Getting Started with the Standalone

Transcription

1 Page 1 of 22 Product: Database Accelerator (DBXL) Getting Started with the Standalone Title: Dashboard This Getting Started guide is an introductory tutorial that will show you how to quickly familiarize yourself with the Standalone Dashboard. After completing this document you should be able to setup your own forms in the Dashboard and synchronize with the server. This document assumes that you have already installed DBXL v2.4 or higher. DBXL should be installed both in the client and server machines.. If you have not installed DBXL yet please see the DBXL Installation Guide for more details. This tutorial uses the Expense Report sample form that is included in all InfoPath 2007 installations. For your convenience we have packaged the form with this Getting Started document, available for download on InfoPathDev.com. Although the Expense Report sample form was designed for InfoPath 2007 it will work with either InfoPath 2007 or InfoPath Instructions for both InfoPath 2010 and InfoPath 2007 are included below. After you complete this tutorial you might have follow up questions; make sure to visit the DBXL Product page to find a list of all available documents. CONTENTS CONTENTS... 1 PRE-REQUISITES... 2 TASK 1: PREPARE THE SAMPLE FORM... 2 TASK 2: CREATE A DOCUMENT TYPE ON THE SERVER TASK 3: CREATE A DOCUMENT TYPE LOCALLY TASK 4: USE THE DASHBOARD TO SYNC SUPPORT... Error! Bookmark not defined.

2 Page 2 of 22 PRE-REQUISITES To successfully complete this document, you MUST have the following: DBXL v2.4 or newer installed on a server machine. DBXL v2.4 or newer installed on a local machine. InfoPath 2007 or 2010, including the latest Service Packs from Microsoft. TASK 1: PREPARE THE SAMPLE FORM Use one of the following methods, as appropriate for your situation. INFOPATH 2007 The following steps apply to users running InfoPath Customize the Expense Report sample. a. Start InfoPath. Under Design a form, click Customize a Sample. b. Select Sample Expense Report. c. Under Form tasks, click on Design this form. d. Save the form on your local hard drive. 2. Publish to your local machine. a. Select File > Publish.

3 Page 3 of 22 b. In the first screen of the Publishing wizard, select the radio button To a Network Location and click Next. c. Enter the path to the location where you want to publish the form to. For example, C:\Published Forms\ExpenseReport.xsn, or any location on your local hard drive. d. Click Next twice, and then click Publish. e. Click Close to close the wizard. 3. Configure a Submit button to use the DBXL web service. a. Open the Expense Report form from its published location by clicking on the XSN file and selecting Design. b. Scroll down at the bottom of the form and double-click on the Submit button to display properties. a. Click on Submit Options. b. Select Web Service from the first dropdown. c. Click the Add button. d. Type in the location of the Qdabra DBXL Web Service in the format Click Next. InfoPath will contact the server. e. In the list of web method operations, choose the web method to use for submitting the form, which is called SubmitDocument. Click Next. 4. Configure the parameters. a. Ignore the first parameter, called tns:doctypename. It will default to the DocType of the form. b. Select the second parameter, named tns:xml. i. Under Parameter options select the Entire form (XML document, including processing instructions) radio button. ii. Check the Submit data as a string checkbox. c. Select the tns:name parameter. You will notice that steps involved in sub sections c, d and e has similar steps. i. In the Parameter options section, click the Modify button next to the Field or Group text box. The Select a Field or Group dialog will appear. ii. Select the field /my:expensereport/my:employee/my:name, click OK and check the Submit data as a string checkbox. d. Select the tns:author parameter

4 Page 4 of 22 i. In the Parameter options section, click the Modify button next to the Field or Group text box. The Select a Field or Group dialog will appear. ii. Select the field /my:expensereport/my:employee/my: address, click OK and check the Submit data as a string checkbox. e. Select the tns:description parameter. i. In the Parameter options section, click the Modify button next to the Field or Group text box. The Select a Field or Group dialog will appear. ii. Select the field /my:expensereport/my:purpose, click OK and check the Submit data as a string checkbox. f. Click Next. Click Finish. 5. Configure the form to close upon submit a. Click Advanced in the Submit Options window. b. In the After Submit dropdown, select Close the form. c. Click OK twice. 6. Save ExpenseReport.xsn to its published location and close the form. INFOPATH 2010 The following steps apply to users running InfoPath Right-click on ExpenseReport.xsn and select Design. 2. Save the form to a location in your hard drive. 3. Publish the form to your local machine. a. Select File Publish Network Location.

5 Page 5 of 22 b. Click Browse to browse to the directory where you want to publish the form or enter the path to it, for example C:\Published Forms\ExpenseReport.xsn, or any location on your local hard drive. c. Click Next twice and then click Publish. d. Click Close to close the wizard. 4. Configure a Submit button to use the DBXL web service. a. Open the Expense Report form from its published location by clicking on the XSN file and selecting Design. b. Scroll down at the bottom of the form and double-click on the Submit button to display properties. c. Click on Submit Actions. d. Select Web Service from the first dropdown. e. Click the Add button. f. Type in the location of the Qdabra DBXL Web Service in the format Click Next. InfoPath will contact the server. g. In the list of web method operations, choose the web method to use for submitting the form, which is called SubmitDocument. Click Next.

6 Page 6 of Configure the parameters. a. Ignore the first parameter, called tns:doctypename. It will default to the DocType of the form. b. Select the second parameter, named tns:xml. i. Under Parameter options select the Entire form (XML document, including processing instructions) radio button. ii. Check the Submit data as a string checkbox.

7 Page 7 of 22 c. Select the tns:name parameter. You will notice that steps involved in subsections b, c and d has similar steps. i. In the Parameter options section, click the Modify button next to the Field or Group text box. The Select a Field or Group dialog will appear. ii. Select the field /my:expensereport/my:employee/my:name. Click OK.

8 Page 8 of 22 iii. Check the Submit data as a string checkbox. d. Select the tns:author parameter.

9 Page 9 of 22 i. In the Parameter options section, click the Modify button next to the Field or Group text box. The Select a Field or Group dialog will appear. ii. Select the field /my:expensereport/my:employee/my: address. Click OK. iii. Check the Submit data as a string checkbox.

10 Page 10 of 22 e. Select the tns:description parameter. i. In the Parameter options section, click the Modify button next to the Field or Group text box. The Select a Field or Group dialog will appear. ii. Select the field /my:expensereport/my:purpose. Click OK.

11 Page 11 of 22 iii. Check the Submit data as a string checkbox. f. Click Next. Enter a name for this data connection such as DBXL Submit and click Finish. 6. Configure the form to close upon submit a. Click Advanced in the Submit Options window.

12 Page 12 of 22 b. In the After Submit dropdown, select Close the form. Click OK. 7. Save ExpenseReport.xsn to its published location and close. TASK 2: CREATE A DOCUMENT TYPE ON THE SERVER In this section, we will use the DBXL Administration Tool (DAT) on the server machine. Access it through Internet Explorer by entering the URL Once the page opens, click the DBXL Administration Tool hyperlink. InfoPath should open a form similar to the one below: 1. Create a new configuration in DAT.

13 Page 13 of 22 a. In DAT, click on New Configuration. b. Type ExpenseReport (no spaces) into the Name field. c. Under InfoPath Form Template, click on Click here to attach a file. d. Browse to the location where you published ExpenseReport.xsn and double-click on the XSN file to attach. e. Click Save. DBXL will confirm the operation through a dialog box. Click OK to close it. f. Click Catalog. 2. Verify that you can open the form. a. In the ExpenseReport row click the InfoPath icon under Open. The form will open and you will be able to fill it out. 3. Verify Submit works.

14 Page 14 of 22 a. Fill out the form including the Business Purpose. Employee Name and Employee Address fields should be auto-populated. When done, click the Submit button. The form will automatically close. b. Back in the DAT Catalog, click Refresh List. You ll see that the number in the Docs column has increased. c. You can also click Edit for the Document Type, and then click the Documents tab. The new document is added to the Documents table. TASK 3: CREATE A DOCUMENT TYPE LOCALLY In this section, we will create a copy of Expense Report form in your local DBXL. 1. To do this, repeat step 1 in Task 2: Create a Document Type on the Server by accessing the DBXL Administration Tool (DAT) of the local DBXL. Make sure to use the same name ExpenseReport when naming your document type. 2. Repeat steps 2-3 of Task 2 to submit a document. TASK 4: USE THE DASHBOARD TO SYNC DBXL Standalone Dashboard is included in DBXL to provide offline functionality. This section explains how you can use the Dashboard form in order to manage forms and synchronize when online. ACCESS THE DASHBOARD 1. Using your local machine, access the dashboard from the Start menu by going to Start All Programs Qdabra QdStandaloneDashboard.xsn. 2. InfoPath should open a form similar to the one below:

15 Page 15 of 22 CONFIGURE THE FORM TEMPLATE SETTINGS Dashboard allows you to customize your form template settings so it synchronizes with the server in a way that s applicable for you. Continue on the steps below to configure the Expense Report document type. 1. Click the plus icon for the Expense Report document type under Available Form Templates.

16 Page 16 of Expense Report will be moved under Active Form Templates and will show you the details of the form template. 3. In the form template details, select DBXL as Synchronization Type. 4. Enter the DBXL URL in the remote site:

17 Page 17 of Select Manual (User Action Required) for Download Frequency. 6. Your settings should look something like the image below: 7. Click Save.

18 Page 18 of After saving, you will be directed to the dashboard s Home page. UPLOAD FORMS TO THE REMOTE DBXL While offline, users submit the forms to their local DBXL. These forms can be viewed locally through the Dashboard. Once they get online, they can upload their offline forms using the Upload function. The steps below will show you how to do this in your Dashboard. 1. In the Dashboard s Home page, click on the Expense Report. 2. Click the Search button. You should be able to see 1 document in the Expense Report Forms view. The example below shows an Expense Report document submitted for office supplies. This form has not been submitted to the server yet, so the next steps will show you how to upload this document to the server. 3. Check the check box next to (#) Document:

19 Page 19 of Click Upload button. Dashboard will contact the server. You need to be connected to the domain in order to upload the form. Otherwise, Dashboard will display a message saying that you are currently offline. 5. You will receive a confirmation message stating that upload is successful. Click OK. The message box will also inform you in case there are documents which failed to upload. 6. Verify uploaded documents. a. Open the DAT of the remote DBXL. b. In the DAT catalog, click the Refresh List button. You ll notice that the number of documents for the Expense Report document type has increased.

20 Page 20 of 22 c. Click on the document link to open the Documents view. In the Documents view, you ll see the Expense Report for office supplies that you uploaded locally. d. You may click Open to verify if the form has been uploaded correctly. DOWNLOAD FORMS TO LOCAL DBXL In this section, we will download the documents in the server using the Dashboard. 1. Back in the Dashboard, click the Download button in the Expense Report Forms page. 2. You will receive a confirmation message stating that download is successful. The message box will also inform you in case there are any documents which failed to download. Click OK.

21 Page 21 of In your Dashboard, click search. The expense report form for travel expenses is now downloaded in your Dashboard. If you have successfully followed the steps in this section, the Expense Report forms page in your dashboard should now look like the image below: 4. Verify the downloaded documents in the local DAT. a. Open DAT of the local DBXL. b. In the DAT catalog, click the Refresh List button. You ll notice that the number of documents for the Expense Report document type has increased.

22 Page 22 of 22 c. Click on the document link to open the Documents view. In the Documents view, you ll see the Expense Report for travel expenses that you just downloaded. SUPPORT If you have questions about the information in this document, please contact us for assistance. Licensed customers can contact us via Alternatively, please use the InfoPathDev.com or Qdabra Product support forums to request help.