Sharepoint Document Library with Item Content-Type?

Question

Here is my problem:

I wanted to use InfoPath forms, but due to complexity I have to switch to aspx forms. With Infopath Forms I could use a Forms Library, where the user is presented with <Formname> he can click on and a nice form opens - so far so good.

I know I can have custom aspx list edit/new forms, so I could pretty much design an aspx form for a list behaving just like infoPath (the user clicking on <formname> and a nice form opens).

The problem is that next to these "forms" or meta-data information, I also need to store Word documents in the library. No problem with a forms library: Create a document set for my form and put the form inside as well as the corresponding word document => Instant organization.

What is a way to handle metadata (a form) + documents? I can't have all form data attached to the word document as metadata, as the form itself is the leading document. Hence the title of this question: If I could put an "Item" content type within the document library, I could click on that item and attach a custom edit/new aspx form to the content type.

Answer 1

Moontear, why not consider using document sets?

From what I understand of your requirements you want to do the following: - Create a new item, with metadata attached. - Add associated documents to that item

This seems perfectly aligned with Document Set functionality.

Answer 2

The key constraint of a document library over a list, is that a document library needs to have a document. I don't believe there is any way around that.

What you could do is: with your custom NewForm page, when someone saves, create a document library item using a fake document that will be the same in all items, but with a unique name. It could be anything, an image, word doc, or xml representation of the meta data. (this is what would be happening when using the InfoPath form)