This article provides details, instructions and a function to convert date/time field values into ISO 8601 format when updating date/time fields in a SharePoint list using a CAML query from an InfoPath form.  When updating a SharePoint list item using a CAML query, the date/time field must be in the correct format or the field in the SharePoint list item will not be updated.  Any XML elements in the CAML template after the element containing the incorrectly formatted date/time value will not have an affect on the SharePoint list item either.

InfoPath – CAML Date Time format in when submitting to a SharePoint list via a Web Service

Tips for improving and InfoPath form performance when using data connections to SharePoint lists or libraries. Details include using custom views to limit the number of results retrieved by the data connection. Loading times for forms can be impacted significantly when a large number of data connections are being used that all connect to SharePoint lists and libraries.

InfoPath Performance for SharePoint Data Connections

Use a SharePoint Designer workflow to test if any item in a list has a specific value for a field without the workflow stopping due to a List item not found error.

Ever needed to just check if an item exists in a list in order to perform different workflow actions if the item is not found without the workflow crashing? For example, when building a workflow using SharePoint Designer, you may want the workflow to test if there is an item with the required title that already exists in the list. If the item exists, the workflow can be configured to update the existing item. If no item exists in the list with the required title, the workflow would usually stop due to a List item not found error. To overcome this, the value from the required field in each list item can be concatenated into a single string which then allows the workflow to test using string comparison, which does not result in a workflow error if the item is not found in the list.

How to create a customized Publishing Page Layout using SharePoint Designer which can be used to add publishing pages to a SharePoint site with publishing features enabled. The page is created from a content type which contains additional fields which are displayed on the page both when it is being edited and once it has been published. The article also demonstrates how to display fields only when a publishing page is being edited using an Edit Mode Panel if required. This is useful when there is required meta data for pages created in the library, but do not need to be displayed when viewing the published page.

See Custom Publishing Page Layout using SharePoint Designer for details.

This article demonstrates how to configure an InfoPath form with radio button options, to display a text field when the user selects “Other” from the options. The selected value, or the custom text value is stored in a separate field using rules, which can be promoted to a single SharePoint or database column. Conditional formatting is used to hide the text box until the user selects “Other”.

If you are getting an Updating Content Type failed error after waiting for a few seconds when trying to publish an InfoPath form to a SharePoint Content Type, you may need to reduce the number of fields/columns that are promoted to SharePoint columns in the Content Type. If there are a large numebr of fiwelds being promoted, the form will not publish every time, or at all.

If this is the reason that the form is not publishing, one solution is to create or modify an item in a separate list from the InfoPath form using the SharePoint Site’s Lists Web Service and the UpdateListItems method. The article InfoPath Error – Updating Content Type Failed When Publishing to SharePoint explains how to reduce the number of promoted fields, by sending the data to SharePoint using a CAML (XML) template, the web service and an additional submit data connection.

How to configure a Workflow in SharePoint to monitor the date/time field of a list item and respond at a specific time. The article also explains how to configure a Looping Timer Workflow using SharePoint Designer which sends an email daily until a specific date, or condition is met. See (Looping) Timer Workflows Using SharePoint for details.

Related

SharePoint Looping Workflow – How to: Loop through and process all list items

How to configure a workflow to start at specific time, then loop / repeat periodically (Daily, Weekly)

Create How to wait for a change in any list, wait for multiple field changes in the current item (SharePoint Workflow)

The article explains how to configure a workflow which uses Standard (OOB) workflow actions and is developed using SharePoint Designer. Instead of using the “Wait for field change in the current item” action, the components of the workflow which are completed after waiting is finished are added to a separate “On Change” workflow, which uses standard conditions in the first step to determine if it can continue. If the conditions are not met for the field in the current item, the workflow will stop. If another instance of the workflow is running, new instances will also stop by setting a “Workflow_running” field to yes while an instance is running.

Using this technique gives you more control when waiting for specific criteria to be met. This includes being able to wait until a field in another list item is updated, or waiting for multiple fields in the current item. See How to wait for a change in any list, wait for multiple field changes the current item (SharePoint Workflow) for more details.

A common change to the web.config file for a SharePoint instance is to enable custom errors, and the stack trace of an error when it ocurrs.  Enabling custom errors will result in a more detailed description being displayed instead of the “An Unexpected Error has Ocurred” message or similar.  This will help when troubeshooting issues, as it will tell you where the problem is, or at least point you in the right direction.

The article SharePoint Web.Config: How to Show Full Errors explains the various configuration changes which can be made in order to display more information when an error ocurrs, including enabling custom errors, enabling the call Stack Trace feature, enabling debugging mode, and enabling the ASP.NET tracing feature.  Additional information and tips are also provided for when making changes to web.config files relating to some important steps and considerations which should be taken before making and applying changes to a web.config file.

SharePoint Web.Config: How to Show Full Errors

Ever performed a desktop search to find the web.config file, only to find that there are multiple web.config files on the same server. A number of web.config files are required to configure an IIS web server and SharePoint?

There will be a separate web.config file for each virtual server in IIS which hosts SharePoint site collections. There is also a web.config file for each of the system directories on a SharePoint site, such as the _vti_bin, _layouts, etc. There is also a web.config file which is used to identify trusted web parts.

To find out which directory is used by various SharePoint applications/websites, view the properties of the SharePoint website in IIS and from the “Home Directory” tab, the value in the “Local path” field will take you to the directory where the web.config file is for the specific instance of SharePoint / Application in IIS.

See Where is SharePoint web.config? for more information about the various web.config files which are required to configure SharePoint & ASP.NET web applications, including inforpation about where to find the web.config file for a SharePoint environment.