What version of SQL Server are you using?

The trade off or compromising just don’t seem worth it in my mind, but I’m willing to be wrong on this one, as the alternative generally means a more flexible and maintainable framework for my clients.

As one of those ‘small-d’ developers (I’m all about the no-code solutions), I saw InfoPath as a way to give our users a better, more intuitive way to enter data into a list. Being able to pre-populate fields from an external data source like a SP list or User Profile Service without having to rely on code?! Sign me up!!!

… and then I tried to build out my solution. InfoPath isn’t a deployed application on our network, so I had to rely on InfoPath Forms Services to render out the form. I was prepared for the functionality trade-offs relying on IFS, but wasn’t prepared for the other concessions I had to eventually make like form formatting NIGHTMARES and a completely frustrating experience duplicating fields on the form I had to create; which, by the way, consisted of 10 different pages and about 350 fields. And don’t get me started on the issue of trying to jam data from a repeating table into a SP list. For something that should be seemingly simple, ended up being completely scrapped and done another way.

Fortunately, as you said, I tried to keep things simple and gently ‘dissuade’ the client from certain functionality so I could keep it within InfoPath but unless I require pulling data from the User Profile Service, I prefer building out a new form within SPD. I feel like I’ve got much more control there, and don’t feel nearly as restricted as I do in InfoPath.

Having said that, I’m quite proud of the final IFS product I released. I couldn’t have done it without InfoPath. I’m excited about what I’ve been reading regarding InfoPath Designer’s functionality within SP2010 (especially workflow form customization) but am still going to approach cautiously.

This latest project was an instance of a ‘successful’ InfoPath deployment because we kept the requirements dead simple. Any time we ran into a roadblock with InfoPath, we altered the business requirements to work.

And I don’t think it came off as hating at all But you got it, right person, right use case, and it’s a great return.

With the exception of one case, all of my InfoPath experience has been handed to me based on Power User’s using InfoPath Designer finding that they need code to solve a requirement that is too granular, or the sheer amount of work required in the Designer to achieve it. Funny enough, the main catalyst usually being pre-populating the people picker. I tend to try and leverage OOB field validations or Event Receivers for field validations, however there is always that case where they want conditional validation to occur based on information already entered or against external sources that always seem to demand VSTA, or prior to submitting any information.

In the case of the managed meta-data, we were fully invested in the concept of it. Finding out there was no way to surface it in InfoPath was a shock. I had to write my own control leveraging SharePoint web services to account for that. The Managed Meta-Data service has it’s own administrative component that puts the power into the hands of the users, but in order to leverage it in InfoPath, BAM, you need a developer. It’s just never been that straight forward in my experience.

My experience with users post-deployment has been centered around tweaking validations and look-and-feel. The painful part with validation iterations is knowing whether it needs to be implemented in the content type, the event receiver, or in the form itself, all the while keeping all of the other consumers of those artifacts in mind. It can be painful if the change is required in the content type, and explaining the ramifications of where the change is going to occur, and what it is going to impact, and the time required to implement and test that change has been half the battle.

All of that being said, I’m looking forward to that use case where I can say I solved it in InfoPath in a painless way.

Excellent comment and thanks for contributing to the discussion. I try to tread carefully when it comes to making very strong opinions about any technology, because experience and wisdom take time, and there will always be moments where you learn something you didn’t think was possible or vice versa.

Completely agree with respect to granular requirements, that’s a great way of putting it. I just can’t get over how difficult it is to do the simplest things. The other one I forgot to mention was being able to pre-populate the current user’s information on the form. I know you can do it in InfoPath, but as you’d mentioned, it’s not mature enough to make trivial things like that easy to do.

Also, it’s probably worth mentioning that while the intention is to enable power users, I can tell you that 9 times of out 10, they get flustered using a tool like InfoPath and need my help anyways. But I suppose it makes the basics easy, like changing the validation on a field. Do you find that to be true also? What is your experience with users post InfoPath form deployment?

Thanks for posting about the managed meta – that’s a huge bug in my mind and really helpful to know.

I hear the argument for enabling power users, but the same could be said of letting them customize in production with SharePoint designer to produce non-sustainable solutions, not because of the power user’s ability, but the SharePoint’s inability to allow the Power User to take SPD customizations and marry it to conventional SDLC (easily).

When SharePoint reaches the stage of maturity where power users can make sustainable applicationsusing SPD, Workflows and InfoPath, then I think it gives more weight to this argument, but the truth is, it’s just not there yet right now for that argument to stand on it’s own in the SDLC.

Just wanted to share my InfoPath black eye, and after many ‘ARRGHHHH‘! moments, I’ve come to accept that in 2010, the “seamless integration with managed meta-data”, is not so seamless.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepoint2010customization/thread/a5ed0700-8c4a-4150-a439-8929da282c41#e9b4643d-f2e6-4ed8-aa4c-2fba15e150ae

Thanks for sharing!

Have you used a tool like firebug or inspector to determine if that style is being overridden somewhere, or if it’s being correctly applied to the right element?