How To Embed a Web Page in an InfoPath Form

FirozOzman

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5 Oct 2006CPOL2 min read

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How to embed a Web Page in an InfoPath Form

Purpose

This document will give you an in-depth idea on how to embed a Web page within an InfoPath form. The Web page can be invoked with different URLs on click of a button.

The proposed solution below will help us avoid using Activex controls to act as custom controls within an InfoPath form. This will also avoid the problems of having a webBrowser control within an Internet browser page (see this article).

It is nearly impossible to add an iframe to the Xdocument.DOM of InfoPath.

Sample Scenario

An application form has to get details from a given URL in the InfoPath page. The user will click on the URL and the Web page will be populated within the InfoPath form, so that the user doesn't have to navigate out or switch to a different browser window.

Solution

A new TaskPane will be created and associated with the InfoPath form. This TaskPane by default will take a simple user created HTML page. On click of the button to the right of the given URL, TaskPane will be navigated to that specific URL. This is done by invoking an onclick event which navigates the TaskPane to the given URL.

Step By Step Walk-through

Open Notepad and paste the following:

XML

<HTML>
    <body>
        Click on the Go button against the URL to open the web page
    </body> 
</HTML>

Save and close the Notepad file as myTaskPane.HTML
Open a new form in the Design Mode in InfoPath
Go to Menu/Tools/Form options/Advanced
Check “Enable Custom Task Pane”
Type Task Pane name as WebPagePane
Click on the Resource Files and add myTaskPane.HTML from its location
Select Task Pane location as myTaskPane.HTML from the Form Option window
Click Ok to close the Form Options window
Add the textbox named URL to the form
Add a button on the right of the URL textbox with a name/ID btnGo; label the button as GO
Double-click on the GO button
Click “Edit Form Code” button

A script editor will be opened; paste the below code in the editor, save and close.

function btnGo::OnClick(eventObj) 
{ 
    var objTaskPane; 
    var objXMLNode; 
    objXMLNode = XDocument.DOM.selectSingleNode("/mySample/URL"); 
    if (objXMLNode.text != "" && objXMLNode.text != null) 
    {
        // Set a reference to the custom task pane. 
        objTaskPane = XDocument.View.Window.TaskPanes(0);
        objTaskPane.Navigate(objXMLNode.text); 
    } 
}

Click on the Preview Form, type a URL and click GO... works!!
Close the preview and save the form.

Note: If you would like to publish this form to public, you need to remove the security restrictions.

Go to Menu/Tool/Forms Options/Security
Uncheck “automatically determine security..”
Check Full Trust option
Check ‘Sign this form” and create or use a certificate

Install this certificate in the client computer where you use this form.

Conclusion

This is a simple solution for having a Web page within an infoPath form. Task Pane can be moved to any corner of the infopath window as per user’s convenience. Security levels of the forms have to be decided as per the requirements.

Contact

For any further information or any queries, reach out to me at firozozman@hotmail.com

My blog: www.firozozman.com.

History

5^th October, 2006: Initial post

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

Written By

FirozOzman

Web Developer

Canada

Firoz Mohammed (Firoz`Ozman) |
MCSD.Net, MCTS (BizTalk 2004 & 2006)
Avanade Inc: www.avanade.com |
Toronto, Canada |

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