Transferring Context Between Infopath Form

Hi Alex,

Having done something very similar to yourself I think I can lend a hand.

1. 
   
2. Design your smartobject so that it contains a primary key autonumber
   
3. Create the Load, and Save methods for your smartobject
   
4. On your first form, when you save your data from your InfoPath controls to your smartobject, use the submit rules to store the returned autonumber as a hidden field on your InfoPath form
   
5. Using the _K2 data source added when you use the infopath integration wizard, you can also store the ProcessID and ActivityID in your smartobject
   
6. In your workflow, you now know you can get the autonumber (from form XML), ProcessID and ActivityID from the _K2 datasource on form 2
   
7. I usually archive the form (to a SharePoint library), and set some form metadata to contain the autonumber also
   
8. In your second form, retrieve the autonumber from your smartobject using the processID as a lookup and Load the smartobject data onto your form so the user can approve the data

I hope this kinda makes sense.

Martin

Alex, my apologies, i've just looked myself and they aren't there... !

I'll check what I did when I get back to work on Monday, however I suspect I did the following:

smartObjectID = <whatever value you need from either K2 or previous forms> 

// we need to get the xml from the K2 state data for my form2
// Note: 'form2Name' is the name of my infopath form as it appears in the K2 Object Browser
string k2xmlString = K2.ProcessInstance.XmlFields["form2Name"].Value.ToString();

// get stuff from form2
XmlDocument xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
xmlDoc.LoadXml(k2xmlString);

// create a namespace manager for InfoPath
XmlNamespaceManager nsMgr = new XmlNamespaceManager(xmlDoc.NameTable);
nsMgr.AddNamespace("my", xmlDoc.DocumentElement.GetNamespaceOfPrefix("my"));

// set the value of a hidden field to be equal to the id required for retrieving the correct smartobject
// NOTE: I've got a hidden text box on my infopath form calledn 'hiddenSmartObjectID'
// that i'll be using later
xmlDoc.SelectSingleNode("//my:Form2Fields/my:hiddenSmartObjectID", nsMgr).Value = smartObjectID;

//Now set the value back into the XML Field
K2.ProcessInstance.XmlFields["form2Name"].Value = xmlDoc.OuterXml;

 in form2 you can now use the hidden field to gain access to the correct smartobject.

I'm not sure if you'll hit any issues if the form has not been opened before you do all this coding, but the coding is a simple server event code.

 have a go and see what you find out... i'm pretty new at this too.

Martin

P.S. thanks to http://k2distillery.blogspot.com/ (japergis) for putting this idea in my head!

Yeah, sounds like it might work, however you should bare in mind that the ExtraInfo field may get used by some other part of K2 blackpearl, i'd wait until on the of the K2 guys on here reply with a definitive answer.

I suspect that the extra info field would differ from form to form, so altering this on one form would not impact on the other.

 Creating a hidden field on the form shouldnt be too difficult though.

Martin

Have a read of this thread http://k2underground.com/forums/thread/21787.aspx

I'm sure the solution in there will help you do exactly what you need. I don't think using the 'extrainfo' field is a clean implementation.

Martin

Looks like from the tests that I have run, and the response from K2 Support, there is no way around it.
Seems that you have to split the XML, after you have submitted the InfoPath Form, in a server event, and then assign that value to a K2 DataField.

Then to parse that value back to the InfoPath Task Form, you need to do the reverse.  In the code behind the InfoPath Form Activity, you need to split the XML Schema of the form, and parse the DataField value in to a datasource field.

The rest of the assignments can be done through a nice wizard or on the InfoPath Form(s) itself.  It's all very disjointed.  But doesn't seem to be a way around it if you wish to deal with InfoPath, SharePoint and K2 together.