Does SharePoint secure or disable hyperlinks in InfoPath browser forms?

Question

A coworker has been tasked with adding a hyperlink to an InfoPath 2010 form which will open an outside application. He has successfully created his hyperlink and tested it in the InfoPath Filler application (not a browser). When he loads the form in a browser, though, the link doesn't work. In IE it just opens a blank window and in Firefox it just reopens the form (same location url).

An important thing to note: The protocol of the hyperlink is NOT http. Instead it is an in-house protocol handled by software we've written and deployed to all our machines.

It works like this: ourProtocol://app=SomeApplication?arg=Argument. Normally, when a link like this is clicked the OS checks for an application registered to handle ourProtocol and then our app takes care of the rest.

So, my question is: Does SharePoint apply and security measures to links in InfoPath forms? I'm guessing that the link may be disabled because the protocol isn't http. Or could there be a setting to disable links in forms?

Another note: I had a quick peek at the source form when rendered in a browser and the hyperlink target string is there, but in a JS call.

Answer 1

The link within an INfoPath form is set to use a .js script when used from the browser. There is a problem with this in that, browser forms have always had to have specific levels of trust in order to take action on a user's client machine. It appears that this link you are using actually is to open an application that is local to the client. I am afraid that you are going to run into the same problems that printing a form runs into, which requires a lot of custom coding to take place within the form. The default behavior for links in InfoPath is to open them in a new window, I'm sure this is why you get the new blank window. You may need to consider some custom code that will call your application for browser forms.