InfoPath Dev

I have an Infopath form template in a sharepoint form library.  When I view the site in Windows Explorer, I have a lot of old templates.  What I was doing for awhile was making a copy of my template each time I went to make changes, thinking this would help me to revert back to and old copy.  I don't think this works like normal files though, because of the template IDs and such in Sharepoint.  I'm not very familiar with how it handles old templates though.

 I want to delete these old copies of my template and cleanup this folder.  At first, it wouldn't let me delete or move the files as it said they were still in use.  After doing some research, I found the link below from this site, saying I should remove the old templates from Infopath's templates cache.

 http://www.infopathdev.com/blogs/greg/archive/2004/08/11/Remove-a-Form-Template-from-the-InfoPath-Cache.aspx

 I did indeed have a lot of templates in the cache.  I just removed all of them.  Then I was able to delete the old templates from the form library with Windows Explorer.  HOWEVER, they come right back.  I'll delete them, go back to the folder and they are there. 

 This is really frustrating, all I want to do is clean this folder up.  Also, what would be the best method for keeping backup copies of a template as you are developing it?  I just always overwrite the template instead of republishing it every time.  It's a lot faster but I'm not sure if I've been doing it all wrong.

Thanks for any help and advice,

Jamie

Hey Jamie.

Best practice is to save the templates locally and then just publish them to the library.

You should be able to delete them if they are duplicates.

What are they named in the forms folder?  The template.xsn would be the current one but I am curious what they are called.

Hi,

Please follow the below steps instead of publishing InfoPath template always whenever you make changes in your InfoPath template.

·         First save your InfoPath template in the following location with the name "template.xsn".

http://SeverName/Site Name/form Library Name/ Forms

·         After saving the template publish the template in the following location.

http://SeverName/Site Name/form Library Name

After completion of above two steps, just click on save button whenever you make changes in your InfoPath template instead publishing it again. The template in your SharePoint gets updated.

Here is some more information on what I have going on. 

I've published the infopath form to a sharepoint form library.  Once it is published, I go to the folder in Windows Explorer with the published template and right click->design.  This is how I make all my changes to the live template.  This is on a form that isn't in production.  I'm still testing when I'm doing this.  I was making copies of the template in that folder as backups.  The extra copies are named "Copy of template.xsn" with a number to differentiate (the default way Windows makes copies of files. 

I suppose I should be editing a local copy and then publishing the template when I'm ready to update major changes.  I'm sure I had a reason for doing it on the published template.  I think some features didn't work or it was just faster.  

However, here is the problem:

I can delete the copies.  Then I refresh the folder and they come right back.  I can record video of it if you can't believe it.  I figure it something weird with sharepoint and infopath.

Hi,

i have the same problem and no solution for it - do you have found a solution or a workaround.

thanks