More than one way to write code: Visual Studio and InfoPath
If you need to write some Visual Basic or C# code behind your form, or maybe just some script, there are a few different tools you can use depending on which versions of InfoPath and Visual Studio you have.
Here's a quick table summarizing it all:
| InfoPath 2003 | InfoPath 2007 Beta | |
| No Visual Studio | Microsoft Script Editor (MSE) | Microsoft Script Editor (MSE) OR Visual Studio Tools for Applications (VSTA) |
| VS .NET 2003 | InfoPath 2003 Toolkit for Visual Studio .NET | Not supported (use MSE or VSTA, above) |
| VS 2005 | InfoPath 2003 Toolkit for Visual Studio 2005 | Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office (InfoPath 2007 Support) (related post) |
Note that both Microsoft Script Editor (MSE) and Visual Studio Tools for Applications (VSTA) come with InfoPath 2007 Beta, so you can open them from the Tools | Programming menu. If you don't see the one you want, change the language in Tools | Form Options. If it gives you an error that it's not installed, here's how to install them:
- If you are going to install VSTA, make sure you have the pre-requisites first:
- Go to Start > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs
- Select your Office installation and click Change
- In the Office Setup wizard select to add features
- Find Microsoft Script Editor (under Office Tools) and/or Visual Studio Tools for Applications (under InfoPath > .NET Programmability) and select Run from my computer
- Finish the wizard
Happy code writing!
- Ned