Introducing InfoPath 2010

A complementary tool for SharePoint, designed to construct e-forms easily and efficiently. InfoPath 2010 is a tool for creating forms and collecting data that assists organizations optimize business processes. The tool allows quickly and easily building and designing sophisticated e-forms for efficient and easy data collections without writing any code (developers can also create advanced forms including complex applications and work process sequences while hardly using any code).

InfoPath 2010 serves, among other functions, as a complementary tool for SharePoint. To activate InfoPath forms via SharePoint, activate InfoPath form services.

Abilities and uses:

InfoPath 2010 features a simple user interface for form design. The new toolbar and ribbon serves as a comfortable and user-friendly interface by displaying the various commands as cards organized by tasks related to a certain activity. InfoPath allows users to choose an existing template or create a new form in which you can add and edit fields, set the form's structure and design, add various types of commands (links, various buttons, etc.)

A new option the 2010 version features is the possibility to use a SharePoint list as a basis for your form. For example, when adding or editing an item on the list a designed form adapted to our needs will appear. To edit a list-entering form, click on 'customize list' located under the "list" menu.

Another important option offered when editing an item-entering form in InfoPath is adding contingent lists in your list. For example, choosing a certain state from the "state" column will lead to a list of cities in the selected appear in the "cities" column.Other features include:

1. Creating various form displays for a list-based form.

2.  Creating rules for data authentication.

3.  Creating various display filters for SharePoint websites.

4. Publishing the complete form in a SharePoint with the click of an icon (one-click publishing). You no longer need to perform a series of actions to edit an existing form. the instant-publishing button allows you to extract a form for editing, then republish.

There are 3 ways to store and display forms on SharePoint:

1. Store the forms in a document library

2.  Store the forms' data in a list

3. The form is displayed on the website via a built-in webpart form without using any code (unlike the 2007 version that required Visual Studio code writing).

   Forms built in InfoPath 2010 can also be used outside SharePoint: on internet pages, as advertisement pages on browsers, as forms sent via Outlook that can be filled by software the users' side possesses (filler). All data is updated from the database set up for this purpose.