Every now and then I go through the list of key phrases that people use to find my InfoPath web site and InfoPath blog, and the following key phrases keep popping up:
- set wss to accept infopath forms web
- can wss and infopath be used for sharepoint forms?
- how to enable infopath form services in wss
The only thing I can conclude from these key phrases is that there is still a lot of confusion out there as to whether Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) 3.0 does or does not support InfoPath browser forms.
The short answer to this question is: No, it does not.
You see, when you install Windows Server 2003 and then download WSS 3.0 for free and install that, you only have the base functionality that SharePoint provides.
Base functionality in SharePoint includes:
- Team Sites
- Content types
- Lists and document libraries
- The Features framework
- The Workflow framework
Base functionality in SharePoint does not include InfoPath web forms or InfoPath Forms Services.
So while you get all of the above for free, if you want to go a bit further and display web forms by using InfoPath Forms Services, you will have to buy either Forms Server 2007 or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 with Enterprise features.
So to answer the 3 questions I mentioned in the beginning of this post:
- You cannot set WSS to accept InfoPath web forms without Forms Server or MOSS Enterprise.
- Yes, you can use InfoPath and WSS for SharePoint forms, but only if you have installed either Forms Server or MOSS Enterprise on top of WSS.
- You cannot enable InfoPath Forms Services in WSS, because it is not present in WSS. Before you can enable InfoPath Forms Services, you have to buy and install Forms Server or MOSS Enterprise.
For more information, take a look at the InfoPath 2007 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) article I wrote a while back.
