Build InfoPath Form On Existing SharePoint List

A few days ago, one of my clients, who is a new SharePoint business user, wanted to create an InfoPath form on an existing SharePoint List. It is a really easy task but as a new SharePoint user, he didn't know the facts and terms of SharePoint which made it difficult to instruct him by phone.

 

To address such issues with many people who are not very strong in SharePoint, I have created an easy step by step procedure to create an InfoPath based SharePoint form on an existing SP list which will support the previous data of that list. So, I have shared the procedure in this article and I hope it will help other newbies as well.

Tool

• InfoPath Designer 2013
• SharePoint List with existing item
  

Background

As we are building the InfoPath on an existing list, we have to select a list on which we are going to build the InfoPath. So, I have selected the list named “TestListforDemo”. It is a custom SharePoint list. And, the list already has two items.

Fig: The existing Custom List

And now, we have the default form for its item incretion. Here is the snapshot of the current default New Item Creation form.

 

Fig: Default New Item Add form

Now, we have already existing items on this list. We will create the InfoPath form on this list which will insert a new data and can read and edit the existing data as well. The step by step procedure to create the InfoPath Form is given below.

Steps

Step 1

First, open your InfoPath Designer 2013. 

Fig: InfoPath Designer 2013

Step 2

Now, select “SharePoint List” as shown above.

Step 3

After clicking that option, a new window will be opened.

Step 4

Now, provide the SP site URL on which you have the list and click "Next". 

Step 5

So, a new window will appear where you need to select “Customize and existing SharePoint list” radio button as we are trying to create the InfoPath on the existing SharePoint List.

Step 6

As I am trying to create the InfoPath on “TestListForDemo” list, I have selected it.

Step 7

And then, click "Next" button as shown in the figure.

Step 8

Now, a new window will open with the InfoPath form designable mode.



Step 9

A by default designed InfoPath form is built which you can edit as you like.

Step 10

And, in the right portion, these are the list columns which are already created in the list.

Step 11

One important thing here is that it is better to create the list column from the list instead of creating from inside of the InfoPath Designer.



Step 12

Now, edit the InfoPath form as I have removed the attachment field which is not needed for my business.

Step 13

And I also have created the “Save” button which will save the data on the list.

Step 14

Here, we can create some validation and conditional rules using InfoPath Rules.

 

Step 15

Using Infopath Rules, Validation, Formating and other actions can be done in InfoPath Form. And you can add different actions using these rules.

Step 16

To add rules, select the field on which you want to add the rules and click on the "Add Rules" option as shown above.

 

Step 17

After completing the development, we can easily publish the form from the upper menu, as shown in the figure above.

Step 18

Now, if you check in your list that the InfoPath is incorporated with, you can view and edit previous data and create a new data also.

Step 19

Here, this is the form which is created by InfoPath.

Step 20

I have inserted value through this form.

 

Step 21

So, the new data which is inserted by the infopth form is similer to the previous one. And the data type will also be same.

Step 23

To open or Edit the existing data, click the previous 2nd item with Title 2. 



Step 24

This is the Display View of that item. As we can see, it is showing the Infopath Form View.

Step 25

And if we click the Edit Item button, it will open the item in Edit View with our designed InfoPath form.

Notes

With this procedure, the InfoPath build form will be as the default form for all the three views: New, Edit, and Display. But we can create more than one view and make them incorporated with the help of SharePoint Designer.