Archive or move InfoPath forms in SharePoint

by S.Y.M. Wong-A-Ton

Learn how you can use a SharePoint content type and a SharePoint Designer workflow to move InfoPath forms in SharePoint from one library to the other as a way of archiving InfoPath forms in SharePoint.

Archiving InfoPath forms in SharePoint generally means moving them from one SharePoint Form Library to another.

In a previous post, I mentioned how you can deploy an InfoPath form template as a SharePoint site content type and that you would use this method when you want to reuse an InfoPath form template across several sites and/or in several SharePoint form libraries.

Archiving InfoPath forms in SharePoint or moving them between SharePoint Form Libraries is a perfect example of when to deploy InfoPath form templates as SharePoint site content types.

In this post, I’ll describe one way in which you can archive InfoPath forms in SharePoint.

To be able to move an InfoPath form from one SharePoint library to another:

  1. The InfoPath forms in both SharePoint libraries must be bound to the same InfoPath form template, which is why it makes sense to deploy the InfoPath form template as a SharePoint content type.
  2. You can use a SharePoint Designer workflow to move a document from one SharePoint library to another.
  3. You have to have a way to detect when a form has to be moved from one SharePoint library to the next. For this, you can promote a field from the InfoPath form to a SharePoint library column that represents a status and use this status in a Condition in the SharePoint workflow.

Still unclear as to how this solution works?
I’ve put together a InfoPath / SharePoint / SharePoint Designer demo to show you how to use a SharePoint content type and workflow to move InfoPath forms from one SharePoint form library to another. This solution works equally well for InfoPath browser forms.

Note: If you want to archive InfoPath forms and move them to a SharePoint library that is located on a different SharePoint site than the original SharePoint library, then you will either have to use a custom SharePoint Designer action or build a Visual Studio workflow that can move an InfoPath form across sites. And if you do go cross-site, remember to deploy the content type on a SharePoint site that takes the scoping rules for SharePoint content types into account.

Tip:
You may want to make InfoPath form fields read-only or switch to a read-only view in an InfoPath form once it has been archived.

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Copyright: This article may not be used on web sites (whether personal or otherwise), copied, disseminated, altered, printed, published, broadcasted, or reproduced in any way without an expressed written consent of S.Y.M. Wong-A-Ton. Usage of techniques demonstrated in this article may be used within any Microsoft InfoPath project. This article is provided without any warranties. Copyright for this article is non-transferrable and remains with the author, S.Y.M. Wong-A-Ton.

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