InfoPath Forms 2013: Part 1

InfoPath is designed to make it easy to build rich forms-based applications on the Microsoft SharePoint Server platform. Microsoft InfoPath 2013 in conjunction with Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013 and InfoPath Forms Services has many features for developers. InfoPath Forms Services, that is available in SharePoint Server 2013, enables you to deploy an InfoPath form template to a SharePoint Server so that users without the InfoPath rich client can open and fill out InfoPath forms in a Web browser.

New Features

  • SharePoint Sandboxed Solutions
  • Publish Forms with One Click
  • Enhance SharePoint List Forms
  • Host Forms on Portal Pages using the InfoPath Form Web Part
  • Richer Web Forms
  • Standards Compliant Browser Forms

New Controls

The feature gap between client and browser forms has been narrowed, creating a more consistent form-filling experience for all users. Controls and functionality that are now supported in browser forms include the following:

  • Bulleted, numbered, and plain lists
  • Multiple selection list boxes
  • Combo boxes
  • Picture buttons
  • Hyperlink capabilities
  • Choice group and section
  • Date and time controls
  • Person/group pickers
  • Filtering functionality

Write and Edit Code using Visual Studio

The Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Applications IDE that was integrated with InfoPath 2010 has been removed in InfoPath 2013. To write or edit form code in InfoPath 2013, Visual Studio 2012 is now required with the Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Applications 2012 add-on installed. The programming experience itself has not fundamentally changed, but you can now use the full Visual Studio development experience when writing managed code for your InfoPath forms.

Create a simple InfoPath form

Open the InfoPath Designer

Infopath1.jpg

Double-click the SharePointFormLibrary

Infopath2.jpg

After that we need to create a group

Infopath3.jpg

Enter the name of the group and select the Type as "Group"

Infopath4.jpg

Here we are entering some fields in that group

Infopath5.jpg

Select the field's data type

Infopath6.jpg


We entered four more fields

Infopath7.jpg

Drag and drop all the fields to the from tables

Infopath8.jpg

Create a repeatable table

Here we are creating "EducationalInfo"as the Repeating Table

Infopath9.jpg

Now the form is showing like:

Infopath10.jpg

Publishing the InfoPath form to the SharePoint Library

Infopath11.jpg

Before publishing the form we need to save that from

Infopath12.jpg

After saving, the form publishing wizard will open and here we need to enter the site URL

Infopath13.jpg

Here we uncheck the option "Enable this form to be filled out by using a browser" (this part I will explain later in Part 2).

Infopath14.jpg

Here we are creating a new library

Infopath15.jpg

Enter the name of the new Library

Infopath16.jpg

Here we need to select group

Infopath17.jpg

Inside the group we need to select the fields

Infopath18.jpg

Now it's verifying the form information and then click "Publish"

Infopath19.jpg

The from published successfully

Infopath20.jpg

Refresh the site and add a new document

Infopath21.jpg


Now the InfoPath forms open and we can insert some values

Infopath22.jpg

In the repeatable table we have an option for showing in the figure

Infopath23.jpg

Click on the "Save" button; its values are directly saved in the SharePoint Library

Infopath24.jpg

Refresh the site and its showing the data

Infopath25.jpg

Summary

In this article we explored how to create simple InfoPath forms and how to publish them into a SharePoint site.