How to Configure and Publish InfoPath Form to SharePoint 2013

We can use InfoPath to easily customize a list with a design environment for a designing and publishing form via commonly used Windows controls such as check boxes, text boxes, command buttons, and option buttons. In this post, I will show you how to configure and publish a InfoPath Form to SharePoint 2013.

Notes: To configure and publish InfoPath to SharePoint 2013, the following items are required:

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 Site Collection 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.

Create the InfoPath form

Step 1: To create the InfoPath Form, open InfoPath Designer 2013 and under Available Form Templates, select Blank Form and click the Design Form button.

The design form will appear as shown:

Step2: Design the Form.

Go to the Insert tab and in the tables section, double click the Two-Column 2 Heading table to insert the table into the Design Form.

Click to add heading text and type "Contact Info".  Right click on the form, select Insert, and then Rows Below (repeat this 2 times to add 2 rows). The Form should look like this:

In the Fields window on the the right hand, right click on the myFields folder, and click Add.

This "Add Field or Group" form should show up:

Repeat the steps above to add the remaining fields, using the "text" data type:

Drag each field and add it to the form:

Now, we have Simple InfoPath form with the info above.

III. Publish InfoPath to SharePoint 2013

To publish the InfoPath Form, click File, click Publish, and then click SharePoint Server to bring up the Publishing Wizard form.  On the first page of the Publish Wizard, type the URL of the SharePoint site where you would like the new form to be located and click Next.

On this page of the Publishing Wizard, select the option corresponding to where you want to publish the InfoPath to:

Publish InfoPath Form Template to Form Library

Select the Form Library option if you want publish the new form to a SharePoint Form library only.  Click Next to go to the next Publishing Wizard page.

On this page, you have the option to publish to an existing form library or create a new form library.  If you select create a new form library and click Next, this page will appear:

On this page, type the Name of the new library and click Next. I chose "InfoPath Library".  Here, you have the option to promote form fields into the columns of the library.  Click Add to add those columns and click Next.  These fields will be available as columns in the SharePoint Site.

Then, click Publish to publish the InfoPath Form.  Select Open this form library … and click Close.

The InfoPath Library on SharePoint is opened.

Click New Document and the InfoPath Form will be open in edit mode.

Fill out the form and click Save.  Type the name of the InfoPath Form and click Save.

The InfoPath Form is in the SharePoint site as shown below:

Publish InfoPath Form Template to Site Content Type

Select the Site Content Type (advanced) option if you want to publish the InfoPath form template that binds to a Site Content Type.  This option will allow the form template to be used in multiple libraries and sites.

Give a Content Type name and click Next.

Specify a location and file name for the form template.

To use InfoPath as a Content Type, go to the Library in which you want to create the form, click the Library tab --> click Library Settings --> click Advance Settings --> under Allow management of content types, select Yes.

Under the Content Type section, click Add from existing site content types --> Select Microsoft InfoPath from the "Select site content types from" drop down list --> select Info Patch Content Type from Available Site Content Types box --> click Add, and click OK.

Go back to the Library and click the Files tab, click the down arrow at New Document, and click InfoPathCT.

Publish InfoPath as Approved Form Template

Select the Administrator-approved form template and click Next. This option will make the form template available on all site collections.

Specify a location and file name for the form template and click Next.

To re-use the InfoPath template on other Site Collections, follow these steps below:

In Central Administration, click General Application Settings --> under InfoPath Forms Services, click Manage form templates.

Click Update form template and select file InfoPathSC which we saved before and click Ok

Make sure the form template is uploaded success and click OK

Now the Form Template is uploaded to the Manage Form Template page.

Click on the down arrow besides the Form template to activate the InfoPath Form Template at the site collection.

Go to the other site collection to activate the feature (Click Site Settings --> under Site Collection Administrator section, select Site Collection Features --> Activate InfoPathSC).

After that, go to the list in which you want to re-use InfoPath Form and add Content Type.

Now, you can use the InfoPathSC Form in that site collection.

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