I don't understand why this seems like such rocket science. I've spent 2 days on the internet researching and testing many and various ways to do this, but am no further ahead.
I created an Infopath 2013 form and set up the data connections and list library back into SharePoint. All is working as expected.
The intent of this form is to be filled out by the general public at various trade shows using Surface tablets. The tablets will be offline and not connected to the internet or back to SharePoint in any way. When the form is filled out, I need a way to submit or save the filled out form locally on the tablets... then submit them back to the SharePoint library later when I bring the tablets back into the office and connect back to the network.
I copied the Infopath form to the tablet, and can bring up the form using Infopath filler.
My dilema is I still haven't found a method to submit or easily save the filled out forms locally on the tablets The scenario above seems really straight forward, and have seen this done multiple times at many trade shows or events where companies do forms/surveys to get opinions from the general public. But for as simple as this seems, I can't seem to get any of the multiple solutions that are talked about on the internet working, nor does there seem to be a standard or clear procedure for doing this, which makes it all the more confusing and frustrating. I have seen solutions on the internet for trying submitting/saving forms locally like:
- Person fills out the form on the device using InfoPath filler, then manually goes to File > Save As in InfoPath. This seems really cumbersome and a manual process, and a typical person at a trade show isn't going to know or understand this procedure and will be required to change the filename everytime.
- In light of the above solution, another solution suggested was to create a new Save button right on the form itself, and edit the code of that button to try and have the button save the form locally to a pre-determined location on the device when the button is clicked. I haven't been able to get this to work.
- Use SharePoint Workspace on the local device to sync the form submissions once the device is attached back to a network. I haven't got this to work either cause I can't even get the forms to be submitted locally to the device in the first place.
- Create a new Web Service on each of the devices, then set up a Data Connection on the form to submit to the Web Service on the device. I've tried setting this up multiple times using multiple instructions on the internet, but can't get any solution to work either.
This is all very frustrating. As mentioned I see forms/surveys being filled out all the time at trade shows. Maybe all the companies are using other products (other than InfoPath/SharePoint).
Can what I'm attempting to do... even be done using InfoPath, or should I be looking for a totally different solution?