Essentials of SharePoint Workflow and InfoPath

Introduction

SharePoint Workflow and InfoPath Training

The goal of this Online Live, instructor-led class is to provide students with the essential skills necessary to take advantage of SharePoint Designer Workflows and InfoPath.

This course is an adaptation of our very popular 4 day, in-depth classroom-based course, Mission: Automation - SharePoint Workflow and InfoPath. It is a reduced scope version of that course and consists of the first five modules of Mission: Automation.

The course is designed for those who only need to learn the basics of InfoPath and SharePoint Designer workflows and/or those who cannot attend a physical class in one of our U.S. locations. Students who need in-depth workflow and InfoPath training are highly encouraged to attend Mission: Automation - SharePoint Workflow and InfoPath.

Student learning will be facilitated through a combination of instructor presentations and hands-on lab exercises. A sample company will be used in the labs to teach students how to integrate these technologies to automate business processes.

Microsoft Live Meeting will be used for the lecture and demo portions of the class. Terminal Services will be used by the students to connect to their lab environment. Therefore, each student must have a reliable high-speed Internet connection in order to take the class. Audio for the class will be provided using Live Meeting's integrated Voice-over-IP, so students are required to use a headset with microphone.

This is a Monday - Friday class. The instructor will conduct lectures and demos each morning from 10 a.m. Eastern (7 a.m. Pacific) until 1 p.m. Eastern (10 a.m. Pacific). Then, the students will be free to complete their lab assignments anytime between 2:30 p.m. Eastern (11:30 a.m. Pacific) and 5:00 p.m. Eastern (2 p.m. Pacific). The instructor will be available for questions and help during the lab time in the afternoon. You will be free to work on your server as much as you want and you should probably allot a minimum of 2 hours per day to complete the hands-on labs.

Audience

This course is appropriate for anyone who needs to learn the basics of SharePoint Designer workflows and InfoPath and has had sufficient experience and/or training on the fundamentals of WSS and/or MOSS to be at an intermediate level.

The typical environments that these professionals work in are medium–to-large organizations that desire to use MOSS Enterprise Edition to improve and automate business processes.

Companies that will only be using WSS or MOSS Standard Edition will benefit from the course, but some functionality (Forms Server for browser-enabled forms) is only available in MOSS Enterprise Edition.

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Module 4

"I would recommend this class to anyone that wants to find a simple way to automate their form processes."

"This was the most useful computer course I have taken."

More student feedback

At Course Completion

After completing this course, students will be able to:

Use InfoPath 2007 to create business forms.
Publish InfoPath forms to a SharePoint Server with Forms Server.
Write complex workflows using SharePoint Designer 2007.
Include external data in InfoPath forms.
Convert existing Word and Excel forms to InfoPath forms.
Work with Digital Signatures.

Prerequisites

Ideally, students will have previously completed the Applying SharePoint 2007 - MOSS Core Features course or the SharePoint 2007 Jumpstart. These students will be well-prepared for this class.

Students who cannot attend Applying SharePoint 2007 - MOSS Core Features or SharePoint 2007 Jumpstart first, at a minimum should already be familiar with creating sites and workspaces, creating libraries and lists, working in document libraries, establishing security, editing pages, working with web parts, and working with content types and site columns. It is critical that students have a solid foundational knowledge of SharePoint 2007 before attending this course.

Course Materials and Lab Environment

Students will receive a comprehensive course manual, which will include all presentation materials and lab exercises. The lab exercises are step-by-step and fully documented in the student workbook. To view sample modules of our courseware click here.

Each student will be given access to their own SharePoint 2007 environment on the classroom hardware. In essence, students will be attending a class where a fully functional SharePoint 2007 environment has been set up for their use in learning the product. No pre-installation of SharePoint 2007 software is required for this class.

Students will need a Windows computer (running Windows XP with Service Pack 3 or Windows Vista with Service Pack 1) with a high-speed Internet connection, speakers or headphones (whichever you prefer), and a microphone (a headset with microphone would be perfect). Your computer must be able to connect to our server via Windows Remote Desktop Connection and must allow the small client program of Microsoft Office Live Meeting to install.

Course Outline

(Note: This Course Outline is subject to minor changes and refinements based on student feedback and instructor experience.)

Module 1: Getting Started with Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007

Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007 is a member of the Microsoft Office suite of desktop programs and is a powerful tool for developing XML-based forms. Before getting started with Forms Server, students will begin by learning the basics of using the InfoPath desktop client as a stand-alone tool for creating forms. Students will learn:

What is InfoPath?
What is Data Binding and what are InfoPath forms doing “under the hood”?
What controls are available for InfoPath forms and how do they work?
What are template parts? How are they created? How are they used?

Module 2: Getting Started with Forms Server

Before Forms Server was available, companies had two expenses associated with using InfoPath forms: the cost of the InfoPath desktop client for each user and the cost of training all employees to use the desktop client. With InfoPath Forms Server, only form designers need to have the InfoPath client—users that merely fill out forms can now do this in a web browser without costly training. In this module, students will learn:

The caveats associated with using Forms Server instead of the InfoPath client.
How the Design Checker works.
How to publish forms to a form library and to a Content Type.
How to Upload, Verify, and Manage form templates in Central Administration. And why they might want to use this option.
How to make InfoPath form fields available to SharePoint.
How to configure Submit options, and display forms in a Page Viewer web part.

Module 3: Getting Started with Workflow Designer

With SharePoint Designer, Microsoft has given Information Workers a powerful, yet easy-to-use tool that allows them to programmatically interact with the SharePoint environment. These programs, or workflows, can: route information between users; collect information from users; make decisions; send email notifications; add, update, edit information in SharePoint lists; and much, much, more. Although only one module is dedicated to workflow, the concepts from this module will be utilized throughout the other modules in the class. In this module, students will learn:

How to configure workflow in Central Administration.
What workflows are available out-of-the-box, and how they work.
How to manage workflows:
- Add and remove workflows.
- Understand workflow status.
- How tasks integrate with Outlook.
- Using the Document Information Panel (DIP) in Word for editing tasks (also Office Button, Server Tasks, and Viewing Workflow Tasks).
- How workflow integration differs with different versions of Microsoft Office.
- How to start and manage workflows from within the InfoPath client.

The Components of SharePoint Designer workflows:

Steps.
Conditions and Else-If branches.
Actions.
Initiation Variables and user defined variables.
Workflow lookups.

Module 4: Interacting with External Data and Converting Existing Word and Excel Forms

Most organizations already have forms they are using in Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. InfoPath is capable of converting those forms to InfoPath forms. Quite often, companies already have existing data they would like to reference in their InfoPath forms. InfoPath Forms are capable of dynamically including data from external data sources, such as SharePoint Lists or SQL Server databases, into the forms. In this module, students will learn:

How to convert existing Word or Excel forms to InfoPath forms.
What Data Source Library is.
How to create Uniform Data Connection (UDC) files.
How to utilize UDC files to dynamically include content in an InfoPath form.

Module 5: Working with Digital Signatures

InfoPath Forms can be digitally signed to confirm that the information contained has not been altered. Digital signatures are fully supported in Forms Server. In this module, students will learn what Digital Signatures are and how they work in an InfoPath form.

Students will also learn how to add Rules to InfoPath forms. Rules allow form designers to add business logic and decisioning to InfoPath forms to greatly expand their capabilities without the need to write code.

Upcoming Classes

Registration Fee Includes

The registration fee includes your tuition, class manual, and available lab assistance during specified times.

Available Discounts

(Note: If you are signing up for one of our free webinars, these discount policies are not applicable)

For web-based classes:
We offer a $200 per person discount to the following:

Government Discount - Employees of government entities at the federal, state and local level.
To receive the discount, please use the promo code GOVT during registration.
Academic Discount - Employees of universities, colleges, secondary schools, primary schools and school districts.
To receive the discount, please use the promo code ACAD during registration.
Non-Profit Discount - Employees of non-profit organizations.
To receive the discount, please use the promo code NONP during registration.

We offer a $100 per person discount to the following:

Group Discount - Employees of for-profit organizations that send two (2) or more students to a class.
To receive the discount, please use the promo code GROUP during registration.
Returning Student Discount
To receive the discount, please use the promo code RETSTUD during registration.

All discounts are mutually exclusive: no discount may be combined with any other discount or offer.

To inquire about eligibility, please call 615-515-0210 ext 2.

Cancellations

A registrant may reschedule an Online Live training class once without financial penalty.

Any registrant canceling registration within 15 days of the start of the class will be charged a $300 cancellation fee. Any registrant canceling registration up to 15 days before the start of the class will be charged a $100 cancellation fee. Any registrant who has already received his/her class manual must return it before a refund can be processed. Refunds, less cancellation fees, will be sent no later than 30 days after the scheduled class start date, or after the manual has been returned.

Additional Questions

Answers to our most commonly asked questions regarding our Online Live training classes may be found here. Please feel free to contact us at 615-515-0210 x2 or email us at training@sharepointsolutions.com if we can answer any additional questions.