Office 2003 XML

A More Complete Example

So far we’ve looked at only the bare minimum of what goes into making an InfoPath solution. Now we’ll jump in from the opposite extreme and show a complete, working example. In addition to illustrating more features of the form definition file, this example will further demonstrate how InfoPath interprets certain XSLT constructs to establish implicit bindings between HTML nodes in the form view and XML nodes in the source document. So far, we’ve seen how text bindings are established, using the xsl:value-of instruction. This example will additionally demonstrate the use of structural bindings, as we’ll see in Section 10.4.3.

Tip

While the example in this section illustrates a great deal of functionality, there are still a number of features not covered here. I recommend consulting the InfoPath online Help system to fill in the gaps. In particular, consult the “InfoPath XSF Reference” for comprehensive coverage of the form definition file format, including a reference for the XSF schema. From the InfoPath Help task pane, select Table of Contents → InfoPath Developer’s Reference → InfoPath XSF Reference.

Figure 10-5 shows our example form from the user’s perspective. It is a form for creating new “events,” which might ultimately be displayed in the context of an event calendar. The “Title” field is surrounded by a blue border. This is InfoPath’s built-in behavior for indicating the currently active field, which is independent of how the view stylesheet instructs ...