Let’s face it. We have often caught ourselves longing for those fancy looking forms in SharePoint at some point or the other. There is a plethora of products available in the market, each with its unique traits and usability. This article lists down my favorite forms that can be integrated within SharePoint, and give it the custom look you’ve always wanted. (Disclaimer: The list is based on my personal opinion ONLY. There may be many more I am not aware of).
InfoPath
The all-ruling and all-favorite InfoPath made its debut in 2003. Generations later, it is still considered as one of the client-favorites. It can be installed on your local or server. Once the necessary settings are configured, a link for customizing the list forms will be available in the SharePoint Ribbon.
InfoPath boasts of its many data services, form rules, actions, etc. It has a very rich and intuitive designer, encompassing almost all the form elements, including support for repeating section.
SharePoint Designer
SharePoint Designer (SPD) is a freeware by Microsoft. It lets users work directly with SharePoint artifacts for rapid development. You can link your existing SharePoint list by providing the URL and get started with your design. Depending on the type of form (New/Edit/Display), .aspx pages are created that renders and controls the form.
SPD allows show/hide of fields based on custom criteria, re-arrangement of the fields, change of layouts of the form, add labels, texts, and graphics. Etc. All these can be done without any programming. The XSL, HTML or ASP used by the forms can also be changed with very intuitive code changes.
SPD can be downloaded for free from MSDN site.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/download/details.aspx?id=35491
A sample SPD form,
PowerApps
PowerApps – the fairly new offering from the O365 suite - is another powerful form building tool, primarily targeted for mobile/tablet based forms. PowerApps is browser-based and is very easy to use. SharePoint lists can be customized as per user needs. With PowerApps, you do not need to rely on InfoPath for all those form changes.
It is directly integrated with SharePoint, without the need to install other apps in o365 ecosystem, with its almost code-less customizations. From the list options, we can see the option of PowerApps. Click on it to launch the PowerApps studio and get started on your form designs.
Here is a link to get you started.
Nintex
To begin with, the seamless integration with SharePoint works wonders for Nintex forms. The list artifacts are categorized and displayed in a very neat and clean order, making to and fro adjustments for the SharePoint list/library control very simple. Additionally, you can insert your own HTML designs (within limits) or work with CSOM (JavaScript/jQuery) techniques very easily, to make your SharePoint even more customizable. Support for custom CSS is vast.
All these factors make Nintex a great form designer in SharePoint. Also, you just need to design a single form for all 3 modes of the list – create/display/edit. The ease of launching and going into the browser-based designer is very simple – once this product is installed in your farm, and the necessary features activated, you can see the Nintex forms icon in the ribbon of your list.
Here is a quick demo to get you started, and below is a sample form design,
K2 SmartForms
K2 SmartForms for SharePoint is a powerful browser-based form building program. Its O365 version is known as K2 Appit. SmartForms and the famous SmartObjects lead to very fast, rich and highly-customized forms in SharePoint. It offers a code-less form solution, however, support for CSOM elements are available.
Forms are built here with reusable views (after converting them to SmartObjects) and are used as building blocks to assemble even more forms. The other features it supports are – Conditional Logic, seamless integration with workflows, drag and drop, electronic signatures, etc.
Here is the link to get started,
Join the conversation! Your thoughts help the community grow.