InfoPath Dev

I am a developer that just got passed an InfoPath project that has been in-process for over a year. Currently, nothing is stored in a db. Everything is in XML.

My question is when does it make sense to use a db instead of xml?

One of the issues that I am running across is that I want to change the order and displayed value of drop downs. When I do this, it only affects forms submitted after the change. So if we open a form that was submitted before the change - that data is incorrect. Is there a better solution?

Thanks.

I'm guessing that you're drop-downs are populated from an XML form that is stored within the template and that the reason you are seeing this change is because only the forms working with the newest template are getting the updates.

Databases are one option for this, but I think you might want to look into using a SharePoint list to populate the options from the drop-down, this would be the easiest to maintain and easiest to connect in the form, it also has much fewer security holes. However, it will be less performant than the DB option.

Thanks, Matt. Yes, storing dropdown info in Sharepoint lists makes sense and I am doing that. But what about the submitted form data? Wouldn't it make more sense to store the info in a db, so when a template is updated the old and new forms would be correct?

Or, am I misunderstanding the point here?

Crystal

I don't understand how your template is affecting the form data. The template controls how the data looks and feels, while the XML should not change. That is, unless you are changing the schema of the form template. If you make schema changes to the template there is really no easy way for the old forms to be updated. InfoPath generates an upgrade.xsl that will try to upgrade the schema of the old XML files into the new schema, but in general changing the schema after you have deployed the form is very painful and should be avoided at all costs. Storing the data in a DB is not going to fix this.

So what do you do when the forms are already in production and you need to make schema changes?

I just want to make sure we design these right. As I said earlier, I just got "thrown" into this position, so I'm trying to understand as much as I can.

Thanks,
Crystal