Problem With InfoPath 2007 and SharePoint Namespace Handling

I was working with some InfoPath 2007 + MOSS 2007 + BizTalk Server 2006 R2 scenarios, and accidentally came across a possible problem with how InfoPath is managing namespaces for promoted columns.

Now I suspect the problem is actually “me”, since the scenario I’m outlining below seems to be too big of a problem otherwise. Let’s assume I have a very simple XSD schema which I will use to build an InfoPath form which in turn, is published to SharePoint. My schema looks like this …

Given that schema (notice ElementFormDefault is set to Qualified) the following two instances are considered equivalent.

…

Whether there’s a namespace prefix on the element or not doesn’t matter. And as with any BizTalk-developed schema, there is no default namespace prefix set on this XSD. Next, I went to my InfoPath 2003 + SharePoint 2003 + BizTalk Server 2006 environment to build an InfoPath form based on this schema.

During the publication of this form to SharePoint, I specified two elements from my XSD that I wish to display as columns in the SharePoint document library.

Just to peek at how these elements are promoted, I decided to “unpack” the InfoPath form and look at the source files.

If you look inside the manifest.xsf file, you’d fine a node where the promoted columns are referenced.

<xsf:listProperties>
	<xsf:fields>
		<xsf:field name="Age" 
		columnName="{...}" 
		node="/ns1:Person/ns1:Age" type="xsd:string">
		</xsf:field>
		<xsf:field name="State" 
		columnName="{...}" 
		node="/ns1:Person/ns1:State" type="xsd:string">
		</xsf:field>
	</xsf:fields>
</xsf:listProperties>

A namespace prefix (defined at the top of the manifest file) is used here (ns1). If I upload the two XML files I showed above (one with a namespace prefix for the elements, the other without), I still get the promoted values I was seeking since a particular namespace prefix should be irrelevant.

That’s the behavior that I’m used to, and have developed around. When BizTalk publishes these documents to this library, the same result (promoted columns) occurs.

Now let’s switch to the InfoPath 2007 + MOSS 2007 environment and build the same solution. Taking the exact same XSD schema and XML instances, I went ahead and built an InfoPath 2007 form and selected to publish it to the MOSS server.

While I have InfoPath Forms Server configured, this particular form was not set up to use it. Like my InfoPath 2003 form, this form has the same columns promoted.

However, after publishing to MOSS, and uploading my two XML instance files, I have NO promoted values!

Just in case “ns0” is already used, I created two more instance files, one with a namespace prefix of “foo” and one with a namespace prefix of “ns1.” Only using a namespace prefix of ns1 results in the XML elements getting promoted.

If I unpack the InfoPath 2007 form, the node in the manifest representing the promoted columns has identical syntax to the InfoPath 2003 form. If I fill out the InfoPath form from the MOSS document library directly, the columns ARE promoted, but peeking at the underlying XML shows that a default namespace of ns1 is used.

So what’s going on here? I can’t buy that you HAVE to use “ns1” as the namespace prefix in order to promote columns in InfoPath 2007 + MOSS when InfoPath 2003 + SharePoint doesn’t require this (arbitrary) behavior. The prefix should be irrelevant.

Did I miss a (new) step in the MOSS environment? Does my schema require something different? Does this appear to be an InfoPath thing or SharePoint thing? Am I just a monkey?

I noticed this when publishing messages from BizTalk Server 2006 R2 to SharePoint and being unable to get the promoted values to show up. I really find it silly to have to worry about setting up explicit namespace prefixes. Any thoughts are appreciated.

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