InfoPath is Dead, Long Live SharePoint Forms

In a statement, that we have all be expecting for some time, Microsoft announced that InfoPath 2013 would be the last release of the “desktop client”. The InfoPath Forms Services technology within Office 365 will be maintained and it will function until further notice. Product support will continue until 2023.

Microsoft InfoPath was released in 2003 as a client only electronic forms product. InfoPath Form Services, released in 2007, provided the ability to create web based electronic forms hosted within SharePoint. While a fantastic product, InfoPath Form Services is not a great fit for Office 365. SharePoint 2013 development is now CSOM, HTML 5 with mobile device support.

So what is the future? The article spells out pretty much what we have been hoping for, a unified electronic forms product across the whole of Office with a migration path from your existing InfoPath forms investment:

“In an effort to streamline our investments and deliver a more integrated Office forms user experience, we’re retiring InfoPath and investing in new forms technology across SharePoint, Access, and Word.”

“If you’re an InfoPath customer, we want to reassure you that we’re working on migration guidance in parallel as we’re building our next generation of forms technology”

“If you’re attending the SharePoint Conference in March, you can get a sneak peek of what we’re building in “InfoPath and SharePoint Forms Roadmap” session”

All in all a very positive and exciting statement.