Multiple Users and Contention

[John]

Hi. I am a first time user, using InfoPath to manage forms for a client.

My client has about 30 users and 20 products. Each users has access to
between one and three products.

The data collected for each form is identical and will be stored in an SQL
Server db. There are only be minor text changes to a few labels based on the
Product Name. (And possibly a different gif for each product logo.)

I am trying to get a feeling for maintenance and contention issues. If I
build one form for each of my 20 products, I will have 20 forms to maintain
for each change, but there will be less contention between users.

If I build 1 form to handle all my Products, there is slightly more complex
design tasks, less maintanence but it seems to be more potential for
contention between concurrent users.

The real issue that I do not understand is contention. Should I build one
form for each Product? Any thoughts are greatly appreciated!

Regards,
John

 

[Mike Sharp]

I don't see where the contention would be coming from. If you used one
form, each instance of the form operates in client context. All of the
files are opened on the client, so you could easily have 30 users
simultaneously using a single form. We've got test automation scripts that
run lots and lots of copies of a single form, submitting to a single web
service with no problem. If you think of an InfoPath form as a web page in
a peculiar web browser, you'll see that this isn't much different from a
single product.asp page that is accessed like:

product.asp?sku=12345
product.asp?sku=67890
etc.

Regards,
Mike Sharp