New Stuff to Check out

Just thought I would do a quick post here to inform you of a blog series I have been writing on www.endusersharepoint.com. John Ross and I have been writing about Excel Services and all the great things you can do with it. Here is the first post: http://www.endusersharepoint.com/?p=1451.

Another new thing to check out is The Ted Pattison Group, the company that all of my training is through, has changed their name to Critical Path Trainig. Check out the new website www.criticalpathtraining.com.

Thanks!

Active Directory and InfoPath

I frequently hear users in my classes and demos ask about connecting an InfoPath form with Active Directory. Check out this blog post on utiling and out of the box connection from MOSS to Active Directory to set it up. KWizCom does a great job walking a user through the process.

http://kwizcom.blogspot.com/2007/11/importing-data-from-ad-to-infopath-2007.html

Publishing an InfoPath Form

Once you have designed a browser enabled InfoPath 2007 form, there are a couple steps to take to publish and make it available for the rest of your team or company. The following are both steps you need to take and some suggest steps.

1. Run the design checker. Design Checker is located in the design tasks tool pane or under the Tools menu. If you have enabled browser compatibility from the beginning you should have no issues, however it is always a good idea to double check before hand.
   
2. (optional) Configure your submit options. The values I find here are:
   
   1. The ability to write a naming convention.
      
   2. being able to submit the form to a different library from where it was created
      
   3. being able to choose what happens after a user submits the form.
      

   Configuring the Submit to a document library:
   

   

   1. Tools àSubmit Options
      
   2. Check the box next to Allow users to submit this Form
      
   3. Under the radio button Send form data to a single destination select SharePoint Document Library
      
   4. Select the Add button
      
   5. On the data connection wizard:
      
      1. Grab the URL to the document (Form) library you would like to have the documents submitted to and place it in the document library field
         
   6. Write a formula for the naming of the forms by selecting the fx button
      

      Ex. Concat(Field 1, -, Field 2)
      

   7. Determine whether or not you would like to allow overwrite.
      
   8. Next
      
   9. Enter a name for the data connection
      
   10. Finish
       

   Determining what happens after the user submits the form:
   

   
   
   

• Select the Advanced button to expand the rest of the options.
  
• At the After the Submit option, you can choose from three options:
  
• Leave the Form open
  
• Close the Form- this works well to bring the user back into the SharePoint Navigation they are used to.
  
• Open a New blank form- works best if the user is going to need to fill out the form multiple times in a row.

1. Publishing the Form
   
   1. Save a local copy of the template to your PC.
      
   2. Fileà Publish
      
   3. Select to a SharePoint Server with or without InfoPath Form Services
      
   4. Next
      
   5. Enter the URL to the site the form library is on
      
   6. Next
      
   7. Make sure the box next to Enable this form to be filled out using the browser is checked and the radio button for Document library is selected.
      
   8. Next
      
   9. Select the Form/Document library you would like to connect the form to or select create a new document library.
      
      1. If you select create a new, the next screen will prompt you for a name.
         
   10. Next
       
   11. This next screen is asking you what fields from your InfoPath form you would like to become columns on the SharePoint Form/Document Library.
       

• Keep in mind if you plan on using a particular field for a workflow you will want to promote it to the library.
  

1. Next
   
2. Publish
   

1. Configuring the form to always display in the browser even if the user has InfoPath on their machine.
   
1. Navigate to the form library.
   
2. SettingsàForm Library settingsàAdvanced Settings
   
3. Midway down the page is Browser Enabled Documents, select Display as a Web page.
   

Enjoy!

A couple great resources

I know it has been awhile since my last post so I wanted to jump back in to blogging by passing along some great resources I frequent point people to.

There is a great document produced by Microsoft regarding planning and design/implementation. You can find it here. It is a downloadable version of the handout Joel Oleson was passing out at Tech Ed.

Check out this link, if you are looking for a good document covering the integration between MOSS and the different versions of MS Office

And lastly if you have not tried out the steps on the SharePoint Designer Team Blog for integrating Virtual Earth into the view on an item, you definitely need to. It is very easy to set up with a lot of wow factor. Very useful for getting a map view of customers, vendors, etc and really it is just plain cool to hook it up and look at the bird's eye view of different locations.

 

 

Keeping users from seeing documents other than their own in a Document Library

You are sitting here reading this for one of two reasons:

1. You are trying to figure out why in the world you would want to do this, isn't the point of SharePoint to Share information and documents?
   
2. You have come across this and a fix would be oh so sweet…
   

Well, if you are still wondering why one would want to do this let me give you a scenario: Expense Reports within a Form library (a form library is simply a document library to hold InfoPath forms). You currently have a form library where users go to fill out there expense reports and it has a beautiful workflow built in to go through the approval process. The problem is you would prefer users don't see everyone else's expense reports because they might just see someone else is spending more, getting a nicer hotel, etc etc. How do you stop this? In a list you can modify the settings to allow users to only see/edit their own, but in a document library you do not have this option. Well what if you turn on approvals and never approve any of the documents? When you have approval turned on in a document library a user can only see their own until the others are approved. I know not a perfect fix, but it gets you want you want. I have some other fixes for forms libraries in particular, but I will save them for another blogging dayJ

 

 

Creating a Workflow in SharePoint Designer

We have all heard you can create a Workflow in SharePoint designer, but how easy is it? I decided to tackle this challenge, because as you might think, I thought it would be much more involved than it actually was. So let's get started.

In our office we need a workflow for when new customer sites are created. If the customer needs access to the site then and only then does a task need to be assigned to IT to create that account. To set this up I have already set up a custom list in a team site with a custom choice column "Does the customer need access?" with the choices Yes or No. Note: you could use the Yes/No checkbox, but I prefer the choice because I think the checkbox can be confusing since it does spell out yes or no.

For this example we are going to create a workflow that is conditional on the choice in a column a user has selected.

1. Open the site in SharePoint Designer.
   
   1. If unfamiliar with how to do this:
      
      1. Click Fileà Open Siteàand paste the URL in the site name box
         
2. Next click Fileà Newà New workflow
   
3. Now give your workflow a title
   
4. Select the list you would like to attach the workflow to
   

   
   

   
   

5. Determine the start options and click Next.
   
6. Name the first step of the workflow.
   
7. Click on Conditions and select Compare *name of your list* field. Example mine says Compare Customer Site Request Field.
   
   1. Note here are your options for Conditions:
      

      
      

8. Now for field select the column name and the value you want the action tied to.
   

   Note: you can change equals to a different function.
   

9. Click Actions and select Assign a to-do item.
   
   1. Here are your options for Actions:
      

      
      

10. Click a to-do item and then click Next.
    
11. Name your task and provide a description. Click Finish.
    
12. Click these users and select the user and/or group you would like to assign the task to.
    
    1. Note you could also simply provide an email address.
       

       
       

       
       

13. Click Finish.
    
14. This is what the email will look like to the user:
    

    
    

    
    

And that's it, not that daunting after all. It probably only took you 5 minutes. There are plenty more options for you to play with. Next time we will do multiple conditions and multiple steps to get a bit meatier. Congrats and have fun.

Nicola - SharePoint Help

Another SharePoint Blog is born….

Hi, everyone. Get excited because Nicola Young is here with a new SharePoint blog. Over the next few months I will be focusing my blogging on SharePoint Designer and the Information Worker. I will try to be a dedicated blogger, but if I get to slacking feel free to let me know. (It will keep me motivated)

I guess a little bit about me will be a good start. My husband is the one and only SharePoint Farmer, Shane Young. I have been working with SharePoint exclusively for over a year now. I am an owner/consultant for SharePoint911 and a trainer for SharePoint Solutions. Many of you may have met me at any of the previous SharePoint Conferences, i.e Advisor, SharePoint Connections, Tech Ed, and SharePoint Solutions Information Worker Conference, as I am always around the SharePoint Solutions Booth.

With that said, stop by the SharePoint Solutions booth at SharePoint Connections and say Hello. And of course, check back here for more posts.

 

Nicola Young – SharePoint Help