Another Look at Forms for SharePoint

In the post InfoPath Era

About Me – Kirk Liemohn

• Principal Consultant - ThreeWill• kliemohn@threewill.com• @kliemohn• Some Focus Areas:– SharePoint since 2007– SharePoint Integrations (Confluence, Jive, Polycom Video)– Search– Migrations– Azure– AngularJS

Agenda

• InfoPath History• Discussion on Forms Options• Deeper Dive on PDF Forms

InfoPath History

• InfoPath 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013 (last version)• Forms Server 2007• InfoPath Forms Services

– MOSS 2007 Enterprise– SharePoint Server 2013 Enterprise– SharePoint Server 2016 Enterprise– O365: Education, E3, E4, E5

• InfoPath Forms for Workflows (e.g., approval forms)

Sources:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_InfoPathhttps://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/library/jj819267.aspx

InfoPath History• Jan 2014 – Microsoft announced InfoPath discontinued

– InfoPath 2013 client supported until April 2023– InfoPath Forms Services for 2013 supported until April 2023– Works with SharePoint 2016– Mainstream support end date: July 2021– Extended support end date: July 2026– Supported on O365 “until further notice”

• Microsoft Discusses Alternatives:– Excel Surveys– Forms on SharePoint Lists (FoSL) – cancelled– Structured Word Documents– Access Apps

Sources:https://blogs.office.com/2014/01/31/update-on-infopath-and-sharepoint-forms/https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/search/default.aspx?sort=PN&alpha=infopath&Filter=FilterNO

Forms Options Today

• What is out there today?

Form Options Today

Key Features

• Form Creation– Power User– Developer

• Integration– SharePoint On-Prem– SharePoint Online– Workflow– Other Systems…

• Form Rules/Logic– Validation– Data-driven Drop-Downs– Pulling in Related Data– Calculations– Hide/Show

• Other Form Features– Signatures (certificate or drawn)– Pictures– Attachments– Location data

• Mobile Access• Offline Mobile Access• Full Fidelity

– Online/Offline/Mobile• Analytics / Reporting• Security• License Costs

Feature / Option Matrix

PDF Forms

• Why PDF Forms?– Raising awareness - consider your requirements first– High fidelity– Offline Mobile Apps (e.g., PDF Expert)– Portable

• Issues– Data driven – requires development– PDF Editors are not all that friendly– Requires development (or 3rd party) to integrate with SharePoint

• Until WebHooks, this may involve Sandboxed or Farm code• Or you could use remote event receivers, but they do not have guaranteed delivery

– Consider Initiation/Submission

• 3rd Party– PDF Share Forms– GoFormz (?)

DemoPDF Forms in SharePoint

Questions?