InfoPath Dev

We just migrated from SP2010 to SP2016 on prem, and now our agency is looking to move everything to SharePoint Online. I am in the middle of developing a project and am curious as to whether it will work in SP Online... Project description: User requests purchase of items. Request must get routed for multiple reviews. Upon approval of request, items must be extracted into a separate list so a program office can report on whether items considered to be accountable have been entered into our agency's property management system. I have created an InfoPath form that submits to a form library. I found instructions online that involve editing the manifest.xsf that allow me to extract the items into a separate list. This works... but if we migrate this project to SP Online, will this still work? If I need to be able to make an edit to the manifest.xsf file will I be able to?

I've not heard of this approach for submitting list items - can you direct me to the instructions you followed? If this approach uses the lists.asmx service, it won't work in SharePoint Online, unfortunately, but in general, the lists.asmx + CAML approach doesn't involve the manifest, but adding some additional data connections to the form.

I wrote up instructions for the process to extract the items out of the repeating table and I wanted to attach it but the forum won't allow Word doc or PDF attachments. It uses an XML resource file, plus the lists.asmx / UpdateListItems data connection. Editing the manifest is needed in order to tell the form which value in the form template to assign to the individual tags in the XML. (Forgive me if I'm not using the right terminology!)
I don't know if this is going to format in a way that makes sense but here's an example of where I edit the manifest, by putting "[@Name = "Title"]" after Field...
xsf:ruleSet name="ruleSet_149"
xsf:rule isEnabled="yes" caption="SubmitLine" condition=". = ../my:TableLine"
xsf:assignmentAction targetField="xdXDocument:GetDOM("Requested Items XML Resource File")/Batch/Method/Field[@Name = "Title"]" expression="../my:Description">
xsf:submitAction adapter="Web Service Submit Items and Services from Repeating Table"> xsf:rule

 Yeah, this is what I was thinking - I understand now what you mean about the manifest changes, those are just so you can specify the target of a rule. But since the submit action is using the lists.asmx web service, and since SharePoint Online won't let InfoPath forms access the lists.asmx web service, this is not going to work in SharePoint Online. You may want to consider using Power Automate to process these items instead - here's a video I did on that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJD-kKexkAM. Also, Qdabra Software (my employer & sponsor of this forum) has an InfoPath Forms Services replacement that has this capability built in (along with lots of other cool features) and is available for SharePoint Online - more on that here: https://www.qdabra.com/en/products/FormsViewer.aspx

OK I just watched your video - very nice! Unfortunately we're not at the point where we're allowed to start developing in O365 yet - they're looking at beginning that next May (2021) - and my division is really eager for me to launch the existing project that I have almost completely finished developing at this point... I work for a federal agency and getting Qdabra approved and in use would be a huge long process because of the bureaucracy. (I actually took a training course with Patrick several years ago!) So I'm left with the option to launch what I have now and then have to rework the workflow, I guess, in about a year. But thank you so much for this information, it was very very helpful!!!

Sure thing - your division will just have to understand that the form as developed, in SharePoint Online, won't be able to submit the data to a separate list. You'll have to disable any rules that call the lists.asmx service to prevent users from getting errors in SharePoint Online. :)

But according to your video it will be possible to use Power Automate to extract the items and add them to a list once we've migrated to SP Online, right? So I would just need a period of time where the old method is "turned off" and then I connect the new Power Automate workflow to the library instead...? I've never used Power Automate before. Is it what was being called Flow - or is Flow a totally separate thing??

Flow is the same thing as Power Automate - Microsoft rebranded it a year or so ago. I'm guessing you'll have a transition phase where you'll be able to get your form published to SharePoint Online, do some testing and add the Flow to populate your list prior to your users starting to use it in the new environment? You'll want to plan for that. So - yes, in SharePoint Online you should be able to use this method to also get your data into a list, just that your form won't work as is in Online. Make sense? :)