Amal Nagm

How InfoPath updates form templates

Considerations for updating browser-enabled form templates

• If you plan to update an administrator-approved form template (administrator-approved form template: A browser-compatible form template that has been uploaded by an administrator to a server running InfoPath Forms Services. An administrator-approved form template can include code.), you must publish the updated form template, and then give it to your Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 farm administrator for deployment to a form library in a site collection. A site collection is a set of Web sites on a virtual server that have the same owner and share administration settings. When a farm administrator deploys an updated form template, he or she can specify a "side-by-side" upgrade option, which allows the updated version of the form to run alongside the original version. This upgrade option allows users who are in the middle of filling out a form when an updated version is deployed to finish filling out the form without losing their work.
• If you publish updates to a form template that you have deployed yourself to a Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 library or list, users who happen to be in the middle of filling out a form that is based on that form template will see an error message when they attempt to save or submit their form. For this reason, you may want to alert users of impending updates and possibly take the form template offline during off-peak hours to perform the updates.

Help prevent data loss in existing user forms

• Don't rename the existing fields and groups in the data source.
• Don't move the existing fields and groups around in the data source.
• Don't delete the existing fields and groups from the data source. You can delete controls from the form template without causing any problems, as long as you leave the control's corresponding field or group in the data source.

Options for updating existing user forms

• Update the forms automatically You can let InfoPath automatically update the existing forms, which is the default setting. In this case, any existing forms will match the newly updated form template. For example, if you remove a list box control on the form template and then publish the modified form template, InfoPath will automatically remove the list box control from any existing forms.
• Update the forms by using code Those with technical expertise can write code to handle the OnVersionUpgrade event, which occurs when the version number of the form being opened is older than the version number of the form template on which it is based. For example, in an expense report form, you can use the OnVersionUpgrade event handler to determine whether a form with an earlier version number contains a field called emailAddress and, if not, add the field to the form. The OnVersionUpgrade event is useful for accommodating changes to the XML Schema (XML Schema: A formal specification, written in XML, that defines the structure of an XML document, including element names and rich data types, which elements can appear in combination, and which attributes are available for each element.) upon which your form template is based.
• Choose not to update the forms You can choose not to update the existing forms. When this option is selected, users are able to fill out forms based on the updated form template, but they may not be able to open existing forms. If they are able to open existing forms, they won't be able to edit any newly added fields.