Converter log errors (Office SharePoint Server)

Applies To: Office SharePoint Server 2007

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Topic Last Modified: 2015-03-09

InfoPath Forms Services Converters

Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007 includes enhancements that enable you to access external converter applications within InfoPath Forms Services. Converter applications can import data into forms as they are filled out and also can import and export form templates as they are designed.

Benefits of using InfoPath Forms Services converters

The following are benefits of using InfoPath Forms Services converters:

• The converters can be accessed from within InfoPath Forms Services.

• The InfoPath Forms Services framework provides information to help import forms and data.

• The imported forms and data are available immediately after import.

Categories of InfoPath Forms Services converters

The following are categories of InfoPath Forms Services converters:

• Form template importers and exporters

• Data importers

IFormTemplateConverter2 interface methods

The following are IFormTemplateConverter2 interface methods:

• Export: Converts an InfoPath form template to a provider-defined format.

• Import: Converts a provider-defined format to InfoPath form template files.

Converter interfaces

Form template converters specify a list of file types they support, and they process those file types to create an InfoPath form template with manifest (.xsf), view (.xsl), and other files that constitute an InfoPath form template file (.xsn). An InfoPath form template converter is a standard COM automation component that implements the IFormTemplateConverter and IFormTemplateConverter2 interfaces. Implementing the IFormTemplateConverter interface provides compatibility with Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003. The IFormTemplateConverter2 interface provides additional functionality for Office InfoPath 2007 users. To be exposed in the InfoPath Forms Services design mode, the converter also must provide some basic information about itself in the registry, including:

• Display name

• Verbose description

• List of file extensions that the converter supports

Custom data importers

Office InfoPath 2007 provides a framework to create custom importers for importing data from other kinds of electronic forms and documents, as well as from paper forms and documents that are electronically scanned using optical character recognition (OCR) software.

Automating a converter

Form template converters can be automated to enable the bulk import or export of multiple form templates. To automate a converter, use the methods implemented by the converter.

Types of converters

The following are types of converters:

• A Microsoft Office Word .docx to Web page converter

• An Office Word .docm to Web page converter

• An InfoPath form to Web page converter

• An XML file to Web page converter

The Office Word converters pick and transform an Office Word .docx or .docm file into HTML using an XSLT transform. The InfoPath Forms Services converter relies on the InfoPath form template (.xsn) view, which is just an XSLT file, to do the conversion. This lets you create a “Web view” of an InfoPath form and then use it to create Web pages from your InfoPath forms. The XML converter asks for a corresponding XSL file to be used for conversion of documents to HTML. Any application that can output XML and has a corresponding XSLT transform can be used with this converter.

Common errors while using converters

The following table lists the errors that occur while using converters.