InfoPath Dev

Hey

We are trying to accomplish the following:  

What we want

• We have a single InfoPath form
• We expect multiple versions of this form over time (maybe 100 and up to 1000) over the next couple of years.
• We want to use the same InfoPath document and utilize Form Template multiple versions functionality
• When an earlier InfoPath instance is open (the XML file) it must look exactly as it did when is was created (that is - just like the version the template was created with) but new forms must the the most current form version.

What we do

• We make the changes in InfoPath Designer 2010 and publish as administrator approved and use the following versioning setting in the designer:
• Version (higher than last)
• Update template: (automatically update the template)
• Update existing forms: Do nothing
• Upload to Forms Services Template Library (via Central Administration) using Upgrade form.
• Activate to Site Collection  

What we see:

• All new template correctly uses the new template
• Existing templates are also altered when opened (but not consistently).

This is NOT what we wanted. We have also tried to change URN in the InfoPath doc. with no luck

How do we correctly achieve our goal as described in the first section?

Regards Anders R. Jacobsen

Is this a browser form?  I don't think this applies to browser forms, because when the form is rendered, it is connected to a template (XSN), so unless you have multiple templates (i.e. separate content types), it has no way to maintain the previous schema/layout.  It can't know what this is - it can only call from the existing template.  With client forms, the XSN is cached locally, so the user gets to decide whether they want to update their local copy to the new version.  They can refuse, but if they click "new," then it downloads and caches the new copy of the template, which causes existing forms to open with the new template as soon as the next one is opened.

To keep old forms using their template, I believe you'll need to have a separate template for each version.  Why do you want so many different versions of the same form?  That's not typically how InfoPath is used.