SPC14 Session: Update on InfoPath and SharePoint forms

Update on InfoPath and SharePoint forms

Presented by Greg Lindhorst, Sonya Koptyev, Bob Riper

Contextual process apps

  • Awareness of relevant data and content
  • Capture of documents and forms
  • Analysis
  • Collaboration

Technical product roadmap

  • It was a very good product 10 years ago, but things change 🙂
  • Microsoft is still looking for a solution that will replace InfoPath. Last one year this issue is investigated. They need user feedbacks on this subject.

Form types 

Excel surveys (aka FoSS) 

A demo is presented. Surveys can be generated in excel online. When the url of the survey is shared with users and users fill the survey, answers are stored in the excel sheet as rows. After that the data can be analysed with excel functionalities

List forms (aka FoSL) 

A demo is presented. Created a customised form of a sharepoint list. Nice to have a drag & drop functionality in the form designer.

Structured documents 

A demo is presented. Word forms: fillable, printable

App forms 

Access application demo is presented

Continous improvement (identified features and estimated timelines) 

  • 3-6 months: Cascading combos, lookups between lists, sharepoint list workflows, auto form layout from schema
  • 1 year: rules, business logic, hide show sections, mobile touch friendly, personel profile information
  • Later: web service calss, enterprise data, eSignature

Form partners 

  • K2
  • NINTEX
  • Qdabra
  • Formotus

There are lots of question in peoples’ mind. There are so much pepole that have too many InfoPath forms in use. They don’t know what to do. Will Microsoft provide migration tools for InfoPath? Official answer to that question is they don’t know. So the future of InfoPath is still an unkown. But non of the alternatives besides the 3rd party products can replace InfoPath for now.

If you want to give feedback and help to shape the future of InfoPath, go to UserVoice and send your feedback to the team.

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