So you've created an InfoPath form, and now you want to deploy
it to a library, but your SharePoint admin will light you on fire should you
dare connect to production through InfoPath. So the question is; how do we
deploy our InfoPath form declaratively via visual studio? Well let’s start by
making a simple InfoPath form.
With
your simple form ready, make sure to set the permission on the form to domain,
and promote the properties through the
advanced form option. Once your form is
configured publish it to a network location, when that’s complete open up
visual studio and create a content type that inherits from the form base type. It should look something like:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
<!-- Parent ContentType: Form (0x010101) -->
<ContentType ID="0x010101004663c851f85b42f59d84e3bf2359a33f"
Name="SimpleForm_CT"
Group="Custom Content Types"
Description="My Content Type"
Inherits="TRUE"
Version="0">
<FieldRefs>
</FieldRefs>
</ContentType>
</Elements>
That’s
what the Declarative xml for the content type should look like, now what we are going to do is bring
our published form into our content type and deploy it using a module.
Now
with your published form added select the properties and ensure that:
- The Deployment type is set to element file
- The Deployment path is set to the root of the content type.
Notice how the deployment type property is set to ElementFile and that the deployment location path is cleared out. If you forget to do this your form will not be visible in
the Mange form templates page in central admin.
Now with your info path form brought into your content type
and the properties set correctly we have to add a module to deploy the InfoPath
form, you can either do this in your Content type, or add a completely separate
module file. In my opinion since it’s tightly coupled with the content type, I’d
keep them together, but what do I know.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
<!-- Parent ContentType: Form (0x010101) -->
<ContentType ID="0x010101004663c851f85b42f59d84e3bf2359a33f"
Name="SimpleForm_CT"
Group="Custom Content Types"
Description="My Content Type"
Inherits="TRUE"
Version="0"
RequireClientRenderingOnNew="FALSE">
<FieldRefs>
</FieldRefs>
</ContentType>
<Module Name="SimpleFormModule" Url="FormServerTemplates" RootWebOnly ="TRUE">
<File Path="SimpleForm.xsn" Url="SimpleForm.xsn" Type="GhostableInLibrary"/>
</Module>
</Elements>
Now you've got one more land mine to avoid, open up the feature template that
you’re going to use to deploy your InfoPath form.
This is what you’ll see
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <Feature xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/"> </Feature>
Replace it with
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <Feature ReceiverClass="Microsoft.Office.InfoPath.Server.Administration.XsnFeatureReceiver" ReceiverAssembly="Microsoft.Office.InfoPath.Server, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/"> <ActivationDependencies> <ActivationDependency FeatureId="C88C4FF1-DBF5-4649-AD9F-C6C426EBCBF5" /> </ActivationDependencies> </Feature>
If you want a more in depth explanation then just do it.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.office.infopath.server.administration.xsnfeaturereceiver.aspx
Now all that’s left to do is create a list definition and
instance using your content type
Then enable the management of content types through the
advanced library settings.
