Chapter 19. Central Administration

This chapter dives into the administrative aspects of InfoPath Form Services using SharePoint 2010 Central Administration. SharePoint 2010 Central Administration is used to administer forms and Forms Services within your SharePoint farm.

Access the InfoPath Form Services Options

On one of the servers in your SharePoint farm, launch SharePoint 2010 Central Administration. A link is provided from the Start menu under All Programs, Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products.

In Central Administration, click the General Application Settings link from the quick launch on the left side. The InfoPath Form Services options are located on that page, as shown in Figure 19.1.

Figure 19.1. The InfoPath Form Services options allow you to modify the settings of your SharePoint farm.

Browser-Enable Form Templates

From Central Administration, General Application Settings, click the Configure InfoPath Form Services link under the InfoPath Form Services section. Make sure the first two check boxes are checked at the top of the page, as shown in Figure 19.2.

Figure 19.2. Checking the browser-enabled options allows SharePoint forms to be published and rendered on your farm.

The first selection allows browser-enabled forms to be published to SharePoint, and the second selection allows those forms to be rendered through the web browser.

Throttle Data Connection Timeouts

Your form will attempt to connect and access data sources based on your configured data connections. If the data source is not accessible, busy, or down, InfoPath Forms Services needs a way to time out the connection such that the form or the browser doesn’t stop responding.

From Central Administration, General Application Settings, click the Configure InfoPath Form Services link under the InfoPath Form Services section. Under the Data Connection Timeouts section, increase or decrease the values, as shown in Figure 19.3.

Figure 19.3. The data connection timeout values you set determine how long InfoPath waits for data activity.

Throttle the Data Connection Response Size

When connecting to data sources, you do not want to overload other systems. Limiting the response size determines how many kilobytes the data connection can process.

From Central Administration, General Application Settings, click the Configure InfoPath Form Services link under the InfoPath Form Services section. Under the Data Connection Response Size section, increase or decrease the values, as shown in Figure 19.4.

Figure 19.4. The response size value you set determines how many kilobytes the data connection can process.

Modify Authentication Settings

Several data authentication options are available that either allow or prohibit certain types of data connectivity, including the following:

• HTTP Data Connections: Select this option to require SSL encryption when your form uses HTTP authentication (such as when accessing a web service).

• Embedded SQL Authentication: Select this option if you have data connection files that contain SQL database connection information, including the username and password.

• Authentication to Data Sources: Select this option to allow custom forms to access data sources through data connection files.

• Cross-Domain Access: Select this option if your form needs to access data sources on a different domain than SharePoint.

To configure these settings, from Central Administration, General Application Settings, click the Configure InfoPath Form Services link under the InfoPath Form Services section. Under the authentication sections, check or uncheck the options, as shown in Figure 19.5.

Figure 19.5. Checking the authentication options permits InfoPath to use various types of data connections.

Configure Session State

When a user is filling out a SharePoint form, Form Services uses the SharePoint Server State service to manage user sessions. Transient data is stored within the session state.

Several settings are involved in the session state configuration:

• Number of Postbacks per Session: Typically, there shouldn’t be too much chatter between the form and InfoPath Forms Services. This setting prevents unintended postbacks or “out-of-control” communications.

• Number of Actions per Postback: There should only be a handful of actions per postback. Once again, this is prevent a form process from pegging server resources.

• Active Session Duration: By default, active sessions are terminated after 1,440 minutes, which essentially is 24 hours. This is more of a cleanup process than anything. Some forms may take a long time to fill out depending on the information required, but one day should be plenty of time.

• Maximum Size of User Session Data: This determines how much data can be stored for the active user session. The default is 4096KB, which equates to 4MB. This provides plenty of room to store user session data. Typical forms and user information should take up only several kilobytes if not bytes.

If the user session lasts too long or there too many postbacks to the server, the session is ended based on the configured settings. All form data will be lost, and the user will need to start over. This is done to prevent unintended communication, limit network traffic, and limit system resource utilization.

To configure these settings, from Central Administration, General Application Settings, click the Configure InfoPath Form Services link under the InfoPath Form Services section. Under the Thresholds and User Sessions sections, modify the values, as shown in Figure 19.6.

Figure 19.6. Modifying the thresholds and user session values configures the session state.

Upload a Form Template

Forms that have code-behind or that require full trust cannot be published directly to SharePoint. These forms must be published to a network location and then uploaded to InfoPath Form Services.

To upload a form to InfoPath Form Services, follow these steps:

1. Launch Central Administration
2. Click General Application Settings.
3. Click the Upload Form Template link under the InfoPath Form Services section. The Upload Form Template page appears, as shown in Figure 19.7.
   

   Figure 19.7. The Upload Form Template page allows you upload a form to InfoPath Form Services.

   

4. Click the Browse button to locate the form.
5. Optionally, click Verify to verify the form can be uploaded without any conflicts or errors.
6. Leave the Upgrade selection checked to upgrade any existing forms. If you uncheck this option, the new form will replace any existing form.
7. Leave the Allow Existing Sessions to Complete option selected so that users are not interrupted. Otherwise, select the Terminate option to essentially end all current user sessions.

What Happens When a Form Is Uploaded?

When a form is uploaded, it generates a feature for your SharePoint farm. The feature files are generated in the SharePoint 14 hive under TEMPLATESFEATURES, as shown in Figure 19.8. The feature folder is prefixed with FT for form-template.

Figure 19.8. Uploading a form generates a feature folder.

The feature is deployed globally to your site collections and can be activated just like any other feature. The form feature appears in the Site Collection Features list, as shown in Figure 19.9.

Figure 19.9. The form feature is available as a site collection feature.

Manage Form Templates

After forms are uploaded, they can be managed within the Manage Form Templates page. Selecting a form’s drop-down menu shows the various actions available, as shown in Figure 19.10.

Figure 19.10. Each form can be managed by selecting the actions in its drop-down menu.

The actions available are as follows:

• View Properties: Displays all the information pertaining to the form.

• Activate to a Site Collection: When you upload a form, it generates and deploys a feature for your form to each site collection in your farm. This action activates that feature on the site collection you choose.

• Deactivate from a Site Collection: This action deactivates the form feature of the selected site collection.

• Quiesce Form Template: This action will halt the initiation of new form instances and allow existing user sessions to complete.

• Remove Form: This action deletes the form from InfoPath Forms Services.

What Happens When a Form Is Activated to a Site Collection?

When a form is activated to a site collection, the site collection feature for the form is activated, as shown in Figure 19.11. The form is now available as a content type in your form library, as shown in Figure 19.12.

Figure 19.11. Activating a form activates the site collection feature.

Figure 19.12. Activating the site collection features allows the form to be used as a content type.

See the “Use Multiple Forms in SharePoint Libraries” section in Chapter 8, “Submitting and Publishing in SharePoint,” for more information about content types.

Enable the Web Service Proxy

The InfoPath Form Services web services proxy can be used to access web services without passing the credentials of the form user. A set of credentials for the web service need to be stored within SharePoint’s Secure Store service (SSS), which is the replacement for Single Sign-On (SSO).

A data connection file that your InfoPath form is using as a web service connection simply needs to be modified by adding a UseFormsServiceProxy attribute with a setting of "true" along with an Authentication element that references the Secure Store application ID. If the UseFormsServiceProxy already exists, make sure the value is set to "true".

Listing 19.1. UseFormsServiceProxy Attribute

<udc:ServiceUrl UseFormsServiceProxy="true"/>

Listing 19.2. Authentication Element

<udc:Authentication>
    <udc:SSO AppId="<<AppID>>" CredentialType="<<credential type>>"/>
</udc:Authentication>

The possible credential types are as follows:

• Basic

• CD

• Digest

• Kerberos

• NTLM

• SQL

To enable the use of the web proxy, from Central Administration, General Application Settings, click the Configure InfoPath Form Services Web Service Proxy link under the InfoPath Form Services section. Enable the proxy settings, as shown in Figure 19.13.

Figure 19.13. Checking the options enables InfoPath Form Services to use the web service proxy.

Manage Data Connections

Central data connection files can be managed within the Manage Data Connections Files page. Selecting a file’s drop-down menu shows the various actions available, as shown in Figure 19.14.

Figure 19.14. Each data connection file can be managed by selecting the actions in its drop-down menu.

The actions available are as follows:

• Edit Properties: Displays the modifiable properties of the data connection files

• Delete: Removes the data connection file from the centrally managed data connections