Problem Statement from the User
The goal is to build out a contract library in SharePoint, fed by and queried by Infopath forms. looking for someone with experience developing enterprise portals, content and document management systems using SharePoint 2010, InfoPath 2007 with SQL Server for connectivity to Infopath forms and Sharepoint libraries for querying purposes.
This is an interesting problem and in some ways well suited for the SharePoint product family.
There are several possible directions to take with impacts on various dimensions such as:
- form complexity
- client deployment
- support profile/risk
- development requirements
- platform gotchas
Some example directions:
use IP data connections if only meta-data (e.g. drop-down lists) from DB is needed in the form
access/write back DB data directly from IP form…store form template in formlib…user invokes IP client (simplest to develop…many cons)
same as above, but store form template on network shared drive
access DB from SP 2010 external lists…then map forms to views or tables in DB…enhance forms using SPD if necessary (synch/lockouts…how to handle repeating tables)
create DB views of the forms…separate views for repeating data…access thru custom web services…these become IP connections…web services "maps" DB data <---> forms
use IP 2010 (lots of small gotchas fixed/squashed)
use IP Forms Services (headaches associated with client deployments are greatly reduced)…only form designers/developers/tests need IP client at all…less opportunity for JS tweaks
lots of workflow gotchas no matter which path taken (e.g. very difficult to get it to work with BCS)
need SP2013 for full-featured BCS interfaces (e.g. alerts, export to Excel)
is search needed? lots of considerations here…maybe BCS just for this…not for form access
should form data be queried thru IP? maybe make a small custom webpart for this
How to handle the DB security setup? Is this already in place?
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References:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/infopath-help/submit-form-data-to-a-microsoft-sql-server-database-HP010107060.aspx
http://go.limeleap.com/community/bid/246651/Creating-Forms-for-SharePoint-Using-SharePoint-Designer-2010
http://go.limeleap.com/community/bid/275464/Surfacing-External-Data-in-SharePoint-2010-with-BCS
http://go.limeleap.com/community/bid/289541/Creating-InfoPath-Forms-that-Save-to-SQL-Server-Database
