In days of Old but with InfoPath and SharePoint 2010

In days of old when WordPerfect and Word Pro were as common on the desktop as Microsoft Word, I was used on projects carrying out software audits.  That meant I was out there talking to users and finding out what software they used and how.  Often the conversation went like along the lines of them telling me they used Word processing, Spreadsheets, etc and finishing with them telling me about this little database they have on their machine.  The amount of users with little databases was alarmingly high especially in financial organisations and often no one backed up these small but critical solutions.

Well it seems with SharePoint 2010 using InfoPath and SharePoint Designer it is pretty easy to create a small but simple solution around a process with a nice form display and workflow behind it.  There are limitations of course but recently I created a form which stores the information in a list and has a workflow changing field values so we can present a process online.  Using InfoPath Designer against one or more lists we can present data like this while also attaching multiple files and using SharePoint 2010 notes.

You can also use a submit button which has rules against it to submit the data, close the form and start the workflow if it isn’t already running.   Also we have set the Launch forms in a dialog to ‘no’ but this doesn’t always have to be the case making it look cleaner with a pop out form. We can also update or pull in information from a number of other lists in a site and using SharePoint Workspace take the form offline for data input (assuming all the lists are part of the synchronisation) although the workflow wont update until you are online.

But the best thing is its all stored in SharePoint, it’s all backed up by IT and its easy to build it J