BDC as Source to the Infopath form

Question

Hi,

I have set up a bdc connection which retrieves info from HRIS. Now i need to populate a dropdown field in the Infopath form with the data collected from HRIS.

What are the ways a infopath form will know about the HRIS as well the Column that i need to bind?

Can a BDC connection be directly provided as a source in Infopath forms as we do for DataBase?

Thanks

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Sreeharsha Alagani

Answer 1

Hi Sreeharsha,

BDC connections cannot be directly used by InfoPath to retrieve data like it can with other connection types (SQL database, Web Services, etc).    You can create your own Web Service to retrieve this data, however.  InfoPath can then make a connection to this web service and pull the data without an issue.

I found the following MSDN article on "Editing Business Data Using Business Data Catalog Actions and InfoPath Forms Services"

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb852170(office.12).aspx

This article should walk you through setting up a web service to be able to obtain data from a back-end system, returning the data to InfoPath to allow it to modify the returned data.  This seems to go a little further than simply returning a list of data to display in a dropdown, but the concepts should be there.

If the MSDN article is not exactly what you are looking for, I would suggest going with a web service to obtain the information you need.  InfoPath is restricted to being able to make data connections to SQL server databases, Access databases, Web Services, SharePoint Lists, and SharePoint Libraries.

Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Regards,
Ian Kavanagh
Microsoft Online Community Support

Answer 2

HI Ian,

The information is helpful. After a deep investigation got to know what you have sais is absolutely right.

Abd there is a fair reson why Infopath need not use BDC. Thanks alot :) 

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Sreeharsha Alagani