Brandon Paddock's Blog

A frequent question from InfoPath users is “How can I pass parameters to a new InfoPath form when it is created?”

Unfortunately, there’s no built-in functionality for passing command-line parameters to infopath.exe.

BUT, that doesn’t mean it can’t be done J

Note that the solution below requires the InfoPath SP-1 Preview.

Solution:

Jscript files can instantiate InfoPath with a new form from a template using NewFromSolution().  Jscript can also access the InfoPath DOM and pass parameters to it.  And finally, Jscript files can also accept command-line parameters.

Usage: 

In my case, I wanted my C# application to pass parameters to a new Form.  Basically, the user (running my App) searches the SQL database for a customer (in my case, patient) account.  They can then view/edit all of that account’s data right in the app.  The user can then select a date and time for an appointment and click “Create Encounter.”  This button calls my jscript file, passing it the ID number, date, and time that were selected.  The Jscript file creates a new InfoPath form from the template, and fills in the ID number, date, and time.  The Form Template has the “AfterChange” event for the ID number text box set so that it queries the database with that ID number, which returns that customer/patient’s information and populates all relevant fields in the Form.  It then closes InfoPath, and my application simply says “Encounter file created.”

The form’s submit code puts it in a SharePoint library with a unique filename generated from the ID number and date/time of the appointment.

Calling the script:

In VB .NET, this is a simple matter of:

Dim ProcID As Integer

Dim Proc As Process

ProcID = Shell("cscript script.js " + IDnum + " " + Date+ " " +Time + " " + AMPM)

Proc = Process.GetProcessById(ProcID)

Proc.WaitForExit(3000)

MsgBox("Form created.")

The Script:

//myscript.js

//parse parameters

if(WScript.Arguments.count()==4)

{

var param1 = WScript.Arguments.Item(0);

var param2 = WScript.Arguments.Item(1);

var param3 = WScript.Arguments.Item(2);

var param4 = WScript.Arguments.Item(3);

}

//Start the application

var oApp = new ActiveXObject("InfoPath.Application");

WScript.Echo("InfoPath Version: " + oApp.Version);

//Open an InfoPath document from the published template

var oXDocumentCollection = oApp.XDocuments;

var oXDocument = oXDocumentCollection.NewFromSolution("http://server/Forms/template.xsn";;);

// Get pointers to the target fields

var oID = oXDocument.DOM.selectSingleNode("//ID");

var oDate = oXDocument.DOM.selectSingleNode("//my:Date")

var oTime = oXDocument.DOM.selectSingleNode("//my:Time")

var oAMPM = oXDocument.DOM.selectSingleNode("//my:AMPM") 

//Update the fields

oID.text = param1;

oDate.text = param2;

oTime.text = param3;

oAMPM.text = param4;

//Submit the Form

oXDocument.Submit();

//Close up shop

oXDocumentCollection = null;

oApp.Quit();

oApp = null;

This is a ready-to-go script file and all you need to change is A) The number of parameters B) The location of your template and C) The names of the fields you wish to populate.  You also may not want to submit the file or close InfoPath.  Or you may want to use oXDocument.SaveAs();

I forgot to check at the airport, so I’ll do that when I leave on Wednesday.  But sadly, I’ve yet to see the big 1X icon change to a beautiful Ev (signifying a 500kbps data connection) on my phone anywhere.  Oh well, at least we know it’s coming J 

“Personalization means different things to different people.”  - Ken Moss 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/searchchamps/ 

They finally figured out how to get geeks to watch ESPN…

http://www.easports.com/games/madden06/nextgen.jsp 

I wrote this on the plane, but didn’t get around to posting until now.  Take it, Brandon from 2 days ago:

Seattle was an absolute blast.  I understand 100% why Chris Pirillo decided to move there after the first Search Champs program.  I’m writing this now from the jet while we’re about an hour from home.  I’m offline, so I won’t be able to link to other Search Champs related posts until I’m home.

First, let me tell you a little more about Seattle.  As I mentioned in a short interview I did with Chris (more on that later), I felt like someone must have been playing a trick on us.  The weather in Seattle was absolutely gorgeous - not at all what I was expecting.  There was not a single cloud in the sky during the 3.5 days that I was there, and the temperature was exactly where I like it (not too warm, not too cold).  The view of Mount Rainier is phenomenal.  I was floored when I first saw it sitting spectacularly on the horizon.

The only negative comment I made the entire time was about the traffic.  But pretty much every city ever has more traffic than Albany.

On to Search Champs…

There are many things I’d love to tell you about that I cannot, because of the NDA.  Fortunately, though, plenty of interesting stuff (especially the info regarding MS Research projects we saw) is exempt from that agreement.  You can be sure I’ll be blogging about one of the desktop search-related projects, named Tesla, very soon.

Regarding the MSN Search team themselves, I cannot praise them enough for their passion and desire to make their products and services better.  Unfortunately, it sometimes seems that they’re being held back. 

The most important advice I could give the MSN Search team was this:

You cannot get ahead by following the leader.  On this market’s current path, Google is moving faster than you.  So how do you get ahead?  Forge a new path for the market.  Make Google turn around and say, “Shit, how did we miss that turn?”

Historically, this approach is not new to Microsoft.  They used to do it all the time.  In fact, I think their Xbox division is doing it right now.

Apparently some G-mail users now have access to “Google Clips” – which lets them view RSS feeds inside of Gmail.

I’m sorry… this just isn’t very impressive. 

I hope tomorrow’s keynote and the rest of WinHEC is more exciting.

The WinHEC build (5048) is in the hands of some visitors already.

Here’s the scoop at Winbeta. 

Chris Pirillo blogged about Microsoft and Power Users having experienced the Longhorn presentation at WinHEC this week.

Now, I’ve been commenting a lot on Neowin, Scoble’s Blog comments, and other places about how this is a hardware engineering conference, and how the build of Longhorn that was distributed is meant only to provide those hardware engineers with what they need to start building drivers for Longhorn.  A lot of people who have seen the screenshots of this build have complained that it “looks like Windows XP with a different theme.”  To them I’ve said, things like “This build wasn’t meant to impress you.”

I stand by those comments, but Chris hit on another important issue.  He’s not upset that WinHEC isn’t for users.  He’s upset that there IS NO WinHEC for users (or Power Users, or users enthusiastic enough to care that they’re being ignored).

I think he’s right.

And what’s more, I think Microsoft made a mistake at WinHEC.  The build they handed out to hardware engineers was everything it needed to be, so that’s not the problem.  No, the problem is the build they showed up on the screen.  The problem is that the on-screen demonstrations had little or nothing to do with hardware engineering and driver development.  They showed what the Start menu looks like in the current build.  They showed how Desktop Search is implemented in the pre-beta.  They showed some interface enhancements for Windows Explorer and a few neat ideas like the shortcut lists – and also some hints at a very good tag-based Virtual Folder system for organizing your stuff.  They even showed off some fairly lame transparency/transition effects.

But none of that had anything to do with hardware engineering.  And when Windows enthusiasts everywhere (including, of all people, Paul Thurrott) express disappointment with the demonstration, you can’t say “Well it’s a Hardware Engineering Conference,” or “Well that’s not what it’s really going to look like when it’s done, that’s just what we have working right now.”

My response to that reasoning is simple:  If this was really just for hardware engineers, don’t show us User Experience demonstrations.  More importantly, if this isn’t what you expect it to look like when I actually get to use it, don’t even bother.

So what’s the answer to this problem?

Make a third Windows conference.  Put it somewhere between WinHEC and PDC.  Make this the place where you show off Windows to your fans and to the press, kind of like what happens at E3.  Don’t put a demo up on a huge screen of the current build.  Put up a well-made demo of what you currently expect the final version to look like.  Hell it could be a Flash demo for all I care; it doesn’t even have to be interactive.  Although, the more realistic the better.  But include some real “Wow” factor.  This would be the Windows team’s chance to be rock stars for a day (you know, like Steve Jobs is at every Apple event ever).  I bet they’d have a blast.

Oh, and do yourselves a favor:  Bring back that sick Alt+Tab animation you had in last year’s build of Longhorn.  That alone impressed people more than anything you showed at WinHEC.

The short interview that Chris and I recorded while I was at the Search Champs event is now online for your listening pleasure.  We talked about the move to 64-bit Windows operating systems, MSN Search and Desktop Search, as well as the Search Champs event in general.

While at Search Champs, Chris recorded some other interviews as well:

Mick Stanic – (aka SplaTT) whose blog was one of the first I subscribed to.

Buzz Bruggerman –of ActiveWords fame.

Marc Orchant – Master of all things Tablet.

I highly recommend you check out each of these.

About an hour after I suggested a “Windows Champs” event, Scoble blogs about Team 99.  He’s asking for his readers to nominate members/invitees for this event (I’ve already suggested a few myself) over at Channel 9.

One of the three parallel IDE drives remaining in my computer is dying.  I’m not sure which at the moment, since they’re all in a span array and I’m more concerned with getting all of my precious music and videos off of them.  I’d been meaning to do it for some time, knowing that at least one of those drives had been acting funny and that the disk span was, well, fault intolerant.  But I just kept putting it off.  Well, today, after a spree of delayed-write failed messages, the urgency of this matter became clear. 

I’m tempted to just do away with these Parallel ATA drive altogether.  I’m certain the newest of the three is fine, so I’ll definitely find it a new home if it leaves my computer.  The other two I don’t trust quite so much (they’re the same model of Western Digital Special Edition drives). 

My primary system disk is actually two WD Raptors in RAID 0 that have been fantastic.  My main storage disks are two Maxtor 16MB cache 300GB SATA drives in RAID 0.  None of these disks has had any problems (knock on wood).

Maybe it’s time for one of those new-fangled networkable hard drive dealies.

Followup:  The disk isn't actually losing any data.  Scandisk finds nothing wrong with it.  It simply has a habit of “falling asleep“ and not waking up again properly.  I can reactivate it in Disk Manager after it does this and it works fine (for a while).  I'm still planning to remove it from my system... but at least no data was corrupted.

It looks like a Toshiba design engineer ran out of time in developing the new Tecra M4, and decided to just hit the “zoom” button while looking at the M200 spec and submit that instead.

That's the new Tecra, here's the original M200:

Oh okay, if you look closely, it looks like the buttons on the screen were reversed.  Still, I think this is a good example of not changing the formula when it already works so darn well.