Advice for future project.

exemplaris — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 16:52:41 GMT

I am looking for some advice on a near future InfoPath project. I have, what I consider, a very large form that has many rule and conditional based actions throughout, it may be approaching 1000 individual "controls" not including "groups".

My work computer will soon be updated to Win7 and Office2010. When this happens I plan to rebuild the entire form since I know that some of the controls in IP2010 have functions that I had to originally emulate in IP2003. There are also structural elements that I have learned since I first created the form that need to be implemented throughout.

Currently the data collected by the use of this form is saved in the form itself, I'm sorry I don't have the technical terms for this but there is no Share Point or database being used. All of the drop down list information is pulled from other xml documents. Because of connectivity issues in our work environments the form template and these other xml documents must reside on each computer that is using this form. A common folder is then used to store the completed forms and all users update this folder via BeyondCompare.

I have been asked to look into the feasibility of having the data from the form stored locally in a database on each computer along with the information for the dropdown lists etc. and have that sync with our company's main database when they are able to connect. Our IT support would handle this last part.

I am not an IT professional and after doing some research online I have found that to use Access I would have to create the database first and then create the form from that. I do have someone that is fluent in Access that I may be able to work with on that side of things. As far as using SQL or a Share Point, I am unsure of possible resources there. Besides I'm not sure that Share Point would be accessible and SQL may be too much, large or cumbersome for this use. What I am looking for are suggestions about the best way to implement some method of retrieving the dropdown list, etc. information and save the information/choices entered by the users. Is Access the best route or is there something else that would be better/easier?

If I use Access I understand the reason that the form has to be built from the database is so that the schemas match, what do I do about controls that perform functions that I do not need saved in the data base? As an example I have text boxes that are strictly used for manipulating data entered: truncating, concating etc. That data does not need to be saved in a database, does it need to be in the database schema?

After the form is finished and published if I want to add a control must I first add it to the database and then to the form?

I may have more questions but I'll start with these.

InfoPath 2010

Advice for future project.