Recently spending a lot of time dealing with forms and workspaces in SharePoint 2010. If you require offline access here is a summary.
· SharePoint list Form
o Store data directly in a SharePoint list
o SharePoint list forms are directly connected to one SharePoint list
o Works well offline with SharePoint Workspace
· Form library Form
o Stores data in XML files in a SharePoint form library
o Allows for more flexible functionality including code behind
o Ability to choose the publish location and ability to publish to multiple locations
o Not supported in SharePoint Workspace
o Offline ability with users however would require manually steps to upload to SharePoint or custom app to handle upload
· Common InfoPath form requirements:
o Ease of Use for users
o Ability to fill out multiple forms offline
o Automatically sync to SharePoint when online
o Repeating data on each form (Example: mutiple vacation requests)
o Ability to change form and publish to another list in SharePoint to capture new data
· Solution A: SharePoint List Form
o Pros:
§ Ease of Use for users
§ Ability to fill out multiple forms offline
§ Automatically sync to SharePoint when online: This accommodates the ability to fill out the forms offline and using SharePoint Workspace sync easily
o Cons with Solutions:
§ Repeating data on each form: You cannot include code to fill out data based on a drop down field. However we would suggest including a dropdown that is a look up to another list.
§ Ability to change form and publish to another list in SharePoint to capture new data: When a new field is required and the ability to push data to a new list is needed – we suggest saving the current list as a template (which will include the customized form) and modify the new form and republish to a new list.
· Solution B: Forms Library Form
o Pros:
§ Ease of Use for users
§ Ability to fill out multiple forms offline: This requires InfoPath filler on the client machine.
§ Repeating data on each form: We can use code behind to populate the data based on master list data.
§ Ability to change form and publish to another list in SharePoint to capture new data: The same form template could be updated with new fields and republished to another library easily.
o Cons with Solutions:
§ Automatically sync to SharePoint when online: There is not an automatic way for the offline forms to be synced with SharePoint. The user can upload the forms into the forms library or a custom solution can be built.
