SharePoint 2010 Comparison of Forms

When it comes to data entry forms in SharePoint, there are three out of the box options available, Aspx forms (default option in lists), InfoPath List forms, and InfoPath documents. The first two are interchangeable with some effort, but switching from the first two to InfoPath documents and visa versa is not possible. Therefore, it’s important to choose the right approach in the beginning of a project. Here’s the of these three technologies.

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Deciding the right technology for Enterprise

InfoPath form library should be the first consideration for all kind of applications. They provide additional functionality compared to custom list InfoPath forms, such as;

Repeating tables and complex schema
Printing views
Better deployment and change support
Managed code support
Forms can be digitally signed

There are few situations where list based InfoPath forms suite;

System needs to be built upon existing data and it’s not feasible for all that data to be entered through the forms
Bulk data import and edit is required throughout the life of the system
None of the above mentioned additional capabilities of InfoPath is required

ASPX list forms should be used only when

JavaScript support is a must
CSS support is required
SharePoint Managed Meta Data must be used in forms