Can an InfoPath 2010 form be built from an existing content type

Question

I have several custom content types defined in a site collection defined as a hub. These content types have been published and I have some other sites that use these content types. I would like to know if InfoPath 2010 Designer can be used to build a form from one of these content type definitions.

• I know how to build a form template from scratch by adding fields.

• I know a form can be published to create a new content type.

In short, can an existing content type be used to "jumpstart" the building of an InfoPath form (effectively skipping the manual definition of fields and using the existing columns defined within the content type itself).

Some of these content types have columns defined as managed metadata terms and if they could somehow form the entries of a drop-down list in an InfoPath form that would be awesome.

Is this type of thing possible using the InfoPath 2010 Designer?

Answer 1

An InfoPath content type and a document content type are two different things.

InfoPath forms can be published as a content type, but they will be InfoPath forms. An item created from an InfoPath form content type will be an XML document.

You cannot easily use InfoPath forms to edit the metadata of a document content type. It's different with lists, where InfoPath can be used to style the list form.

So, no, you cannot create an InfoPath form based on the columns of a document content type out of the box.

You could create an InfoPath form and use code or Qdabra's qRules to pull the metadata of a document library into the form and edit it. qRules can also handle managed metadata fields. The form itself would not be saved; it would just be the interface to access the metadata.