InfoPath Forms and Workflows in SP 2010

Wylde Solutions

Sydney SharePoint User Group

18 September 2011

Sydney, Australia

Agenda

InfoPath Forms InfoPath 2010 Forms & Form Templates Usage in SharePoint 2010 Demo

Workflows Workflows and SharePoint 2010 Standard vs. Custom Authoring tools Demo

Q & A

InfoPath 2010

InfoPath Designer 2010

InfoPath Filler 2010

InfoPath Forms Services

Forms & Form Templates

Form Templates are form designsCreated using InfoPath DesignerHosted or standalone

Forms are XML documentsFilled using InfoPath Filler or browserCan be submitted anywhereContain link to Form Template

Usage in SharePoint

Custom List Forms

Form Libraries

External List Forms

Workflow: Association, Initiation, Tasks etc.

Demo

Three repositories: Custom List, Form Library, External List

Also related lists: Incident Source Types, Incident Types

Database contains three tables to replicate the data structure

Creating and/or modifying InfoPath forms for SharePoint lists

InfoPath in SP2010 - Advantages

Easy and quick way to generate forms for Custom and External Lists

Great WYSIWYG form designer

Extensibility

Limitations of Custom List Forms

• No support for document libraries

• No support for managed metadata columns

• No way to publish somewhere else and/or reuse

• No way to generate form for content type

• No support for custom code

Limitations of Form Libraries

• Need to create a form library though it’s not always a business requirement

• For columns of type Person there is not standard way of passing the values

Limitations of External List Forms

No custom code if use with External Item Pickers

No support for additional Data Sources

Common InfoPath Limitations

Browser-enabled forms lack true Web experience

More or less complex scenarios require strong technical knowledge

Printing capabilities

Workflows in SharePoint 2010

Business process automation

Workflow management system

Standard vs. Custom

From http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sharepointdesigner/archive/2010/02/22/overview-of-human-workflow-in-sharepoint-2010.aspx

Workflow Authoring Tools

SharePoint Designer 2010

Visio 2010 Premium

Visual Studio 2010

Etc.

Demo

Scenario Incident submitted -> BU Manager is notifiedBU Manager investigates and if severity is high then

notifies Operations ManagerOperations Manager provide outcomes and if

required notifies external people

Workflow Management in SP 2010

Advantages Easy to create, modify and publish sequential workflows New features for visual authoring and tracking and new

steps and functional improvements Flexible and extensible platform built on WWF Form customization is pretty easy

Disadvantages Lack of interoperability between standard tools SharePoint Designer workflows can be only sequential

and UI is not user-friendly Need strong technical knowledge to create complex

workflows

Q & A

Your questions and suggestions

http://wyldesolutions.com/SharePointQuestions.aspx

Resources

http://claytoncobb.wordpress.com/

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/infopath/

http://wyldesharepoint.blogspot.com

Reference

Slava Gorbunov – slava@wyldesolutions.com

Web site: http://wyldesolutions.com

Blog: http://wyldesharepoint.blogspot.com

Twitter: @SlavaGorbunov