InfoPath Competition - Leave Request Form

[shakira000]

My SQL table that I'm connecting to a SharePoint External List using the BCS features in SharePoint Designer 2010. The SQL table includes a field for a Contact Person. I want to use the Person/Group Picker control in to allow users to select from people in AD and map that to my Contact field. hen I try to add the Person/Group Picker in InfoPath, I have to select which field to map to and when I select my Contact field "Person/Group Picker cannot be bound to the selected field or group."

[warrtalon]

@shakira000 The Contact Selector in InfoPath requires a 5-field schema that include a non-repeating group, repeating group, and 3 data elements. You can't add one to InfoPath without this schema, and you can't change the schema of an External List. Your Contact field in SQL is just a regular text/string field, but that's not what the Contact Selector provides. It provides a data set that includes Display Name, Account Name, and Account Type. This can't be expected within your External List.

[shniggens]

I am trying to build a similar form with number of days auto-calculated. But how do you exclude weekends (or other holidays for that matter) from the total days?

[warrtalon]

@shniggens There isn't a function that does that. You have to create an incredibly long XPath function that can do all the calculations each time. I only use one that subtracts date, which I get from Alec Pojidaev's blog. He may have one for excluding weekends (Holidays are way too random - they aren't the same for everyone).

[shniggens]

Shouldn't the form have a date picker to notify manager of what specific dates are requested?

[warrtalon]

@shniggens In my curren version of the form, it does have Date Pickers, and the # of days requested is auto-calculated. This was just a sample and was built during Beta over a year ago, so it has been improved since the video.

[y88lsc]

Hello! Absolutely fantastic work! I'm currently on a summer placement program developing a new SharePoint intranet for a company. I don’t suppose you would be able to provide a form of instructions in order to achieve this?

Thanks for your time

Lloyd LSC@live.co.uk

[warrtalon]

@y88lsc, Although the vid is only 6 minutes, it took quite a bit of time, testing, and knowledge to figure it out and put all the pieces together. On my blog, I have the first 3 articles on how to start building something like this, but I haven't had time to write the other 4. It is an immense amount of documentation to provide it all step-by-step, so I apologize for not completing it yet.

[staceyscarcella]

@warrtalon what is the link to this blog?

[staceyscarcella]

is this solution available for download. it is exactly what Im looking for.

[warrtalon]

@staceyscarcella, It's not downloadable, because it incorporates so many different technologies and requires many things to be setup in order for the pieces to work together.