Beginning InfoPath™ 2003

18.2. Creating the Database

When you start to create any database, you need to move the physical world tasks and items, in this case the boiler information, over into the electronic world of the database. To be a good backend or data store, the database, must fulfill several business requirements, in this case to answer the following questions:

1. What boilers are out of the predefined specs?

2. Which boilers are falling out of spec over and over again?

3. How often is the boiler falling out of spec?

4. Which operators are finding the most boilers out of spec?

5. How is the boiler system behaving as a whole?

6. How long is it taking the operators to complete the boiler inspections?

7. Can the InfoPath form expedite data collection?

To answer these questions, a database was created to maintain boiler information. To work with the data in the tables, a plan was created that includes these major tasks:

• Designing the Database using Microsoft Access to support the InfoPath frontend

• Designing the XML Web service to deliver the data to the clients

• Designing the InfoPath document to display or collect data from the Web service

These tasks can be accomplished using a wide array of technologies. For this case study, Access was chosen as the data store for the simple ease of use, without incurring the cost overhead of SQL Server.

The preceding bullet points directly reflect how the solution is broken up into three different logical steps in order to create the best overall solution utilizing the best patterns and practices. ...