Deploying InfoPath Forms

Deploying InfoPath Forms Deploying InfoPath 2007 forms, unlike 2003 forms, is easy. My overall experience of working with InfoPath 2007 was really good. InfoPath 2007 has really matured. There are quite a few changes and deploying the forms has become very easy. Another major problem with InfoPath 2003 was that changing the development machine was very difficult. You lost many changes made to the form during the process but interestingly, InfoPath 2007 provides you a way to transfer forms from one development machine to another. Backward compatibility is also supported for InfoPath 2003 forms. You must have InfoPath 2003 Service Pack 1 to view backward compatible forms created with InfoPath 2007. Let's create a backward compatible form in InfoPath 2007 and deploy it on a server having WSS 2.0 and InfoPath 2003: For demo purposes, we will create a simple user registration form. 1. Open InfoPath 2007 and select Design a Form Template from the "File" menu. 2. Select Blank template and click OK. 3. Add a table with 9 rows and 2 columns and add a text box in the second column of each row. For field names, see the figure below: Add two buttons and change the label of the buttons (See figure above). It's a simple form with no database connectivity or complexity of any kind. Now, let's deploy this form. For testing purposes, I deployed it on a machine that had WSS 2.0 and InfoPath 2003 installed. 4. Select Publish from the File menu. 5. Select the first option To a SharePoint server with or without InfoPath Forms Services and click Next. 6. Enter server URL in the location box and click Next. 7. Only one option "Document Library" will be shown because content types are not supported in older versions. Click the Next button to continue. 8. Select a library from the list of available libraries or create a new one. Click Next to continue. 9. If you are creating a new library, enter name and description for the library and click Next. 10. Click the Add... button to add fields from the form that you want to show in the SharePoint library. Click Next. 11. Click the Publish button. Depending on the security settings, you might be asked to enter your login credentials. You will see a success message. Click Close to close the form. 12. Open the newly created forms library on the SharePoint server to test the form. 13. Click Fill Out This Form. 14. This will open the form. Enter some information and save the form to the library.