Programmatically create a browser enabled InfoPath form

Introduction

The article gives an overview of the steps and code required to create, fill, and upload an InfoPath form using code.

Design Infopath Form

Create an InfoPath form using the Microsoft InfoPath designer. This sample form will store the name and surname of the client and a table of products and amounts.

Create Class Representation of the Infopath Form

1. Save the InfoPath form:



Figure 2 - Save as Source File
2. Load the Visual Studio Command Prompt:



3. Locate form the source files:



4. Execute the command xsd.exe /c /l:CS myschema.xsd.

The XSD tool forms part of the .NET framework tools. We will use it to generate a common language class from the XSD file representation of the InfoPath form.



Figure 5 – Generated myschema class

// 
// This source code was auto-generated by xsd, Version=2.0.50727.1432.
// 
/// <remarks/>
[System.CodeDom.Compiler.GeneratedCodeAttribute("xsd", "2.0.50727.1432")]
[System.SerializableAttribute()]
[System.Diagnostics.DebuggerStepThroughAttribute()]
[System.ComponentModel.DesignerCategoryAttribute("code")]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlTypeAttribute(AnonymousType=true,
 Namespace="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/infopath/2003/myXSD/2009-02-04T09:20:42")]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlRootAttribute(
  Namespace="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/infopath/2003/myXSD/2009-02-04T09:20:42",
  IsNullable=false)]
public partial class myFields {
private string nameField;
private string surnameField;
private ProductRow[] productTableField;
private System.Xml.XmlAttribute[] anyAttrField;.....
.....
.....

Once the file is available in the project, you have the capability to bind the data source to the .NET class and access the data in a standardized format. If you ever make changes to your InfoPath data source, you’ll need to rerun the xsd.exe command against the new “schema.xsd” file.

Upload Form Template to a SharePoint Form Site

Populate and Upload Form Data

Populate the myFields class with dummy data. The class was created using the XSD application.

// Populate myfields class with dummy data. The class was created using the xsd
// application.
myFields fields = new myFields();
fields.Name = "Joe";
fields.Surname = "Blogs";
ProductRow[] rows = new ProductRow[2];
rows[0] = new ProductRow();
rows[0].ProductAmount = "1";
rows[0].ProductName = "Peach Jam";
rows[1] = new ProductRow();
rows[1].ProductAmount = "2";
rows[1].ProductName = "Strawberry Jam";
fields.ProductTable = rows;
// Create infopath form
MemoryStream myInStream = new MemoryStream();
// Form site used to store the generated forms
string rFormSite = @"http://sp/Sample Form";
// Location where form template is stored.
string rTemplateLocation = @"http://sp/Sample Form/Forms/template.xsn"; 
using (myInStream)
{
    // InfoPath forms are XML files. We have to write code to programmatically
    // generate the XML of the InfoPath form
    //Create XmlSerializer using myfields type
    XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(myFields));
    XmlTextWriter writer = new XmlTextWriter(myInStream, Encoding.UTF8);
    // Insert infopath processing instructions
    string rInstruction = 
      "name=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:infopath:" + 
      "UploadSample:-myXSD-2009-02-04T09-20-42\"";
    rInstruction += 
        "solutionVersion=\"1.0.0.2\" productVersion=\"12.0.0.0\"
        PIVersion=\"1.0.0.0\" href=\"" + rTemplateLocation + "\"";
    // An important thing you need to make sure of is that the href attribute
    // in the mso-infoPathSolution processing instruction points to the correct
    // form template you published. 
    writer.WriteProcessingInstruction("mso-infoPathSolution", rInstruction);
    // Mark the xml as an infopath document. 
    writer.WriteProcessingInstruction("mso-application",
        "progid=\"InfoPath.Document\" versionProgid=\"InfoPath.Document.2\"");
    // Serialize infopath data
    serializer.Serialize(writer, fields);
    // Upload form to form site.
    using (SPSite site = new SPSite(rFormSite))
    {
        // Create web instance.
        using (SPWeb spweb = site.OpenWeb())
        {
            // Add the file to the web file list.
            spweb.Files.Add(rFormSite + "\\" + Path.GetRandomFileName() + ".xml",
                myInStream.GetBuffer());
        }
    }                             
}

Result