K2 process errors after submitting an InfoPath form used by a Client Event
By default, when an InfoPath form is submitted, it will ask the user if he/she would like to save the form. InfoPath also will then give a "form was submitted successfully" message. This can potentially create problems for a form that is being used by a K2 client event.
When an InfoPath client event is used, the K2 process will automatically attempt to clean up (e.g. delete) the XML forms that it created for the client event. However, it can't do that if the specific XML file is locked within SharePoint. When a user takes too long to respond to these previously mentioned prompts, the lock on the file in SharePoint is still in place when the K2 process attempts to delete it. Thus an error is generated and the process moves into an error state.
It is very easy to correct the actual processes in error state as a result of this condition, just navigate to the Error node within K2 Workspace, select the process(es) and click Retry. However this is an instance by instance remedy, it does nothing to prevent it from happening again in the future.
To avoid this situation, you can disable the prompting of these dialog boxes (and thus cause the file to be locked as soon as the form is submitted). This can be done by opening the form within Design Mode:
To Turn off Submit Messages:
- Tools -> Submit Options
- Tick the “Allow users to submit this form” checkbox
- Click Advanced
- Untick the “Show success and failure messages” checkbox
To Turn off Save Option:
- Tools -> Form Options
- Select the Open and Save category
- Untick the “Save and Save As” checkbox