Category: SharePoint

Continuing on from the creation of our initial class form now we will cover the creation of a few basic fields and calculated fields that will support our no code solution.  This time we will edit our list directly in Internet Explorer.

Part 2 of This Series

From the Beginning

1. Begin by launching Internet Explorer and navigating to your class list.
   1. In my case my address will be: http://localhost/sites/aaronfrench/Lists/Classes/AllItems.aspx
2. Click on the List tab in the upper left hand of your screen and then click List Settings in the ribbon 
3. Here we can see all of our setting and fields for our Class list.  Scroll down and click Create Column
   
4. In the column name field enter Seats Remaining and choose Calculated for the field type
5. Now enter the Formula text box and enter the following formula determined earlier
   1. [Max Participants]-[Total Registered Approved]
6. Change the data type returned to Number
7. Change the number of decimal places to 0
   
   
8. Now click OK
9. Create another field by clicking on the Create Column link again
10. Set up the following settings:
    1. Column Name: Class ID
       1. We will use this column to deal with a limit of SharePoint where we cannot use the ID field in a calculated column
          1. Later we will setup a workflow to assign the list item’s ID to Class ID
    2. Data Type: Number
       
11. Click OK
12. Let’s create another calculated column by clicking Create Column again
13. Set up the following settings:
    1. Column Name: Registration Link
    2. Data Type: Calculated
    3. Formula:

       1. =IF(Status=”Open”,”<a href=”&”http://
          localhost/sites/aaronfrench/Lists/
          Registration/Item/newifs.aspx?Source=http://localhost/sites/aaronfrench/
          SitePages/Home.aspx&ClassID=”&[Class ID]&”>Register</a>”,””))

          1. Note: You will need to replace localhost/sites/aaronfrench/ with the name of your local SharePoint 2013 site.
    4. Return Date Type: Number
       1. Note: Due to a limitation of SharePoint, you will need to select Number as the return data type to be able to create a viable link.
14. Click OK
15. Now we should have three new fields that will support our final solution:
    1. Class ID
    2. Seats Remaining
    3. Registration Link
16.  To see our handy work let’s view our class list and change our class Status to Open.
    1. Note how the Seats Remaining should equal our Max Participants since we have not yet approved any registrations.   We should see our Registration link, but it should not work quite yet.  If you change the class status to anything other than Open the link will disappear.  That is one handy no code solution tip.  Registration users will not be able to register for a class that is not open for registration…Very Nice!  Finally we will not have anything in our Class ID yet since we need to create a SharePoint workflow in SharePoint Designer 2013
       

This completes part 3 of our no code solution using SharePoint

Next time, we will setup a SharePoint 2013 workflow to create the Class ID without using any code.  Then create our Registration form.

Part 4 of the Series

Now it is time to actually get started. Today we will cover the creation of a basic class form using a no code solution tool called InfoPath 2013. Our tool will be hosted on our SharePoint 2013 collaboration site.

Part 1 of This Series

1. Launch InfoPath Designer 2013
2. Select SharePoint List from the New menu
3. Click Design Form
4. Enter the URL of the SharePoint site you will use to host your site
5. Click Next
6. Select Create a new SharePoint list called Classes
7. Click Next then Finish
8. The list will now be created on your SharePoint site
   1. The Default form will show only the Title and Attachments
9. Now we need to create the following fields with the following data types by clicking the Add Field
   1. Status (Choice)
      1. Cancelled
      2. Full
      3. Open
      4. Closed
      5. Completed
      6. Unavailable (Default Choice)
   2. Category (Text)
      1. We will later configure this to pull choices from another SharePoint list
   3. Start Date (Date)
   4. End Date (Date)
   5. Max Participants (Number)
      1. Note: this will be a whole number
   6. Registration Link (Calculated Field/Number)
      1. We will adjust this to allow us to give our users a friend link in the list views
   7. Seats Remaining (Calculated Field/Number)
      1. Used to help the workflows determine if a class is full.
      2. Calculation: Max Participants – Total Registered Approved
   8. Total Registered Approved (Number)
   9. Total Registered Pending (Number)
10. Enter the Display Name Status and select Choice (menu to choose from) for the Data type
11. Enter a default value of Unavailable
12. Click the Edit Choices button and click Add/Modify to add the following choices:
    1. Cancelled
    2. Full
    3. Open
    4. Closed
    5. Completed
    6. Unavailable
13. Click OK and OK again to add the Status field
14. Now repeat adding the following new fields:
    1. Category
       1. Display Name: Category
       2. Data Type: Single line of text
    2. Start Date
       1. Display Name: Start Date
       2. Data Type: Date
    3. End Date
       1. Display Name: End Date
       2. Data Type: Date
    4. Max Participants
       1. Display Name: Max Participants
       2. Data Type: Number
       3. Default Value: 0
       4. Can not be blank checked
       5. Minimum Value: 0
    5. Total Registered Approved
       1. Display Name: Total Registered Approved
       2. Data Type: Number
       3. Total Registered Pending
       4. Display Name: Total Registered Pending
       5. Data Type: Number
15. Registration Link and Seats Remaining will be added directly to the list later
16. Once you have all of these fields added we can start laying out the form
17. Go ahead and delete the Attachments from the form
18. Add a row to the existing table by right-clicking on the blank row that originally had the attachments and clicking on Insert then Rows Below
19. Continue this process until you have 8 new rows
    1. Tip: You can save time adding rows by selecting multiple rows and then clicking Insert Rows Below. This will add a number of rows relative to the number you have selected already.
20. Now click on the fields and drag them to the form. When complete your form should look like this:
    1. I went ahead and adjusted the field, row and form width till I found a look I liked
    2. Note: I went ahead and typed in Seats Remaining as a placeholder for our future field.
21. Now right click on the text box for Total Registered Approved and select Change Control and then Calculated Value
    1. This will make the field read-only
22. Repeat step 21 for Total Registered Pending
23. Now let’s publish our form by clicking the Quick Publish link at the top of the InfoPath Designer.
24. If all goes well you should get this message:
25. Click on the “Open the SharePoint list in the browser” to launch our new form.
26. Click New Item to see our form.
27. Fill in the form with some test data and click Save.
28. Now we have our first class added to the list

Congrats Your First InfoPath 2013 no code form is complete

This completes our first walk through on building our basic class registration form in InfoPath using the no code methodology. We have a lot to cover and I don’t want each topic to get too winded. Next time we will add our registration link and set up our calculated fields.

Part 3 of the series