MOSS 2007 – Workflow – InfoPath Form Associated

It’s pretty simple to create a SharePoint workflow using Visual Studio and InfoPath (for the forms). Take as a sample the “approval” one provided with MOSS.

When a task is created by the workflow, it’s stored in the associate task list. When we click on it, it’s redirect to the “WrkTaskIP.aspx” that displays the task form. This page used the “XmlFormView” to display the associated task form:

Remark: All these steps are not addressed in this post.

A document library storing Infopath Forms is associated to the workflow. On the site library advanced settings, the “Display as Web page” functionality is activated.

Settings:

Opened form:

That means the InfoPath forms are opened inside the web explorer using the “Forms Service”. Imagine that the workflow has been started and one task has been created. When clicking on the task link, the “WrkTaskIP.aspx” is displayed for the approval process. On this page, a link to the targeted document exists:

When clicking on this link, we expect to see the form opened by the browser. It’s not the case and it’s a simple link to the document. The InfoPath client application is started instead of the browser:

Issue

This is the issue. This page doesn’t look at the source library settings in order to update the link and displays as expected a URL like:

http://vpcmoss/_layouts/WrkTaskIP.aspx?List=b3983e69%2D71c0%2D4348%2Db22b%2D5ae09f686b29&ID=1

Solution

No it’s time to find a solution. The first reflex is use our favorite search engine. The result is that there are not so many answer. Maybe there is another solution existing on the web but anyway, this post shows a global approach on “how find solution on SharePoint“.

Step 1

First we need to understand how is working the “WrkTaskIP.aspx” page to build this link. Start by opening this page to look at the HTML and page directive.

1: <tr>

2: <td width=”10″ valign=”center” style=”padding: 4px;”>

3: <img IMG SRC=”/_layouts/images/Workflows.gif” alt=<%SPHttpUtility.AddQuote(SPHttpUtility.HtmlEncode (GetLocString(“WrkTask_PageTitle”)),Response.Output);%>/>

4: </td>

5: <td>

6: <% 1: SPHttpUtility.NoEncode(m_pageDescription,Response.Output);

%>

7: </td>

8: </tr>

The HTML generated for the document link is stored in the “m_pageDescription” field (sooooooo lovely ).

Step 2

Next step, discover how the HTML data is generated. As many people said, Reflector is our friend. We looked at the aspx page directive to find the associated class:

<%@ Page Language=”C#” Inherits=”Microsoft.Office.Workflow.WrkTaskIPPage“

We open Reflector and look at this class. All the code is in the “OnLoad” method.

Reflector view:

The HTML link building:

Step 3

We just have to create a copy of the “WrkTaskIP.aspx” page, update the code. We can use the code below:

1: string linkHTML;

2: 

3: try

4: {

5: // Get SPListItem source

6: using (SPWeb web = SPContext.Current.Web)

7: {

8: SPList taskList = web.Lists[new Guid(Request["List"])];

9: SPListItem item = taskList.GetItemById(int.Parse(Request["ID"]));

10:

11: Guid workflowGuid = new Guid((string)item[SPBuiltInFieldId.WorkflowInstanceID]);

12:

13: SPWorkflow workflow = new SPWorkflow(web, workflowGuid);

14:

15: SPListItem sourceItem = workflow.ParentItem;

16:

17: //Build HTML Link header

18: if (sourceItem == null)

19: {

20: linkHTML = “No item associated”;

21: }

22: else

23: {

24: StringBuilder tmp = new StringBuilder();

25: tmp.Append(“This workflow task applies to “);

26: tmp.Append(“<a href=\”");

27:

28: // Build href

29: string href = string.Format(“{0}/_layouts/FormServer.aspx?XmlLocation=/{1}&Options=DisableSave&DefaultItemOpen=1″,

30: web.Url, sourceItem.Url);

31:

32: tmp.Append(href);

33: tmp.Append(“\”>”);

34:

35: tmp.Append(sourceItem.Title);

36: tmp.Append(“</a>”);

37:

38: linkHTML = tmp.ToString();

39: }

40: }

41: }

42: catch (Exception ex)

43: {

44: linkHTML = “Error when retrieving item source”;

45: }

46: // Update page

47: m_pageDescription = linkHTML;

48:

Step 4

We need to replace the “WrkTaskIP.aspx” by the created one when clicking on the task. This can easily be done using a “ContentType” and by updating the xml workflow file.

New updated task “ContentType”:

1: <?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”utf-8″ ?>

2: <Elements xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/”>

3: <ContentType ID=”0x01080100C9C9515DE4E24001905074F980F93151″

4: Name=”WorkflowTaskIP2 ContentType”

5: Description=”OHCHR ContenType associates to the task Workflow”

6: Group=”_Hidden”

7: Hidden=”TRUE”

8: Version=”0″>

9: <FieldRefs>

10: </FieldRefs>

11: <XmlDocuments>

12: <XmlDocument NamespaceURI=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/v3/contenttype/forms/url”>

13: <FormUrls xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/v3/contenttype/forms/url”>

14: <Display>_layouts/WrkTaskIP2.aspx</Display>

15: <Edit>_layouts/WrkTaskIP2.aspx</Edit>

16: </FormUrls>

17: </XmlDocument>

18: </XmlDocuments>

19: </ContentType>

20: </Elements>

Update the workflow configuration file by updating the “TaskListContentTypeId” id.

1: <Workflow

2: Name=”WorkflowFeature”

3: Description=”"

4: Id=”71b980d7-69d8-4f86-8702-d472e9b00660″

5: CodeBesideClass=”[Your class]“

6: CodeBesideAssembly=”[Your assembly], Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=68985c29fbcd9e0e”

7: TaskListContentTypeId=”0x01080100C9C9515DE4E24001905074F980F93151″

8: AssociationUrl=”_layouts/CstWrkflIP.aspx”

9: InstantiationUrl=”_layouts/IniWrkflIP.aspx”

10: ModificationUrl=”_layouts/ModWrkflIP.aspx”

11: StatusUrl=”_layouts/WrkStat.aspx”>

12:

13: <Categories/>

14: <!– Tags to specify InfoPath forms for the workflow; delete tags for forms that you do not have –>

15: <MetaData>

16: <!– <Association_FormURN>associationFormURN</Association_FormURN>

17: <Instantiation_FormURN>instantiationFormURN</Instantiation_FormURN>

18: <Task0_FormURN>taskFormURN</Task0_FormURN>

19:

20: <Modification_GUID_FormURN>modificationURN</Modification_GUID_FormURN>

21: <Modification_GUID_Name>Name of Modification</Modification_GUID_Name>

22: –>

23: <AssociateOnActivation>false</AssociateOnActivation>

24: </MetaData>

25: </Workflow>

Step 5

The last step is to encapsulate these modifications using a solution (wsp file) that will:

• Deploy your CententType feature
• Deploy your Workflow feature
• Copy the assembly to the GAC
• Copy the updated layout page

And that’s done !!!

To conclude on this post, when you need to develop something on SharePoint:

• looked at the existing SharePoint code
• use and reuse Reflector

Update: 05/03/2008

You can find below a link to the feature (part of the complete feature).

DemoFeature

 

Hope that it’s not so bad for a first post