Accessing Forms Tool Records
This section describes how to access Forms tool records, and how to handle the Forms2RecordDataSet complex type. It also describes the QueryRecords, ReadRecords, UpdateRecords, UpdateUnreadMark, and DeleteRecords operations that access the records in the Forms tool. See the GrooveForms2 reference documentation for a detailed description of the Forms2RecordDataSet complex type.
Structure of the GrooveForms2 Forms2RecordDataSet
The Forms2RecordDataSet complex type contains a Schema and a Data element. The Schema element contains schemas that describe the records in the Data element. This self-describing structure makes it possible for the GrooveForms2 operations to access Forms tools, where each tool can define a different set of fields and each form in the tool can contain a different set of fields. But this self-describing structure requires more complex code to process it than other Groove Web Services operations that have fixed schemas.
There are two ways to process the Schema and Data elements:
Convert the Forms2RecordDataSet complex type to an ADO.NET DataSet. You can use the ADO.NET DataSet XML features to parse the Data element using the Schema. After you have converted it to an ADO.NET DataSet, you can then access the records in the DataSet. If you are creating or updating records, you can convert an ADO.NET DataSet into a Forms2RecordDataSet.
Parse the records and fields in the Data element using the .NET XML application programming interfaces (APIs).
Because there is no mechanism in Groove Web Services to lock the data in a workspace, you can update the Forms tool record data as soon as you have read it. It is important to understand that you have a snapshot of the records. If you convert a Forms2RecordDataSet to an ADO.NET DataSet, there is no automatic update connection between the data in the Forms tool and the ADO.NET DataSet.
In This Section
Using ADO.NET DataSets to Access Forms2RecordDataSet Data
Accessing the Forms2RecordDataSet Data Using XMLDocument
Reading Records Specified by URI
See Also
Concepts
Groove Forms Tools Versions and Web Services
Accessing Forms Tool Design Information