John Liu .NET

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InfoPath's future and what everyone's saying

John Liu

dontpanic

 

Andrew Connell

  • "the future is unclear at best, realistically pessimistic and a dead-end at worst"
  • "I do not use InfoPath any more & I do not recommend people use InfoPath going forward"

http://www.andrewconnell.com/blog/now-infopath-is-dead-rip-infopath-but-now-what

http://www.andrewconnell.com/blog/my-thoughts-infopath-2013-the-future-of-infopath

 

Mark Rackley

http://forms7.codeplex.com/

 

Corey Roth

  • Lists a great list of feature sets for the future Forms solution
  • Suggest: wait and see SPC348

http://www.dotnetmafia.com/blogs/dotnettipoftheday/archive/2014/01/31/what-a-developer-wants-in-a-post-infopath-world.aspx

 

Jeremy Thakes

  • "I  found that if  you used InfoPath in your Organization to empower Information Workers to build their own forms, a lot of the times they’d hit the 80/20 rule and then hand it off to developers who would have to fix them or complete them."
  • Suggest: ISV Nintex Forms

http://www.jeremythake.com/2014/01/microsoft-confirm-infopath-2013-is-last-release-of-the-product/

 

Microsoft

  • InfoPath is dead.
  • Long live Forms:

http://www.sharepointconference.com/content/sessions/SPC348

 

Patrick Halstead

I like Patrick's coverage the best, probably because this is his bread and butter.  He has been thinking about this and planning for a while. 

His upcoming webinar series will cover the various approaches to deal with the data that's currently in the forms:

  • Status Quo: keep same format (XML): Formotus, ServBus, Qdabra eForm Viewer
  • Hybrid (SharePoint List): move the form's data into SharePoint Lists, then use SharePoint list forms
  • Convert to ISV: Nintex, K2, Adobe, Salesforce
  • Custom development (database): extract data into database, then build pages and use full set of controls

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_rhNrFx5D8 [After InfoPath: Planning your Form's Future] 

 

I say: Please Don't panic.

I'm waiting to see:

  • Qdabra eForm Viewer (cheap /  free / open source?  does the user need to do anything?)
  • Nintex Forms (roadmap, feature compatibility)
  • Microsoft's SPC348 (upgrade roadmap?  future support?  feature compatibility? could be the most expensive path)

I'm sure everyone will have a lot to say in time for the SharePoint Conference.  Stay tuned.