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An 8-Part MSDN Web Cast SeriesThe goal of these eight Web casts is to learn the key elements of building and deploying XML-based business process solutions using InfoPath and other Office 2003 applications. Using an enterprise scenario-the Sales Call Report and Contract Generation process- these Web casts will walk you through the elements involved in building an end-to-end enterprise solution. Together, these Web casts will show you how to use the InfoPath design environment and platform to create solutions that leverage Web services to interoperate with back end databases including BizTalk and SQL Server. We'll cover the InfoPath form architecture, deployment model, object model and programmability in these detailed Web casts. We will also cover how to develop and deploy Office 2003 XML-based solutions including Word 2003, Excel 2003, and smart document solutions. Session 1 of 8: InfoPath Architecture and Form Design Date: Tuesday, March 16, 2004 Content Level: Level 300, Experienced Speaker: John Peltonen, Partner and Cofounder, 3Sharp LLC Abstract: In Session 1, we will first get acquainted with the architecture of InfoPath. We'll make a few simple changes to the form while in InfoPath and look at what happens to the XML. After this introduction, we will build a departmental solution for processing sales orders. We'll take a base InfoPath form and add some advanced functionality, like configuring a drop-down list to be populated with a secondary data source, building a task pane, configuring some conditional formatting, validating against a database, creating a cascading drop-down list. We'll test the form to make sure it all works. Session 2 of 8: Integrating InfoPath with SharePoint™ and Merging Forms Date: Friday, March 19, 2004 Content Level: Level 300, Experienced Speaker: John Peltonen, Partner and Cofounder, 3Sharp LLC Abstract: In the first part of Session 2, we will learn about Microsoft SharePoint form libraries. We will publish the form we built in Session 1 and specify a SharePoint site. During the publish process, we'll also do InfoPath property promotion, a process by which we can specify fields within our form to become column headings in SharePoint. In the second part of Session 2, we'll look at how form merging works, both in the default, and by creating a custom XSLT. Session 3 of 8: Reporting with Excel through XML Date: Tuesday, March 23, 2004 Content Level: Level 300, Experienced Speaker: John Peltonen, Partner and Cofounder, 3Sharp LLC Abstract: In Session 3, we'll use Microsoft Excel to do some really impressive mapping and analysis of XML data. The possibilities range from the simple one-click Export to Excel, to programmatically inferring and mapping an XML schema to a blank spreadsheet and loading multiple form documents, combining the data, and analyzing it. Session 4 of 8: Business Workflow and BizTalk Date: Friday, March 26, 2004 Content Level: Level 300, Experienced Speaker: John Peltonen, Partner and Cofounder, 3Sharp LLC Abstract: In Session 4, we will begin to create an enterprise-class solution that builds on the departmental solution we created in Sessions 1, 2, and 3. We will talk about business processes in general and how InfoPath fits in. We'll explore some of the different approaches to using BizTalk for workflow orchestration, and we'll look at some of the differences between BizTalk 2002 and BizTalk 2004. We'll look at best practices for schema design, paying particular attention to using an existing form's schema in BizTalk 2004. Along the way, we will create part of the workflow logic that the solution will use in BizTalk 2004. Session 5 of 8: Creating the Enterprise InfoPath Solution Date: Thursday, April 1, 2004 Content Level: Level 300, Experienced Speaker: John Peltonen, Partner and Cofounder, 3Sharp LLC Abstract: In Session 5, we do the real work of integrating the InfoPath form into the business process. As we convert our departmental solution into an enterprise solution, we'll add a lot of functionality to the form. We'll also work with Web services-for example, there is a Web service that submits the form to BizTalk. We'll integrate with Active Directory in order to determine who is logged in and grant them appropriate access to the form. Session 6 of 8: WordML and XSLT Date: Tuesday, April 6, 2004 Content Level: Level 300, Experienced Speaker: John Peltonen, Partner and Cofounder, 3Sharp LLCAbstract: In Session 6, we'll look at how Microsoft Word can play a major role in our solution. We'll need to understand WordML before going on, so we'll look very closely at that, and, just to show how powerful it is and that it's as easy as you want to make it, we'll even build a Word document from scratch. We'll use that exercise to generate a Word receipt based on the XML data from the InfoPath purchase order. We'll also build the XSLT from the WordML to display the receipt. Session 7 of 8: Creating the Contract (Smart Document) from the InfoPath Form Date: Tuesday, April 13, 2004 Content Level: Level 300, Experienced Speaker: John Peltonen, Partner and Cofounder, 3Sharp LLC Abstract: In Session 7, we will build on an enduring theme throughout the sessions: the fact that XML data captured in InfoPath can be reused in other applications. In our enterprise solution, we'll look at how the submitted and approved form is consumed by Word 2003 to generate a contract document without having to reenter customer information. Since the contract document is a smart document, we'll look at how we used Visual Studio .NET 2003 to associate actions with XML tagging within the document to make it easy to create and fill in the contract document. Session 8 of 8: Finishing the Enterprise Solution-Security, Deployment, Offline Caching Date: Friday, April 16, 2004 Content Level: Level 300, Experienced Speaker: John Peltonen, Partner and Cofounder, 3Sharp LLCAbstract: In Session 8, we will look at a few different elements of using an enterprise solution that haven't been covered in previous sessions. We'll look at form security, offline caching, and, finally, deployment. Once we've addressed these aspects of the solutions, we will actually run the entire solution from beginning to end. |
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