InfoPath Forms and Site Architecture

sharepoint.stackexchange https://sharepoint.stackexchange.com/questions/247285

Question

We are currently making some plans to migrate to a new version of SharePoint (either 2016 On-Prem or Online). We'll be aiming towards a more flat design and are wondering if its better to store all forms in one location (one sub-site) or scattered in the departments they are involved with.

The first would give one central location for the workflows (should they exist), and a location that users could go to in order to find their desired form. Additionally you can link to the form with a URL/Hyperlink or WebPart so they could be accessed from anywhere on the intranet.

The second option would decrease clutter in a central location, and be slightly easier to manage who has permissions for said form.

What makes the most sense to pursue? Or would it depend on the environment we are running?

Was it helpful?

Solution

I would suggest the one form 'hub' for users to consume the forms. In the future, when your form management team have changed hands multiple times, it will be helpful to know that all the forms for your organisation 'live' in the one spot.

Having all forms in the one site will be helpful when considering:

  • Migration,
  • Troubleshooting,
  • Clean up (archiving / thresholds, etc), and
  • Permissions.

I would encourage that each form has it's own library so you can manage permissions easier; however, you can have multiple forms in the one library if you use content types. This can lead to permission issues (ie, creating, managing, department scope, etc), but you can see this post for the how-to:

Publishing Multiple forms in a single library

Central hub with individual libraries would be the way I would roll, personally :) I've currently got a site where each department make their own form in their own sub site and it's a nightmare when updating or thinking about migration as to keeping track of

A) How many individual forms are out there, and

B) How big are the libraries getting?! (Users don't care about that stuff - only admins have to worry about that!)

Good luck - hope this helps.

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