last week.
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