Datasheet

a web - based rendering of your Visio diagrams and even includes data connectivity so that you
can have Visio Services refresh the diagram data from your backend systems. The back and forth
between Visio and SPD can occur numerous times; it ’ s not just a one - way export.
Forms Support in SharePoint Designer
SPD 2007 supported only ASP.NET forms for user initiation and modifi cation of workfl ows. This
limited the end - user - friendliness of both creating and consuming workfl ows. With 2010, SPD now
fully supports InfoPath for creating workfl ow forms. This makes it easier for power users to create
these forms, as InfoPath is easy to use, and it also makes the forms more powerful because you get
the full InfoPath functionality, including data validation, connectivity, and customizability.
What ’ s New in Forms
SharePoint 2007 provides good support for forms, either web - based or InfoPath - based forms. With
2010, many of the enhancements are to embed forms even deeper into the SharePoint platform so
that InfoPath forms can replace many of the default functions for which you would normally have
to write web - based forms. These enhancements make InfoPath a critical piece of technology that
you should learn and understand.
Replacing Default Forms with InfoPath Forms
In SharePoint, there are default forms for creating and editing list items. You can override the
controls on these forms, but it requires coding and numerous administrative tasks. With 2010,
you can replace these forms with InfoPath forms, which will be rendered in the browser and on the
client. With InfoPath, you can perform advanced logic and even data connectivity in these forms.
Also, because InfoPath is both rich - client - and web - enabled, these forms will work offl ine if you
have the InfoPath client installed and SharePoint Workspace, which is discussed next.
What ’ s New in Groove (SharePoint Workspace)
The biggest new feature in the client for SharePoint is SharePoint Workspace (SPW). SharePoint
Workspace is actually Groove renamed and rearchitected to be a rich SharePoint client. With SPW,
you can synchronize your SharePoint lists, libraries, and forms, and work with these items offl ine.
In fact, you can use BCS and InfoPath to synchronize LOB data to the client to work with that data
and those forms offl ine and synchronize that data back to the LOB system. Outlook still supports
synchronizing libraries offl ine, but with the new SPW, you ’ ll fi nd that you will use SPW as your
primary client, especially if you ’ re working over slow connections or there is latency to your server,
as SPW can work in a primarily offl ine mode.
SUMMARY
This chapter covered a broad view of the new capabilities in SharePoint 2010. It provided a
good overview to help level set the functionality in the product so as you write your code, you
can understand which features may be the best to leverage to meet your application ’ s needs.
Throughout the rest of the book, more details will be provided on these new features and how to
program against these features to build robust and very capable SharePoint 2010 applications.
Summary
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