Considering Whether InfoPath Is the Appropriate Solution

In many of the earlier chapters, you saw specific techniques to create parts of an InfoPath form template. Yet, when faced with a problem for which a forms-based solution seems appropriate, it is not always obvious that InfoPath is the right application of the several that you might consider, nor is it always clear how best to use InfoPath to achieve a solution that most effectively meets your business needs.

There is always a temptation to dive in and apply the software at hand, sometimes without adequately thinking through whether it is an appropriate application to apply to the problem that needs to be solved . So, before looking at issues specific to using InfoPath, which you will likely want to consider, we will spend a little time considering the fundamental question of whether InfoPath is the right tool to provide a solution to a business information need.

Because InfoPath runs only on Windows platforms, I will consider only Windows technologies or solutions that might come into consideration as alternatives to InfoPath.

Considering the User Desktop Mix

InfoPath runs only on Windows. If you have Linux in the desktop mix of your company's users, you cannot natively use InfoPath on those desktops. A Web-based or XML Web services-based solution is probably the best course of action. If XML is part of the defined needs, then XForms, conventional HTML forms, and ASP .NET are serious contenders.

Considering the Available Skill-Set

At the risk of stating the obvious, when you choose software to provide a solution for business information needs, be sure to consider whether the available skill-set is available in house. It is not uncommon for external consultants to be called in when it is embarrassingly discovered that the in-house skill-set is inadequate to provide all the necessary functionality.

InfoPath is designed to provide lots of XML forms functionality for common use cases without demanding the work of highly skilled programmers. Of the technologies compared with InfoPath in the next section, Windows Forms probably demands the most highly skilled developers; but for less demanding XML-based forms tasks , InfoPath opens XML forms creation to new groups with fewer programming skills. However, be aware that if you want functionality beyond that created by the InfoPath wizards, you'll need at least basic scripting and XML skills. The other key skill is understanding the InfoPath object model.

To learn more about the InfoPath Object Model, see "Introducing the InfoPath Object Model," p. 311 (Chapter 18).

After you move beyond the functionality provided by the InfoPath wizards, coding (in the initial release of InfoPath 2003) depends on VBScript or JScript. Although JScript isn't identical to the widely used JavaScript, nor is VBScript identical to Visual Basic or Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), an enormous number of developers have skills in JavaScript, Visual Basic, or VBA. There is a good chance that the programming language skills needed for InfoPath scripting can be easily acquired by developers who already know these other languages, although many Visual Basic programmers will also know VBScript. In addition to scripting code, you might also need custom executable files included in the form template.

The other key skills needed for upscale InfoPath development relate to the XML technologies used in InfoPath. Those include W3C XML Schema, XPath, and MSXML. A significant proportion of full-time developers will have some of those skills, but power users who create form templates in InfoPath might need to be bailed out by full-time developers when the limits of their skill-set become apparent.

Alternative Technologies

InfoPath is a departure from previous classes of applications, so a wide range of alternative technologies might provide a more appropriate approach than InfoPath 2003 to certain problems.

Many factors may come into play: InfoPath is highly flexible for forms development, but custom Windows Forms might provide a solution where InfoPath's capabilities are lacking. InfoPath provides a high degree of automatic validation lacking in, for example, Web forms. However, XForms provides similar W3C XML Schema validation, but lacks the rule-based validation provided in the InfoPath user interface. With fully trusted forms, InfoPath provides a high degree of security fairly easily, and achieving similar levels of security using other approaches will likely require significant developer expertise.

Web Forms

As discussed in earlier chapters, InfoPath is not a general-purpose Web forms tool. If end users don't have the InfoPath client, they won't be able to fill in InfoPath forms.

If you can't be certain that the end user has a copy of the InfoPath client, InfoPath won't solve your problem. Other Web-based forms tools you might want to consider as possible solutions include conventional HTML/XHTML forms, ASP, ASP .NET, and XForms.

Windows Forms

Windows Forms can provide powerful customized solutions for Windows. My perception of InfoPath is that it is designed to provide an easier way to produce many commonly desired pieces of form functionality without requiring access to the developer skills necessary for custom Windows Forms solutions. Developers of Windows Forms, of course, require knowledge of .NET Framework class libraries and a relevant .NET programming language.

INFOPATH AND .NET

The initial release of InfoPath 2003 uses VBScript and JScript and makes no use of the .NET languages. InfoPath is part of the Microsoft Office family. Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO) was released shortly before this book went to print. Although VSTO is not intended for use with InfoPath, Microsoft has indicated that a future version of InfoPath, likely to be released in the months after this book is published, will better support use of .NET languages and managed code. This is a frequently requested enhancement on the InfoPath newsgroups.

InfoPath provides security more easily than Windows Forms. However, skilled developers can provide highly customized security as part of a Windows Form.

Office 2003 Smart Documents

Word 2003 and Excel 2003 can use W3C XML Schema documents in smart documents ”automatic, appropriate user support is provided for the part of the XML underlying the part of the document or workbook the user is currently working on. Smart documents have more flexibility than InfoPath, but more developer effort is generally required to create them. If InfoPath provides an easy route to create a desired solution, it might be the preferred technology.

Adobe XML/PDF Forms

At the time of this writing, Adobe has announced but not released an XML/PDF forms tool, which has yet to be named. Given that the tool has not been released, it is difficult to make informative comment. However, one scenario in which the upcoming Adobe tool might be preferred to InfoPath is when the workflow requires or expects forms to be printed rather than processed entirely electronically . Precision printing is not a characteristic of InfoPath views, but it seems likely to be an area where the Adobe XML/PDF tool will perform well, given the widespread distribution of PDF and its suitability for printing.

SQL Server Reporting Services

InfoPath has the capability to query a relational database and present the resultant data to a user. However, InfoPath is fairly limited in its flexibility and power as a forms-based reporting tool. If you require powerful reporting services, you might want to look at SQL Server Reporting Services, which was recently released for use with SQL Server 2000.