InfoPath Forms Services roadmap

Applies To: Office SharePoint Server 2007

This Office product will reach end of support on October 10, 2017. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see , Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.

Topic Last Modified: 2017-01-23

In this article:

• Before you begin

• Configure InfoPath Forms Services

• Design form templates

• Deploy form templates

• Additional resources

InfoPath Forms Services is a feature of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Enterprise Edition that enables you to deploy browser-enabled forms that do not require the installation of Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007 on the client computer. If you choose not to enable InfoPath Forms Services, you can still deploy InfoPath forms in your environment, but users must have Office InfoPath 2007 installed on their computers to open and edit them.

This roadmap page provides links to Web articles and other resources to help guide you in implementing forms in Office SharePoint Server 2007.

Before you begin

Before you begin designing or deploying InfoPath form templates, review the following overview topics. These topics describe InfoPath Forms Services capabilities and customization options that are available to form template designers, developers, and administrators.

• Introduction to InfoPath Forms Services

• Getting Started with InfoPath Forms Services (developer) (developer)

• Scenarios for using InfoPath and InfoPath Forms Services

• Ways to share a form template

• Windows SharePoint Services and Forms Services (Webcast)

• Working with forms

• InfoPath 2007 features that are unavailable in InfoPath Forms Services

Plan form template design

• Plan what form templates are needed (Office SharePoint Server)

• Plan for naming form templates (Office SharePoint Server)

• Plan form template design infrastructure requirements (Office SharePoint Server)

• Plan custom form templates (Office SharePoint Server)

• Plan server-side data connections needed for form templates (Office SharePoint Server)

Plan form template deployment

• Plan deployment of form templates (Office SharePoint Server)

• Plan deployment of administrator-approved form templates (Office SharePoint Server)

Plan server supportability and maintenance

• Plan for upgrading form templates (Office SharePoint Server)

• Plan for retiring form templates (Office SharePoint Server)

• Plan version control for form templates (Office SharePoint Server)

• Plan for mobile device access to form templates (Office SharePoint Server)

• Manage session state (Office SharePoint Server)

• InfoPath Forms Services best practices

• Manage form templates (Office SharePoint Server)

Configure InfoPath Forms Services

Before you deploy browser-enabled form templates, you must configure InfoPath Forms Services. You do not need to separately install InfoPath Forms Services because it is installed as a core component of Office SharePoint Server 2007 Enterprise Edition. If you do not plan to deploy browser-enabled form templates, you do not have to enable InfoPath Forms Services.

For more information about configuring InfoPath Forms Services, see the following resources:

• Configure InfoPath Forms Services for Office SharePoint Server

• Configure session state for InfoPath Forms Services (Office SharePoint Server)

Design form templates

You can use Office InfoPath 2007 to design browser-enabled form templates that users can fill out by using either Office InfoPath 2007 or a Web browser.

When you design a browser-compatible form template, the same form is used in either the browser or in the client program, which simplifies the processes of form template design and management. You can also build template parts, which are reusable components that you insert into multiple form templates. Template parts that are designed with browser-compatible features can be used in both InfoPath forms and browser-enabled forms. In addition, you can create forms for mobile devices.

For more information about getting started with InfoPath forms in Office SharePoint Server 2007 and about designing form templates, see the resources listed in the following sections.

Overviews and demos for form template developers

• Designing Form Templates With the New Features of InfoPath

• Creating InfoPath Form Templates That Work With Forms Services

• Life cycle of a form template

• Creating browser-enabled forms (video)

Form design considerations

• Creating and inserting InfoPath 2007 template parts (lab)

• Security considerations of InfoPath Forms Services

• Designing InfoPath 2007 forms for mobile Web browsers (lab)

• Designing Form Templates For Use On A Mobile Device

• Web browser compatibility in InfoPath Forms Services

• Specify the compatibility settings for a form template

• Overview of Web Service Support in InfoPath 2007 (developer)

Managed code development

• Developing InfoPath 2007 Managed-Code Solutions

• Using the InfoPath 2007 object model and Visual Studio Tools for Applications

• Integrating InfoPath 2007 forms in Web sites using Visual Studio

• Overview of the InfoPath Designer API for Integrating InfoPath 2007 into Visual Studio 2005

Data connections and data connection libraries

• Introduction to data connections

• How to: Create and Use a Data Connection Library

• Data Connections in Browser Forms (blog)

• The anatomy of a UDC file (blog)

• About Data Connections, Authentication, and Alternate Access Mapping

• Design a form template based on a Web service

• Design a form template based on a Microsoft SQL Server database

• Design a form template by using settings in a data connection library

• Submit form data to several locations

• Add a data connection by using settings in a connection library

• Pulling CRM Data into InfoPath 2007 Browser Forms

• UDC file authoring tool (tool)

Deploy form templates

Before users can fill out a form in a Web browser, you must publish your browser-enabled form template to a server that is running InfoPath Forms Services. For form templates that contain managed code, require full trust, or use data connections that are managed by an administrator, the server farm administrator deploys the form templates to a central location, and then activates the form templates to one or more site collections. Site collection administrators can also activate form templates to their site collections. For information about deploying form templates, see the following resources:

• Deploy form templates (Office SharePoint Server)

• Deploy administrator-approved form templates (Office SharePoint Server)

• Form template deployment considerations for site collection administrators

• How to: Evaluate and approve a form template

• Deploying and managing InfoPath forms (lab)

• Publishing an InfoPath 2007 Form Template to a Server Running InfoPath Forms Services (lab)

• Publish a form template to a server running InfoPath Forms Services

• Enabling digital signatures in InfoPath 2007 form templates (lab)

• Restricting permissions to InfoPath 2007 forms and form templates (lab)

• Hosting the InfoPath 2007 Form Editing Environment in a Custom Windows Form Application (developer)

Additional resources

• InfoPath Resource Center

• InfoPath Team Blog

• Guide to InfoPath 2007 Developer Documentation

Download this book

This topic is included in the following downloadable book for easier reading and printing:

• Design and build sites for Office SharePoint Server 2007

See the full list of available books at Downloadable books for Office SharePoint Server 2007.