Migrating InfoPath 2007 Form to 2013 Forms

Introduction

Microsoft InfoPath is a software application for designing, distributing, filling and submitting electronic forms containing structured data. Microsoft initially released InfoPath as part of Microsoft Office 2003 family. The product features a WYSIWYG form designer in which the various controls (e.g. text box, radio Button, check box) are bound to data, represented separately as a hierarchical tree view of folders and data fields.

Objective

We recently have done a migration of SharePoint 2007 to 2013 using a tool Metalogix.

It is a third party tool for migrating SharePoint Content to different versions. We can easily upgrade SharePoint Content using this tool.

While Upgrading to SharePoint 2013 even we are using third party tool also, InfoPath forms and Workflows will not be migrated as per our expectation.

It was the first time that we had to do the migration of InfoPath forms. This article gives an idea about how to do the migration of InfoPath form and some of the things what was learned while doing the migration and issues faced.

Before Migrating InfoPath Forms we need to check the below things in 2013 Farm.

Check List:

   1.  SharePoint Enterprise 2013

  2.  Microsoft InfoPath Designer 2013

  3.  An account to access the SharePoint 2013 Site

  4.  Having the SharePoint Server Enterprise Site Collection feature activated

To activate the SharePoint Server Enterprise Site Collection feature, go to Site Setting --> under SiteCollection Administration --> select Site Collection Feature --> Active SharePoint Server Enterprise Site Collection features

Make sure States Service is started.  Go to Central Administration --> click Application Management --> under Service Application section --> click Manage Service Application

If you don’t see State Service in the list, go to Central Admin --> click Configuration Wizard --> click Launch the Farm Configuration Wizard--> click Start the Wizard --> Select State Service and click OK.

Step By Step Migration of InfoPath Form 2007 to 2013

Copying the Design Form from InfoPath 2007

Please follow the below steps for successful migration.

• Browse the 2007 Site and go the form library which you want to migrate from 2007 to 2013 to take the existing design form. 

Site Actions --> View All Site Content --> Click on the form library which will available under Document Libraries Section --> After Clicking on the form library you will be able to see the below image.

When you click on the Actions Tab, we will see the below image

Click on Open with Windows Explorer option. We will navigate to file system. 

We will navigate to this window once click on Open with windows Explorer, we will able to see the Forms folder which is available in above image. Sometimes the forms folder will not be visible.       

For this we need to click on organize then it will show the below options

Click on Folder and Search Options, It will open a window in that go the view tab, Under Hidden files and  folder option , select the Show hidden files and folders option radio button.

Then we can able to see the Forms Folder. Go to the forms folder, we will able to see the template.XSN file.Copy and move that file in to the 2013 Server.

Migrating the InfoPath Form

 Please follow the below steps to migrate the InfoPath Form from 2007 to 2013.

 1. Open InfoPath Form

Open the 2007 InfoPath template (XSN file) with InfoPath Designer 2013.

Start à InfoPath Designer 2013 à  click on open

2. Go to Form Options:

File -> Info -> Form Options

3. Change Compatibility

Go to Form Options à Compatibility, Click Compatibility tab, in that change the

Form type from Web Browser Form (InfoPath 2007) to Web Browser Form and click OK

4. Design Checker

 Go to File à Info à Design Checker, Click on Design Checker after compatibility change then it will show     the errors.

Majorly we will face the people picker and dropdown list issues in InfoPath forms.

Resolution for the People Editor issues:--

 To resolve the issues with people editor (picker) we need to delete the existing people picker controls and we need to replace it with 2013 person/People picker controls.

While replacing the controls we need to take care about the group and fields. When we place the new person/People editor control a new group will be created. So we need to delete the existing group and rename the new group with the old group.

Move the Groups from one place to another place easily by seeing this URL

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/infopath/archive/2006/05/04/590005.aspx

 Resolution for the Drop-down List or List Box:--

 If any drop-down list or list box is available on the form with data source as data connection, for that kind of          drop-downs the data connections will be removed while opening with SharePoint Designer 2013.

So to resolve this error again we need to rebind the data source with data connection by checking the existingconnection in InfoPath 2007.

 6. Data Connections

 In top Ribbon bar Click Data and Click on Data Connections

 Convert Data Connections to 2013 Format

 To solve the error message:

 “This SharePoint library or list data connection was created using an older format. Convert it to the InfoPath2013 format before saving the form template.”

 Select every data connection and click Convert to Current Version.

 7. Publish Form

Click File -> Publish -> SharePoint Server

8. Publish form as browser enabled

Check the Enable this form to be filled out by using a browser and publish the form.

 9. Library Settings

 Go to library settings and under Permissions and Management click Re-link documents to this library.

10. Re-link documents to new template

Existing 2007 items in library can be opened in 2013.

Conclusion

Several articles were referred while migration the InfoPath forms from 2007 to 2013. First time, there were lot of difficulties, So to avoid the difficulties I placed all the stuff followed in this article.

Reference

http://www.appvity.com/blogs/post/2013/06/16/How-to-configure-and-publish-InfoPath-to-SharePoint-2013.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/infopath/archive/2006/05/04/590005.aspx