InfoPath Dev

I’m not sure if it's just me or the application but I have yet to figure out how to alter an existing form without corrupting past forms. At the risk of starting a flame war, this seems like a big limitation of the application.

For example: I have a form that is used on board new clients.  A sales person fills the form out and then submits it to data processing, accounting, finance and so on.  Each department has a section in the form that they use to enter data into their own systems.  The form is extremely complex and is always being updated with additional data connections, new fields or altered fields...

So if I alter a field, modify or delete a section, then it either corrupts the existing forms or alters them.  I think I understand why this happens.  The form is just a template and by altering the template you alter all the exiting forms based on that template.  But this seems mind bogglingly crippling as to make the form useless in the case of complex processes that are bound to evolve over time.  It seems logical that once a form is created I may want to change the form and not alter existing forms or the data in them, with out having to create a new library evertime I make a major change.

Or am I missing something?

We aren't really a flame war kind of a site.

I can understand why you consider this a limitation - many of us would consider it to be a benefit. By separating the data from the template, my template can grow and evolve, and as long as I don't delete or move schema nodes, my old XML will open without data loss. Yes, as a form designer, this puts a burden on you to keep your legacy data intact and to handle for it. But if I redesign my entire form UI, it is great that my existing XML can open with the new template without any issues.

You can use content types, if you like - your library can have different versions of your form template associated with it, and your old XML will open with the previous version - you just have to publish as a new content type when you make these major revisions.

Hilary, as usual you have an answer for my every issue, well just about!  :) 

I do not know why I didn't think of just publishing a new content type.  Now I see why this is the prefered method when publishing a form. 

After I'm dont hitting my head against my desk I'll do that, and thank you very much. 

Steve