This documentation will guide you how to publish an InfoPath form to SharePoint Server 2007. Published forms in SharePoint will be used as a template in a library, particularly in a form library.
Create a Form LibraryYou need a Form Library in SharePoint before you publish the InfoPath form as a template to the library. If you can publish directly from InfoPath to SharePoint, you have the option to create the library on-the-fly when you are publishing the form using the publishing wizard. However, if you need to publish it manually, the library must be created before the form is published.
To create a form library, go to any site collection and click on
Site Actions – Create (you must have permission to do this)
Under Libraries, choose the
Form Library. Enter the name of the library, description and click the
Create button
Create the InfoPath FormStart designing the InfoPath form template. Make sure when creating a new form template, the ‘
enable browser-compatible features only’ is checked – if you want to be able to open the form from the web browser. This allows users to view/open the forms without having to have InfoPath application installed on their PC.
This document does not teach you how to design an InfoPath form. Please visit Microsoft website for more details how to design InfoPath form.
Setup the InfoPath Property PromotionYou can promote the properties of the InfoPath form so that they become available as the content type of the form library in SharePoint. This allows you to view the properties of the InfoPath form directly from the SharePoint columns of the library.
From the InfoPath click:
Tools – Form Options …Click on
Property Promotion category
Click
Add… button and choose the fields to be added and click
OK
Setup the InfoPath CompatibilityAfter you have finished designing your template, set the compatibility to be web browser enabled.
From the InfoPath click:
Tools – Form Options …Click on
Compatibility category
Tick the ‘
Design a form template that can be opened in a browser or InfoPath’ checkbox
Optionally, you can enter the URL where the Forms Services is running to verify the form with the server
Setup the InfoPath Security SettingSecurity setting must be set to: Domain
From the InfoPath click:
Tools – Form Options …Click on
Security and Trust category
Select the
Domain radio box
Verify the InfoPath FormClick on the
Design Checker from the Design Tasks panel once you are ready to publish the form
Make sure you are getting 0 errors:
Publish the Form Template to SharePointTo publish the form to SharePoint, click on
Publish Form Template… from the Design Tasks panel
From the publishing wizard, you will see four options. You can try to publish directly to a SharePoint server by choosing the first option
Enter the URL of your site collection in which you created the form library
However, you might get the following error message:
If you are getting this error message, it is most likely that you cannot publish the form directly to the SharePoint server. Microsoft does not have solution at the time of this writing – workaround will be discussed later (Publish to a network location). Note this error only happens to InfoPath 2007. If you are using InfoPath 2003, most of the time you can publish directly to SharePoint.
If you are not getting the error message, you will be prompted to choose which library do you want to publish the form template to. Just follow the wizard.
If you successfully published the form directly to the SharePoint, you should have a new form template replaced with your InfoPath form template in your form library when you are creating a new document from the library
Publish InfoPath to a Network LocationThis publishing method is an alternative or work around to publish the InfoPath form to SharePoint if the form can not be published directly to the SharePoint.
To publish the form to a network location, click on
Publish Form Template… from the Design Tasks panel
From the publishing wizard, choose the third option
Specify the form template path where to save the form template (local or shared folder) and give the name for the form template
For the access path, make sure you left this field
empty (!!)
Warning dialog box come out, click
OK
Click
Publish to finish
Upload The Published InfoPath Form Template to the MOSS Form TemplatesYou must have permission to SharePoint central administration to upload the form to form templates.
Go to
Central Administration – Application ManagementUnder InfoPath Forms Services, click on
Upload form templateBrowse to the form that published earlier and click
UploadIf you see error message, fix the template and try to upload again
Activate the New Form TemplateThe new form template must be activated before it can be used throughout a site collection.
Go to
Central Administration – Application ManagementUnder InfoPath Forms Services, click on
Manage Form TemplatesFind the new form click on the arrow button and choose
Activate to a Site Collection
Choose the site collection and click
OKAdd the content type to the Form LibraryOnce the form template has been activated, the template can be used as a new content type for a library.
To assign the form template as a content type for a form library:
Go to the form library
Click on
Settings – Form Library Setting
Under General Settings, click on
Advanced settingsChoose Yes for allow management of content types, and click
OKUnder Content Types, click on
Add from existing site content typeFrom available Site Content Types, choose the new content type, click
Add > and
OK
Note: Under columns, you should see new columns that are the template properties being promoted earlier
Assign the Columns to ViewBy default, the view does not show the new content types. View must be changed to be able to show the content types.
From the form library, click on View:
All Documents – Modify this View
Under Columns, tick the checkboxes that needs to be displayed and change the position as needed
Test the TemplateThe template has now been assigned to the form library. If you click new, you should see the new template name
If you choose the new template, is should open the InfoPath application (if you have it installed on your PC) or render the form to HTML based form. Once you have finished filling out the form, it depends on how the form was designed, it should be saved to the form library
When the form is saved to the library, you will see the properties of the from are picked up by the columns content type
