Updating a SharePoint list from an InfoPath form

0
votes

I am an extreme newbie to the SharePoint/InfoPath environment and I am stumped.

I have an existing list in SharePoint. I have created an InfoPath form that retrieves a column from this list and uses it to populate an InfoPath Multiple Selection List box. I also some additional date picker controls on the form to capture start end end dates.

I would like to do the following:

Select one or more items in the multi-select list box using the available check boxes. Fill in the start and end date fields on my form. On clicking the form's submit button, somehow have the form update the SharePoint list items corresponding to those selected in the list box with the contents of the start and end date fields. The "somehow" is what has me stumped. I've read that I can use web services to do this, but have no idea how to go about doing so.

The tools I have at my disposal are:

  • SharePoint 2010
  • InfoPath 2010
  • SharePoint designer 2010

I do not have access to Visual studio

Any ideas?

4
sharepointinfopath
Why are you using InfoPath forms instead of modifying the default list forms? – AxGryndr
Trying to learn something new, mainly. The other reason is that if I just click on a list item, I can only edit that item in a form. If I have several hundred items to edit, that gets tedious. I wanted to use the multi-selection listbox capability of InfoPath to allow possibly dozens (or all) list items to be selected, and then update them all on form submission, vs. singly. – BIll

4 Answers

1
votes

Here is a basic tutorial that walks through how to use InfoPath to update a SharePoint list.

http://www.bizsupportonline.net/browserforms/update-sharepoint-list-items-object-model-infopath-browser-form.htm

I don't use InfoPath much but it looks like it requires a bit of coding that you'd need to do in Visual Studios. I am not sure how well an InfoPath form will work to update multiple SharePoint list items.

Here is a link to another Stackoverflow question that is similar.

https://stackoverflow.com/a/14287616/1594166

Did you know that you can link MS Access to a SharePoint list and then you can write a query to update the rows like a table? Using a form and some VBA you could build a custom SQL string and execute that based on selections from the form.

0
votes

When using an InfoPath form using a list, you can go to the list itself, then click on list, and then customize the form. From this you should first be able to:

a. Create the columns needed for the certain list (this would contain the start and end dates etc. on your end)

b. Have Microsoft InfoPath 2010 installed (i'm guessing you already have this)

Since you already have the columns on the list, you can just click on customize this form and infopath will open and you would be able to customize your own form from there.

0
votes

Another option is to use the DataSheet view in SharePoint. This provides the ability to filter, sort and update lists. It may be sufficient for your purposes. It requires MS Access to be installed but if you're using InfoPath then you presumably also have Access. If that doesn't work then I would second @AxGryndr's approach of linking to the list from Access and using a query to perform your bulk updates.

InfoPath is probably not a useful option for the requirement you've described. Out of the box InfoPath integration with SharePoint is fairly capable but has limitations that make it unsuitable for more complex requirements without integrating third party tools (Qdabra's qRules) or Visual Studio.

0
votes

Simply create one or more workflows on the InfoPath form library that use the form data to create other list items on different lists as required. These workflows would trigger when a new item is created on the InfoPath form library.