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Creating InfoPath Form Templates That Work With Forms Services

Browser-compatible forms deployed to Microsoft Office Forms Server 2007 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 with InfoPath Forms Services support features and controls that cover the majority of InfoPath form usage scenarios. However, browser-compatible forms delivered by InfoPath Forms Services do not support all InfoPath features. Some features and controls are not implemented on the server. Other features do not have a meaningful representation on the server.

The sections that follow specify which features are supported in browser-compatible forms, which features cannot be used in browser-compatible forms, and which features can be specified for browser-compatible forms, but will not function in a Web browser.

Features Supported by Both InfoPath and InfoPath Forms Services

The following sections list the features that are supported by browser-compatible form templates deployed to InfoPath Forms Services that can open in both InfoPath and the browser.

Controls

The following controls are supported in form templates that can be opened both InfoPath and the browser.

  • Text Box

  • Rich Text Box (only editable in Microsoft Internet Explorer)

  • Drop-Down List Box

  • List Box

  • Date Picker (Rendered as a text box on browsers other than Internet Explorer)

  • Check Box

  • Option Button

  • Button

  • Section

  • Optional Section

  • Repeating Section

  • Repeating Table

  • File Attachment

  • Hyperlink

  • Expression Box

Declarative Features

Other declarative features that work in both InfoPath and the browser:

  • Rules

  • Calculations

  • Validation

Note

Simple rules, calculations, and data validation are enabled and run in the browser using JScript. Complex rules, calculations, and data validation require a postback to perform these operations on the server.

Business logic code must be based on the InfoPath managed code object model provided by the Microsoft.Office.InfoPath namespace. Business logic code running on the server is subject to the following restrictions:

  • Because each server request may be handled by a different front end and because InfoPath Forms Services will load only one instance of the business logic, programmers cannot rely on data stored in global or static variables. To accommodate this, business logic must store state into a property bag, access to which is provided by the FormState property.

  • A subset of the members of the Microsoft.Office.InfoPath namespace provide features, such as Information Rights Management (IRM), that are not supported on the server. For more information on which object model members are and are not supported, see the "Object Model Members that Work in InfoPath and InfoPath Forms Services" and "Object Model Members that Work Only in InfoPath" sections later in this topic.

  • Business logic written in VBScript, JScript, and the InfoPath 2003-compatible object model provided by members of the Microsoft.Office.Interop.InfoPath.SemiTrust namespace is not supported on the server.

Features Not Supported by InfoPath Forms Services

The following sections list the features that are not supported by browser-compatible form templates deployed to InfoPath Forms Services that can open in both InfoPath and the browser.

When using the Design Checker feature in InfoPath design mode to confirm compatibility with InfoPath Forms Services, features that are not supported will produce either errors or messages. Features that produce errors will prevent the form template from being published as a browser-enabled form. Features that produce messages are allowed, but that particular feature will not run when the form is opened in a browser.

Controls

The following controls and control features are not supported in form templates that can be opened both InfoPath and the browser.

  • Filters on repeating controls

  • Master/Detail

  • Vertical Label

  • Horizontal Repeating Table

  • Combo Box

  • Multiple-Select List Box

  • Picture

  • Ink Picture

  • Plain List

  • Bulleted List

  • Choice Section

  • Choice Group

  • Repeating Choice Group

  • Repeating Recursive Section

Other Features That are Not Supported or Not Fully Supported by InfoPath Forms Services

Other features that are not supported on InfoPath Forms Services:

  • ActiveX Controls

  • HTML Taskpanes

  • Placeholder text in controls. For example, "Click here to enter text" (no text is shown in the browser)

  • Database data connections are limited to read-only access to SQL server databases

  • User roles

  • Digital signature extensibility through the object model. Digitally signing on the server is supported through an ActiveX control which runs only in Microsoft Internet Explorer.

  • Human Workflow Services (HWS) integration. HWS has been deprecated by BizTalk server

  • XML Schema error message overrides. This is a rarely used feature which allows the form designer to provide a different message than the one provided by MSXML or System.Xml when a document doesn't validate (generally because of a type mismatch). This feature is not supported in the designer user interface and requires hand editing of the form definition (.xsf) file.

Features with No Direct Parallel on the InfoPath Forms Services

Other features that are not supported on InfoPath Forms Services:

  • Pop-up dialogs during modeless validation

  • Outlook Integration

  • COM Add-Ins

  • Merge Forms

  • Auto-Save, Crash Detection and Recovery

  • Mail Envelope

  • Export to Excel

  • Tablet / Ink Features including Ink Picture control

  • Undo / Redo

  • Information Rights Management (IRM)

  • Modal dialogs from business logic

  • XSLT extensibility (xd:preserve blocks)

  • External automation

  • Offline query caching

  • Spell-checking

  • Restricted security mode

Note

These features do not produce any error or message notifications when using the Design Checker feature in InfoPath design mode.

Object Model Members that Work in Both InfoPath and InfoPath Forms Services

InfoPath provides a new managed-code object model with a core set of functionality for creating custom business logic in form templates. When deployed to Microsoft Office Forms Server 2007 or to Office SharePoint Server 2007 with InfoPath Forms Services, business logic created using this new object model will run in both a Web browser and in InfoPath. Optionally, you can write business logic that uses an additional level of functionality available from this object model that will run only in form templates opened for editing in Office InfoPath 2007.

To write business logic that will run when a form is opened in both a Web browser and in InfoPath, select the Enable browser-compatible features only check box on the Design a Form Template dialog box when creating a new form template. To write business logic that can use additional functionality only when opened in InfoPath, clear the Enable browser-compatible features only check box when creating a new form template. You can also change this setting after creating a form template, by clicking Change Compatibility Settings on the Design Checker task pane, and then selecting or clearing the Design a form template that can be opened in a browser or InfoPath check box. If you choose to create a browser-compatible form template, the compiler will display an error if you have used any classes or members that are not compatible with InfoPath Forms Services.

Note

After publishing a browser-enabled form template that contains managed code to Microsoft Office Forms Server 2007, to Office SharePoint Server 2007 with InfoPath Forms Services, or to a shared location, the form template must be uploaded and approved by a server administrator before it will be allowed to run.

The following classes and members of the InfoPath managed code object model provided by the Microsoft.Office.InfoPath namespace are supported in both InfoPath and InfoPath Forms Services.

Parent Class Members

AdoQueryConnection

BuildSqlFromXmlNodes

Command

Connection

Timeout

BuildSqlFromXmlNodes

Command

Connection

Timeout

Application

Environment

Name

User

ButtonEvent

Clicked

ClickedEventArgs

ControlId

Source

ControlEvents

Item

DataConnection

Execute

Name

DataConnectionCollection

Count

GetEnumerator

Item

Item

DataSource

CreateNavigator

GetNamedNodeProperty

Name

QueryConnection

ReadOnly

SetNamedNodeProperty

DataSourceCollection

Count

GetEnumerator

Item

Item

EmailAttachmentType

None

Xml

XmlXsn

EmailSubmitConnection

AttachmentFileName

Bcc

CC

EmailAttachmentType

Execute

Introduction

Subject

To

Environment

IsBrowser

IsMobile

EventManager

ControlEvents

FormEvents

XmlEvents

FileQueryConnection

Execute

FileLocation

FileSubmitConnection

Execute

Filename

FolderUrl

FormError

DetailedMessage

FormErrorType

Message

Name

Site

FormErrorCollection

Add

Add

Count

Delete

Delete

DeleteAll

GetEnumerator

GetErrors

GetErrors

Item

FormErrorType

SchemaValidation

SystemGenerated

UserDefined

FormEvents

Loading

Submit

VersionUpgrade

ViewSwitched

FormTemplate

Manifest

OpenFileFromPackage

Uri

Version

LoadingEventArgs

CancelableArgs

InputParameters

SetDefaultView

SetDefaultView

SharepointListQueryConnection

Execute

QueryThisFormOnly

SiteUrl

SubmitEventArgs

CancelableArgs

User

LoginName

UserName

VersionUpgradeEventArgs

CancelableArgs

DocumentVersion

FormTemplateVersion

View

ViewInfo

ViewInfo

Caption

Name

ViewInfoCollection

Count

Default

GetEnumerator

Initial

Item

Item

SwitchView

SwitchView

WebServiceConnection

Execute

GenerateDataSetDiffGram

ServiceUrl

SoapAction

Timeout

WsdlUrl

XmlEvent

Changed

RaiseUndoRedoForChanged

Validating

XmlEventArgs

Match

NewValue

OldParent

OldValue

Operation

Site

UndoRedo

XmlEvents

Item

Item

XmlForm

CurrentView

DataConnections

DataSources

Errors

FormState

MainDataSource

NamespaceManager

New

NotifyHost

QueryDataConnection

ReadOnly

Signed

Submit

Template

Uri

ViewInfos

XmlLang

XmlFormCancelEventArgs

Message

MessageDetails

XmlOperation

Delete

Insert

None

ValueChange

XmlValidatingEventArgs

ReportError

ReportError

ReportError

XPathTypedValue

Evaluate

SetStringValue

ToString

XPath

Object Model Members that Work Only in InfoPath

The following classes and members of the InfoPath managed code object model provided by the Microsoft.Office.InfoPath namespace are supported only in Office InfoPath 2007.

Note

These object model members can be used in the code of a browser-enabled form template, if you write conditional logic that determines whether the form is opened in the browser or Office InfoPath 2007 . For more information, see How to: Write Conditional Logic That Determines the Run-time Environment.

Parent Class Members

ActionType

Copy

Cut

Delete

Paste

XCollectionInsert

XCollectionInsertAfter

XCollectionInsertBefore

XCollectionRefreshFilter

XCollectionRemove

XCollectionRemoveAll

XFileAttachmentAttach

XFileAttachmentOpen

XFileAttachmentRemove

XFileAttachmentSaveAs

XOptionalInsert

XOptionalRemove

XReplaceReplace

Application

ActiveWindow

CacheFormTemplate

ComAddIns

GetFormTemplateLocation

IsDestinationReachable

LanguageSettings

MachineOnlineState

Quit

Quit

RegisterFormTemplate

RegisterFormTemplate

UnregisterFormTemplate

UsableHeight

UsableWidth

Version

Windows

XmlForms

Certificate

ExpirationDate

IssuedBy

IssuedTo

Status

CertificateStatus

Error

Expired

NotTrusted

Revoked

Valid

ContextChangedEventArgs

ChangeType

Context

UndoRedo

ErrorMode

Modal

Modeless

ExportFormat

Mht

Pdf

Xps

FormError

ErrorCode

FormErrorCollection

Add

Add

FormEvents

ContextChanged

Merge

Save

Sign

FormTemplate

CacheId

HtmlTaskPane

HtmlDocument

HtmlWindow

Navigate

MachineState

IEInOfflineState

Offline

Online

MailEnvelope

Available

Bcc

CC

EmailAttachmentType

Introduction

Subject

To

Visible

MergeEventArgs

CancelableArgs

Count

Index

Rollback

Xml

Permission

ApplyPolicy

DocumentAuthor

Enabled

PermissionFromPolicy

PolicyDescription

PolicyName

RequestPermissionUrl

StoreLicenses

UserPermissions

PermissionType

Change

Edit

Extract

FullControl

ObjectModel

Print

Read

Save

View

SaveEventArgs

CancelableArgs

CloseIfSaveCancelled

Filename

IsSaveAs

PerformSaveOperation

Signature

Certificate

Comment

Sign

SignatureBlockXmlNode

Status

SignatureCollection

Count

CreateSignature

GetEnumerator

Item

SignatureRelation

Cosign

CounterSign

Single

SignatureStatus

Error

Invalid

Unsupported

Valid

SignedDataBlock

Caption

Name

Sign

SignatureContainer

SignatureRelation

Signatures

XPath

SignedDataBlockCollection

Count

GetEnumerator

Item

ShowSignatureDialog

SignEventArgs

SignatureWizard

SignedDataBlock

TaskPane

TaskPaneType

Visible

TaskPaneCollection

Count

GetEnumerator

Item

Item

TaskPaneType

BulletsNumbering

ClipArt

Find

Formatting

Html

ParagraphFormatting

Replace

Spelling

User

IsUserMemberOf

UserPermission

ExpirationDate

Permission

Remove

UserId

UserPermissionCollection

Add

Add

Add

Add

Count

GetEnumerator

Item

Item

Remove

RemoveAll

View

DisableAutoUpdate

EnableAutoUpdate

ExecuteAction

ExecuteAction

Export

ForceUpdate

GetContextNodes

GetContextNodes

GetSelectedNodes

SelectNodes

SelectNodes

SelectNodes

SelectText

SelectText

ShowMailItem

Window

ViewInfo

HideName

Window

Activate

Active

Caption

Close

Close

CommandBars

Height

Left

MailEnvelope

TaskPanes

Top

Width

WindowState

WindowType

XmlForm

WindowCollection

Count

GetEnumerator

Item

WindowState

Maximized

Minimized

Normal

WindowType

Designer

Editor

XmlChangingEventArgs

CancelableArgs

XmlEvent

Changing

XmlForm

Close

Dirty

Extension

GetWorkflowTasks

GetWorkflowTemplates

Host

Hosted

HostName

MergeForm

MergeForm

Permission

Print

Print

Recovered

Save

SaveAs

SetSaveAsDialogFilename

SetSaveAsDialogLocation

SignedDataBlocks

TaskPanes

UserRole

XmlFormCollection

Count

XmlFormCollection

GetEnumerator

Item

New

New

NewFromFormTemplate

NewFromFormTemplate

NewFromFormTemplate

NewFromFormTemplate

Open

Open

XmlFormOpenMode

XmlFormOpenMode.Default

XmlFormOpenMode.FailOnVersionMismatch

XmlFormOpenMode.FailOnVersionOlder

XmlFormOpenMode.IgnoreDataConnectionsFailure

XmlFormOpenMode.PromptIfSigned

XmlFormOpenMode.ReadOnly

XmlFormOpenMode.TransformEvenIfSigned

XmlFormOpenMode.UseExistingVersion

XmlFormOpenMode.UseFileConverter

XmlValidatingEventArgs

ReportError