How do you e-mail a complete form not just the data

[Guest]

I want to create a web-based form or page that consists of a series of
formatted questions and answers. The form will resemble an existing paper
form. When the form is filled in, I want the user to submit the form via
e-mail and have the complete form with answers sent, not just the data. That
is, the recipient should be able to open the attachment and see (and print)
the complete, formatted form.

It seems to me that solutions simply transmit data (e.g. xml) to post in
some type of database. Not what I want. I tried looking into Adobe forms, but
in order to do this, every user has to have at least the "Standard" version
of the product, or I have to invest in expensive back-end software.

Thanks for any help!

 

[Nick Malik [Microsoft]]

You need Microsoft Infopath. This is part of the MS Office suite and has
been for some years now, although few people know much about it.

Infopath is a forms tool. Unlike Adobe forms, it was designed with XML in
mind. The newer version (in Office 12) adds some pretty slick improvements
in the display and use of the form as well. You can do basic validation in
the form (through rules without code, if you want) or you can create an
assembly in .Net and attach it to the form so that code will run on the
client while the form is being filled out. Pretty slick.

Infopath must be installed on both ends. In Office 12, you will be able to
use Infopath server which will automatically convert forms to web forms, so
that a client that doesn't have Infopath can still fill out the form.

It's pretty cool.

--
--- Nick Malik [Microsoft]
MCSD, CFPS, Certified Scrummaster
http://blogs.msdn.com/nickmalik

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this forum are my own, and not
representative of my employer.
I do not answer questions on behalf of my employer. I'm just a
programmer helping programmers.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the response, Nick! I have a follow-up:

Will I be able to e-mail the ENTIRE form, including the questions and the
form layout, rather than just the responses?

Also, I believe I need to set up an Infopath Server, correct?


George

 

[Nick Malik [Microsoft]]

Hello George,

You can e-mail the entire form.
If you do, you will not need to set up any server software at all.

That said, if you set up Sharepoint services (a free download), you get a
few extra benefits because of the rather nice integration between these
tools. However, I do not know if Sharepoint is appropriate in your
situation. I normally would not use Sharepoint if you are sending forms back
and forth between trading partners, which is how I'm reading your problem
(correct me if I am wrong).

If you'd prefer, you can use Infopath to Submit data, instead of mailing the
form itself. If you do this, then only the XML is transmitted. It sounds
like you are not interested in that option. This path does require that you
write some code to catch the XML and run it on an IIS server (no 'Infopath
server' components).

Note that Office 12 Infopath Server is a beta product and I cannot say much
more about it. However, you do not need Office 12 to do the things I have
mentioned. The product you need, Office 2003 Infopath, is already installed
on a large number of (mostly corporate) machines. Note: if you are using
the current version of Infopath, and the person filling out the form doesn't
have Infopath, that person will not be able to fill out the form. There is
no free forms tool. This problem is not solved until Office 12 comes out.

HTH,
--
--- Nick Malik [Microsoft]
MCSD, CFPS, Certified Scrummaster
http://blogs.msdn.com/nickmalik

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this forum are my own, and not
representative of my employer.
I do not answer questions on behalf of my employer. I'm just a
programmer helping programmers.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the info, Nick.
Well, the forms will be filled in by engineers and sent in a one-way trip to
a single mailbox where the supervisor will print and file them (physically).
It sounds like I can do this with InfoPath (Office) 2003, without having to
have Sharepoint Services set up. All users have Office 2003, so there will be
no licensing issues. Thanks, I'll get right on this.

 

[Guest]

We use GroupWise e-mail at our school district, but that is not supported by
InfoPath (go figure). Do you have any code that would permit me to enable
sending the form using another MAPI-compliant e-mail program?

Thanks!

 

[Nick Malik [Microsoft]]

Hi George,

OK... I assume that, because you are posting on a developers forum, that you
are a developer. Is that right? If you dig in to the Infopath SDK, you
will see that you can do some pretty incredible things with respect to
extending the tool. You can write a C# assembly that you connect to your
form template and provides functionality like the one you are describing.

On the other hand, this is a nice-to-have. Your users can simply download
an empty form FILE, fill it out, save it, close it, open GroupWise, and send
the file. No reason to automate that. I would start there and see if folks
feel that this solution isn't easy enough before you try to "automate" the
e-mail part.

Lastly, I'm not particularly familiar with GroupWise. Can an application
use the SMTP protocol to send e-mail via GroupWise? (You can with
Exchange). If so, then there are built-in classes in .Net that will do 95%
of the work for you to send the form. I hope that is the case. If not, it
may be cheaper to get an adapter (a program that runs on the GroupWise
server that provides the ability to read and handle the SMTP protocol). I
don't know for sure, but it's an option that I wouldn't ignore. Talk to
your e-mail administrator.

Good luck.

--
--- Nick Malik [Microsoft]
MCSD, CFPS, Certified Scrummaster
http://blogs.msdn.com/nickmalik

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this forum are my own, and not
representative of my employer.
I do not answer questions on behalf of my employer. I'm just a
programmer helping programmers.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the information. I had forgotten about the SDK, so I just d/l'd
it. Yes, GW uses SMTP. I'll look through the SDK documentation this week. I
must have forgotten to mark this thread for notification so I didn't catch
your reply right away.

George