Basic setup for InfoPath 2010 Person/Group picker

Question

After configuring a Person/Group picker in InfoPath 2010 I couldn't get the "Filler" version of the form (client enabled, not web enabled) to successfully pull names from Active Directory. I thought that I had set everything up correctly, and I mostly had. In my answer I'm going to give a quick play-by-play for setting up a Person/Group picker.

Answer 1

First things first. Create an InfoPath form, put a Person/Group picker on it.

1. Create the "Context.XML" file - described here
2. Use Notepad or any text editor
3. Enter in the following snippet: <Context siteUrl="http://mydomain.com"/>
4. Change the domain name to your own domain
5. Save the file as "Context.xml" and upload it to a universally accessible location on your SharePoint site
6. It is important that it be placed in a location where all form users have at least "Read" access

Now we set up the data connection in MS InfoPath

1. Create a data connection called "Context"
2. Set the data connection to "Receive"
3. Set your data source as an XML document

4. Enter the URL of the uploaded XML document on your SharePoint site as the location of the XML file

5. I personally chose "Include the data as a resource file in the form template or template part"

6. Name the connection "Context"

7. I personally left the "Automatically retrieve data when form is opened" checkbox selected.

8. Now publish the form!

At this point my form was successfully able to access the AD listing. Prior to that I had gotten a "Server did not respond" error (or something along those lines).

I hope this proves to be helpful!