Deployment Steps For InfoPath Form During Migration

Checklist

• SharePoint Enterprise Edition 2013
• Microsoft InfoPath Designer 2013
• An account to access the SharePoint 2013 Site as Site Collection Administrator
• Visual Studio 2012

Step 1 :- Open InfoPath Form:

Open the 2007 InfoPath template (XSN file) with InfoPath Designer 2013

Step 2 :- Go to Form Options:

File->Options->Form Options

 

Step 3:-Set Full trust for the form Security and Trust

 

Step 4:-Set Code path and Target Version for InfoPath.

In Our case we had a code behind for the InfoPath form, so set the project file under Programming.

Target of the Form should be InfoPath in the Target dropdown.

 

Step 5 :- Change Compatibility

Change the Form type from Web Browser Form (InfoPath 2007) to Web Browser Form and set the Url of the site.

 

Step 6:- File -> Publish-> SharePoint server

 

Step 7:- Give the URL of the site where this form needs to be published.

 

  

Step 8 :- Click on next and select Administrator-approved form template

 

Step 9 :- Click Next, Configure the path where the form needs to be published

 

Step 10:- Click Next

 

Note: User can modify the InfoPath fields here, if required.

Step 11:- Click Publish

 

Step 12:- After its successfully published, click Close

 

Command to deploy the form to central admin (as earlier it was deployed to central admin)

Install-SPInfoPathFormTemplate -Path "Path of the xsn file"

Enable-SPInfoPathFormTemplate -Identity "Agreement Form.xsn"  -Site "SiteCollectionUrl"

If you want to re-deploy in the same farm, follow these commands:

1. Disable-SPInfoPathFormTemplate -Identity "Formname.xsn" -Site "SiteCollectionUrl"
2. Uninstall-SPInfoPathFormTemplate -Identity "Formname.xsn"
3. Install-SPInfoPathFormTemplate -Path "Path of the xsn file"
4. Enable-SPInfoPathFormTemplate -Identity "Agreement Form.xsn"  -Site "SiteCollectionUrl"

Form will be deployed to Central Admin.

Challenges faced during InfoPath form Migration from Moss 2007 to SharePoint 2013

​

Challenge 1:

During Migration from Moss 2007 to SharePoint 2013 - all  old infopath forms that exists in Form/Document  library were opening /working  with new InfoPath 2013 form, but People picker does not contain any value.

Note:-

This is due to schema structure of People Picker control has changed from Moss2007 to SharePoint 2013.

Resolution:

Since the people picker in InfoPath 2013 is changed, we had to add extra namespace to all people picker tags in the InfoPath xml files in the library.

Example: Project manager people picker was not having any value in the form.

Before adding namespace

<my:project_manager>

<my:Person>

<my:DisplayName>xyz</my:DisplayName>

<my:AccountId>domain\xyz</my:AccountId>

<my:AccountType>User</my:AccountType>

</my:Person>

</my:project_manager>

After adding namespace

<my:project_manager>

<pc:Personxmlns:pc="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/infopath/2007/PartnerControls">

<pc:DisplayName>USer Dispaly Name</pc:DisplayName>

<pc:AccountId>Domain\user</pc:AccountId>

<pc:AccountType>User</pc:AccountType>

</pc:Person>

</my:project_manager>

Once the above change has been done to all old xml files using PowerShell script, People Picker started working fine.

Challenge 2:

In continuation of above Custom Migration from Moss 2007 to SharePoint 2013  article:-

I need to deploy the custom workflow which was associated with Info Path Form. As I migrated info path and workflow successfully. It was not working as expected.

​After doing lots of R&D, I got the solution and explained below:-

Resolution:

In the Nutshell :- Custom Workflow code was using an entity class file auto generated for InfoPath XSD file. As People Picker control scheme has changed from Moss 2007 to SharePoint 2013. So I need to update the entity class accordingly.

Generating new entity class

To generate the entity class for .xsd file we need to use the XML Schema definition tool (Xsd.exe)

Reference links:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/x6c1kb0s(v=vs.110).aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/yojoshi/archive/2011/05/14/xml-serialization-and-deserialization-entity-classes-with-xsd-exe.aspx

Once you have the SDK Installed(either Manually, or with Visual Studio), you'll find it in the following directories:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.0A\bin\NETFX 4.0 Tools

Run the command as

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.0A\bin\NETFX 4.0 Tools>xsd.exe

/c /l:cs myschema.xsd BuiltInActiveXControls.xsd

Note: myschema.xsd is file name of InfoPath and BuiltInActiveControls.xsd was needed for new people picker in InfoPath 2013

This will generate the entity class for the .xsd file of InfoPath. Then replaced this with old entity class carefully and check if only people picker classes has changed and deployed the solution.

Now workflow started working as expected.

Note: 

Resolving Issue with People Picker In InfoPath Form

​Since picker schema in InfoPath 2013 has changed, so we have to remove existing people picker and add new people picker from InfoPath 2013 also.