Given the phenomenal success of Microsoft Office over the years, it's not surprising that Microsoft is always adding new applications to the Office family. With Office 2003, there are two new additions: Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003 and Microsoft Office OneNote 2003. In this article, we'll take a look at these new applications and give you a sense of where -- or whether -- they might fit into your own operations. InfoPath: XML on the desktop
Microsoft calls InfoPath "the premier smart client for XML Web Services." Another way to think of it is as a friendly face on top of XML files. Figure A shows an InfoPath form being filled out. As you can see, it's very similar to a form developed in Access, Excel, or Visual Basic. An InfoPath form looks similar to other Office forms. Although the user need never see what goes on behind the scenes, filling out an InfoPath form creates an XML file. Here's the start of the file that corresponds to Figure A:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?mso-infoPathSolution PIVersion="0.9.0.0"
name="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:infopath:oob:ChangeOrder:1033"
solutionVersion="1.0.0.1" productVersion="11.0.4920" ?>
<?mso-application progid="InfoPath.Document"?>
<co:changeOrder
xmlns:co="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/infopath/2003/
sample/ChangeOrder"
xmlns:my="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/infopath/2003/myXSD"
xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en-us">
<co:date
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
2003-06-09
</co:date>
<co:changeOrderNumber>4258</co:changeOrderNumber>
<co:purpose></co:purpose>
<co:projectInformation>
<co:priority></co:priority>
<co:severity></co:severity>
<co:status></co:status>
<co:projectName>WhizBang 2003</co:projectName>
<co:projectID>WB2003</co:projectID>
</co:projectInformation> The result is a perfectly valid and standard XML file. And that's where the main strength of InfoPath lies: It is a product in which Microsoft has paid close attention to the relevant public standards. By providing a friendly front-end and a standards-compliant backend, Microsoft is positioning InfoPath as a universal client for products from many vendors. Because it's just a front-end on XML files, InfoPath forms can be used whether you're connected to the network or not. This makes it an ideal rich client for users who travel frequently. They can take a corporate expense report or travel voucher form along on their laptop, and use InfoPath to fill it in. Then when they are connected, the saved XML can be used by other applications. In fact, there's a great way to get the information back to your network even without reconnecting: XML Web Services. It's easy to tell InfoPath that it should use a Web Service to submit data. So in the travel example, the user might connect to an XML Web Service on the corporate server over the Internet and send the completed form directly to the Web Service. On the server, this information could then be redirected into CRM, accounting, and other applications.