Archive of Infopath Form

[Chris Courtright]

I'm looking for a method/utility/technique to create a permenant archive
rendition of a complete Infopath form. This needs to be performed via a
dynamic call from a program we are writing so a batch conversion utility will
not work. A "printer driver" solution is not desired either. We would like to
find a solution such that the original application (Infopath) will not need
to be installed on the server providing the service if possible.

Can a "view only" version of an Infopath form be created so that no matter
what happens to the original template, the form will display as it was
originally filled out?

Can this be done within Infopath itself or will a conversion utility be
needed to create a bitmap version of the form (TIFF, JPG, etc.)

Does a self-contained web page archive file (MHT) maintain the integrity of
the data input into the form as well as the form itself if we "save as..." a
MHT archive file?

If a conversion utility is required, recommendations would be appreciated.

 

[Bob Chauvin \( Paix dehors \)]

Sharepoint Forms libraries support versioning of forms, including Infopath
forms. This would be the easiest. I don't know how versions will work if
the template changes...

 

[Adam Harding]

A read-only version of the form can be created and set as the final view of
the form, so after the last action the last thing the form does before
closing is to switch views to this read-only view.

Going into tools, form options, advanced, you can decide with what method
you wish to handle upgrade of forms(Do nothing, Upgrade, or custom event) you
need to bear in mind though that if the form template from one version is
deleted the old version of hte form will not open at all. If only minor
updates occur along the lines of adding fields, NOT deleting fields, or Data
Connections, and NOT changing purpose of cells you are fairly safe in having
automatic upgrade which preserves the data and keeps the form up to date.

One other thing you can look for on this board is merging forms. This way
you could merge a large bunch of forms onto one view that is saved as a
read-only archive. This would satisfy your criteria of security and allow
for multiple records to be archived of in one space as a record of what went
on.

I personally connect the majority of my forms to databases, and display the
data through all my evolutions of the form which gives me the historical
record.

Cheers Adam