If your developing template parts for InfoPath 2007 using Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO) then you will probably hit a stumbling block when you find there is no way to generate the .xtp file required for adding the Template Part into the VSTO ToolBox.

I couldn’t find a way of doing this within VSTO, so after a bit of poking around, it seems that .xtp files are just cabinet files containing a bunch of the raw data. Thankfully creating cabinet files is simple as there are a couple of command line tools to create them shipped with various SDKs.

So, to generate your .xtp file that you need for the toolbox, just add the following as a post build event. All the files you need for a .xtp file are in the “InfoPath Form Template” subfolder of your template part project.

This will drop a .xtp file into the target directory (ie bin\debug) when you rebuild your template part. It will also drop a log file in the same location.

If anyone knows of a way to create a .xtp file automatically using built in tools that I have been unable to find please let me know.

technorati tags:InfoPath, 2007, XTP, VSTO, Visual Studio, missing, .xtp