Design Concept - Would this work?

Last post 01-07-2014 06:17 PM by Hilary Stoupa. 1 replies.

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01-06-2014 09:58 AM

Jen B
Joined on 05-16-2012
Posts 100

Design Concept - Would this work?

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Happy New Year! My team had a major re-org and I’m using it as an opportunity to re-design our work intake form (Infopath/Sharepoint) in the hopes of avoiding the current issues we have - too many fields promoted causing publishing problems and slow response. I’ve tested out a new concept and was hoping to get feedback from some gurus as to whether there are pitfalls I'm not seeing. (What I've learned about infopath and sharepoint is that they are FINICKY!)

The need we have is to have a form to support 10 teams who work on learning & development requests. There are triaging teams, project managers and multiple groups who may work a request. Currently we have a very large form published to one library. Since each team desires a lot of data for reporting, we had to promote 500-ish fields to the one form library. It worked great in testing... then, as the number of requests on the site grew, we ran into publishing issues. Changing time out settings helped for a while, but we're now stuck.

Here’s the new concept I’ve mocked up: · Create 5-6 Form libraries to support only 1-3 teams· Create specific site columns in sharepoint to use as the promoted fields· Create one main form and make 4-5 copies of ito All fields will be named identicallyo Data submit connections made to all form libraries· One form will be published to each library with only the specific fields promoted (as site columns) that are needed by the teams assigned to that library What I’ve confirmed is that one form library can be used as the place to submit requests. Then, depending upon fields checked, the “save” will push the data (and that form) to the other libraries as set up by rules. Hitting “save” when updating the form from those other libraries can then send data back to other libraries for updates to teams like project management.

This way each team gets the fields they need from the form, but I don’t have to promote all to one library. Using the site columns allows the data to be shared without creating workflows. It seems like a good way to go, but I know how infopath and sharepoint can have future pitfalls I may not be seeing. I would appreciate any thoughts on whether this seems like a good way to go. Also, would love to know:1. Is there an easy way to use code to remove the “new” option from those other form libraries?2. Is there any possible way I may be able to migrate the info from requests in the current form (not using site columns) into the “new” structure? (I fear there isn’t) Thank you all for taking time to read and to use your brain power to assist!

Jen

01-07-2014 06:17 PM In reply to

Hilary Stoupa
Joined on 06-20-2008
Posts 13,297

Re: Design Concept - Would this work?

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Hi - when you say make 4 - 5 copies of the form ... maybe it would be easier to publish as a content type? Then use the content type in the different libraries? When you create a new XML with a template, you'll see in the XML (open it up with a text editor) an "href" attribute that links the XML to the original template file. So if you move the XML from one library to another (changing where it is submitted to), it will still have the URL to the template that should open it - that shouldn't cause you an issue necessarily, but I wanted you to be aware of it.

As far as updating your old forms to open with the new form - well, if the data structure in the new form is different, you'll probably need to create an XSLT that can be applied to your existing XML to transform them - that can get a little technical.

I don't really have any good ideas for hiding "new" in a form library except to use SharePoint designer.

Hilary Stoupa

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