InfoPath
The design interface of InfoPath is
very straightforward
A user who wishes to design a
form from scratch simply needs to start with a layout table
·
Then use table structures within the form to establish the look and
feel
of their form.
· From there, it’s simply a matter of dragging and dropping the various control structures.
·
Then the controls needed
to establish the data characteristics of the form itself.
·
These simple actions alone can produce a form that can create arbitrary XML or publish to a number of
XML-based servers.
One of the major benefits
of InfoPath is
that
it is wholly
XML-centric. The form design is based on XML schemas (XSD). Form designers have a choice of either designing a form from scratch or building
a form based on a preexisting schema. A blank InfoPath form with an attached schema is shown below
InfoPath views are based on XSL transforms (XSLT). Form developers can build various views of their data, and those views are rendered by XSLT automatically generated by InfoPath. Some examples of the uses for views include the following:
• A personnel review in which the manager’s comments aren’t visible to the employee being reviewed.
• A routed approval form in which previous approvals are read-only for subsequent approvers.
• A multipurpose form (like those at DMV offices) where certain fields are shown to the user based on the form’s purpose.
• A user-friendly data entry interface as well as a formal printed view.
Below figure show two views of an asset tracking
form: one summary view and one that shows the details of the asset.
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