InfoPath 2013 will be the last client for this attempt, by Microsoft®, to equip SharePoint with a full-featured forms design, publishing, and management capability.
But there is a roadmap, going forward, for SharePoint forms. Some points on this roadmap were presented at SharePoint Conference 2014 in a session titled “Update on InfoPath and SharePoint Forms”.
Sonya Koptyev, Senior Product Marketing Manager, explained some of the drivers impacting on how Microsoft will likely proceed as the new forms publishing capability is rolled out.: “People expect, their devices, their processes, and their data to be everywhere . . . So awareness is very important” She described the imperative, for Microsoft of ” . . . managing the steps of the activity [forms processing], how do you make it fluid? Personal and flexible, so that wherever users are they find the data, process they need.”
All of the above syncs very well with a consistent effort to provide a cloud backend to the new system. This cloud infrastructure will permit communities of SharePoint users to interact with their processes and data, successfully, within a BYOD hardware environment — mobile smart phones, tablets, laptops, desktop PCs and more.
The session included a demonstration of a new forms system, built with Excel 2013 Services. The audience was invited to complete a survey form located on a web page. We successfully accessed the form, and completed our entry, from a Nokia Lumia 925 Windows Phone.
The utility of the system demonstrated during the session, at least as it was presented, can be built on either an on premises SharePoint 2013 infrastructure, or SharePoint Online. If you would like to learn more about how the system as it was demonstrated at the conference, please contact us.
SharePoint-Videos.com offers a substantial amount of training content on InfoPath 2007, 2010, and 2013. Sets of training content on this topic are available for either individual, or group viewing. You can find a complete list of the specialized training sets, “DVDs” (note: we fill orders by electronic download to ensure our customers receive the content they’ve purchased right away), on SharePoint technical topics on our site.
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