InfoPath 2010 Rules!

I am EXTREMELY excited by some of the new features.  The Infopath Team just announced some new features on their blog as you can see here:

What’s New in InfoPath 2010?

I do 95% of my InfoPath work with SharePoint, so I am big-time stoked about the new SP integration features.  Look at some of these things that we will be able to do that plagued us previously:

• Modify list and library forms (new, edit, display) from IP instead of having to use the cumbersome SPD interface!! I’ve done this already for both regular list forms AND for InfoPath 2010 – Designing External List Forms
• Rules manager for copying and pasting rules.  You can actually re-use your rules, and you can use the same conditions for a data validation, conditional formatting, or rule all on one field at the same time (not separate buttons to push anymore). You can also copy/paste entire rule sets at once. A bonus point for everyone here is that you can use the InfoPath 2010 Designer to design your 2003 and 2007 forms!!  I’m doing this exclusively now, because the interface improvements make it much faster to build forms.
• We will now be able to use these previously-missing features in our browser forms: FILTERING!!!!, Mult-select list box, combo box, choice groups/sections.  Sweet!!  I’ve already built a browser form with cascading dropdowns (filtering) and will have a blost entry posted on the topic soon.
• The contact Selector is now included by default in the Controls gallery (nice!).  This is nice, but be sure NOT to use it if you’re developing a 2003 or 2007 form.  The new Contact Selector does not use ActiveX, and the one in 2007 does.  If you add the 2010 Contact Selector to your 2007 canvas, it will not work.
• There is now an InfoPath form web part so we don’t have to use page viewers nor the XMLFormView add-on that required some customization.  It also can be connected to other web parts – awesome!  This feature was a part of almost every demo/session done by the InfoPath product team at SharePoint Conference 2009.  It will be a major player in how we use InfoPath to visually display data right within web part pages along with several other connected web parts.  Also, I have learned that when you modify the list forms of a list/library, the new/edit/display pages all get auto-generated, and they each include an InfoPath form web part.  That’s how it works!

I’ve already started testing IP10, and it is freakin BAD!!!  The good “bad,” of course.  Here are some observations so far:

• With my existing IP07 forms, the experience is seamless.  There is no upgrading that must be performed, and IP10 immediately knows to keep my IP07 browser-compatible form from getting messed up with unsupported functions.  It also auto-defaults to being saved as an IP07 form.  Everything works the same, yet I get the ease of using the new interface
• Learning a lot so far, and I love it. It’s difficult finding everything, but I know that once I get it memorized, the ribbon will make it way better than before. It’s similar to when I first moved to Office 2007 and struggled with Word/Excel, but now I won’t even touch 2003.
• The install gives you both a designer and editor. My presumption is that the editor may behave like Adobe Reader? I hope that it can become a free download for anyone so that only form designers/developers need the full version (licensed) while regular users would get just the Editor. If MS were to do it this way, it would have seriously positive ramifications on clients, because I am _always_ having to explain how either everyone needs IP07, or we have to do limited browser forms. I foresee great strides in the market if Editor is made free.  The IP team has not confirmed nor denied my commentary, but for now it doesn’t appear to be what I was hoping.
• One-click publish is nice!! However, you still have to find the regular publish so that you can promote properties and such. It took me a while, but I found it, and that led me to being able to configure my Quick Access buttons. Once my publish is setup nicely, it’s very convenient to be able to just do the one-click publish for constant editing for a form template.
• I have all my favorite buttons in the quick access at the top (save, publish, preview, rules, form load, design mode).  Putting them there makes everything very fast and easy as you get used to the interface.
• Speaking of Form Load, it was a pain to find, since it’s no longer in the Advanced Form Options under the Open and Save tab. That menu is changed to just Save, and there is a Form Load button in the Data ribbon. I moved that to my quick access toolbar…
• The rules management is a huge breath of fresh air. Not only can you copy and paste rules, but you can set conditions in one place to then be used by data validation, conditional formatting, and actions all in one place instead of having to always re-do conditions for each of those separately
• In terms of Editor, I noticed a toggle option in view properties saying, “Design view for the InfoPath Editor only.” Hmmm, must find out what that’s all about.  I found out that this is just the same option that was in IP07, but it has been re-labeled to something more obscure.  Basically, if you click this box, it means that view will be allowed to have browser INCOMPATIBLE features and will thus not show up in a browser form.  Handy if you want a form to be dual-use, but not what I was hoping it meant.

Bugs:

• I get this message very time I open IP Designer, “Some of the custom controls cannot be used: You can continue working without these custom controls, or you can modify them. Details: The following ID for the custom control is already being used by another control: {61e40d31-993d-4777-8fa0-9ca59b6d0bb}. All controls must have a unique ID.” I found out from the IP team that this is a known bug that wasn’t fixed before Technical Preview, but that means it should be taken care of before the release.

So, I’ve already created a client form (prototype) using IP 2010 as of tonight. It was previously a 2007 form, but 2010 preserved everything about it and automatically saved it as a 2007 template when I first saved. I published it to MOSS Enterprise, and it renders in the browser as expected.