Lab 7: Restricting Permissions to InfoPath 2007 Forms and Form Templates

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Learn how to restrict permissions to a form and a form template by applying user rights. (3 printed pages)

February 2007

**Applies to:**Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007

Contents

  • Lab Objectives

  • Lab Setup and Requirements

  • Scenario

  • Exercises

  • Conclusion

  • Additional Resources

Lab Objectives

In this lab, you will learn how to perform the following tasks:

  • Restrict permissions to Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007 form templates.

  • Specify default permissions for newly created forms.

Lab Setup and Requirements

To complete this lab, you must have the following Microsoft Windows Rights Management Services (RMS) components:

  • Windows RMS for Windows Server 2003.

  • Windows Rights Management client software.

Scenario

Sales managers at Contoso have several sales representatives who report to them. A sales manager wants to create a status report by having each sales representative complete portions of the report. The report is confidential, and only certain employees are allowed access to the information.

Exercises

Restricting Permissions to Form Templates

Form developers can specify rights for forms during design time to help sales managers restrict access to status reports. Only users who have change permissions or full control over the template will be able to open it in design mode. By default, everyone has read permissions to the template, so anyone can create a new form from the template.

To restrict permissions to a form template

  1. Start Office InfoPath 2007.

  2. In the Getting Started dialog box, click Customize a sample.

  3. Click the Sample - Status Report form, and then click Design this form.

  4. On the Tools menu, click Design Checker.

  5. On the Design Checker task pane, click Change Compatibility Settings.

  6. In the Form Options dialog box, clear the Design a form template that can be opened in a browser or InfoPath check box, and then click OK.

  7. On the File menu, click Manage Credentials.

  8. In the Select User dialog box, select the account that will have full control over the form template, and then click OK.

  9. In the Permission dialog box, check the Restrict permission to this form template check box.

  10. To add users with permission to change the form template, click Add.

    Figure 1. Adding user permissions to the form template

    Add User Permissions to the Form Template

  11. In the Add Users dialog box as shown in Figure 1, type the accounts of those users who will have Change permissions or Full Control, and then click OK.

    NoteNote

    The user accounts you just added are listed under the Name column. Their access level is set to Change.

  12. Place the cursor above the access level of the user who you want to make a co-owner. Click the drop-down arrow, click Full control, and then click OK.

  13. On the File menu, click Save, and save the form template to your desktop.

Specifying Default Permissions for Newly Created Forms

In addition to restricting permissions to form templates, you can restrict permissions to forms created from the template. Note that everyone can create a form, and form authors always have full control over their forms.

To specify default permissions

  1. Open the form you created in the first exercise in InfoPath design mode.

  2. On the File menu, click Manage Credentials.

  3. In the Select User dialog box, select the account that you used in the first exercise, and then click OK.

  4. In the Permission dialog box, select the Restrict permission to forms based on this form template check box.

  5. Click Set permission.

  6. In the Permission dialog box, click Add.

  7. Type the accounts for users who will have permission to read or change forms created from this form template in the Add Users dialog box as shown in Figure 2, and then click OK.

    Figure 2. Adding user permissions to a form created from a form template

    Add User Permissions to a Form

    NoteNote

    Owner is a form author who creates a new form from this template. Owner always has full control, and Owner permissions cannot be changed.

  8. To give another user full control over the new form, place the cursor over the access level of that user, click the drop-down arrow, and select Full control.

  9. To give printing rights to users, select the Print content check box.

  10. Click OK.

  11. Save the changes you made to your form template.

When a user creates a form from this template, the forms are automatically created with restricted permissions. The rights applied to the new form are the same as the rights that you specified in the second exercise. You can test this behavior by double-clicking the template you saved on your desktop and exploring the permissions.

Form authors will see the Permission button in InfoPath just as it appears in design mode. When authors click Permission, they will see the default permissions of the form and can change the permissions. These can also be changed by using the links on the Form Permission task pane.

Conclusion

In this lab, you learned how to restrict permissions to form templates and forms, and how to specify default rights for newly created forms. In Lab 8: Using the InfoPath 2007 Object Model and Visual Studio Tools for Applications, you will learn how to use the Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Applications (VSTA) development environment to write managed-code business logic against the Office InfoPath 2007 object model.

Additional Resources

For more information about developing with InfoPath, see the following resources: