I have been asked enough times now about the licensing requirements of SharePoint to be able to show InfoPath forms in the browser that I’m finally putting together this blog entry about it :-). With InfoPath 2010, you can create SharePoint Form Library Forms, SharePoint List Forms and SharePoint Workflow Forms. Let me try to break down each of these briefly and talk about the licensing requirements.
SharePoint Form Library Forms
InfoPath’s ability to create form templates that can be posted to a form library in SharePoint dates back to to 2003 when InfoPath 2003 first came out. Once the form is published to that library, your users can click on the New Document link/button and that will open up the form. This form can only be opened in the browser if you have SharePoint Enterprise license. No exceptions here. If you don’t have enterprise licensing on your server then your users will require at least the InfoPath filler application (or InfoPath Designer application) on their machine to open up the form. If that’s not the case either, they will get an error saying that no compatible application can be found to open up the form (just like the error you would get if you didn’t have MS Word installed and you tried to open up a .doc document).
SharePoint List Forms
This functionality is new in 2010 products. SharePoint lists (such as Tasks, Announcements, Links etc.) come out of the box with ASP.NET forms that let you take actions on the list (viewing a list item, editing an item, creating a new item). You can see these forms in the browser or through SharePoint Designer 2010. If your SharePoint server has SharePoint Enterprise license, you can modify these out of the box forms or create new forms (recommended) using InfoPath 2010. If you don’t have enterprise licensing, you can still customize or create new list forms without code. However, you will need to use SharePoint Designer 2010 to do that and the resulting forms will be ASP.NET forms as well.
SharePoint Workflow Forms
This functionality is also new in 2010 products. When you create a workflow using SharePoint Designer 2010, it creates forms that users interact with as needed (for example task forms, initiation forms, association forms, forms to collect data from users etc.). If your SharePoint server has SharePoint Enterprise or Standard license applied to it, you can use InfoPath 2010 to modify these forms. If you are instead running SharePoint Foundation, you can still modify these forms, but that would have to be done using SharePoint Designer 2010 and the forms will be ASP.NET forms.
I hope this breakdown eliminates some confusion. InfoPath 2010 is an Awesome product! If you have the proper licensing, I would definitely recommend using it!
Licensing requirements for InfoPath forms on SharePoint,
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Good explanation of the server side, but what concerns me is the client. I want to use InfoPath to create or modify any of the form types you mention – but only as browser-enabled forms.
We have SharePoint 2010 Enterprise but are still on Office 2007, so my users will not have InfoPath 2010 (I would simply purchase a copy so that I can author the web forms). Are enterprise CALs required for users to open and fill in these web forms? I’ve gotten mixed opinions on this so far.
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That’s right Walter. Purchase one copy of InfoPath for yourself as the designer of the forms and that’s it!
In order to fill out the forms, your users need only a web browser (Internet Explorer or FireFox) as long as you have Enterprise CALs for those users.
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Dear Asif,
in your slides posted on August 25, 2010 (http://blog.visualsp.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Creating-SharePoint-List-Forms-Asif-Rehmani.pdf) you mention that creating form library forms with Infopath only requires SharePoint Foundation, but what I read from this post is that actually the SharePoint Enterprise license is required. Could you please confirm this?
Thanks,
Dennis
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To design the form and publish to SharePoint, only SharePoint Foundation and copy of InfoPath is required. However, to fill out the form ‘in the browser’, you will need SharePoint Server Enterprise (which comes with Forms Server built in)
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Hi Aisf,
Great Post, one of the few that I have come across that cover the requirements for InfoPath. I hope with your experience you may be able to offer some advice for this problem.
I’m using an InfoPath form integrated with k2 blackpoint. I have SharePoint Enterprise, InfoPath Designer and K2 blackPoint on a development environment. On this environment I have developed my form in InfoPath 2010 and then integrated into a K2 solution. The k2 solution is then deployed to my SharePoint site. After this deployment to SharePoint I can see that the InfoPath form has been associated with my SharePoint Forms Library. On my development environment this is working fine.
I now want to deploy my k2 solution (which includes the integrated InfoPath form ) to a production environment. Production is also SharePoint Enterprise, and has K2 blackPoint installed but not InfoPath. The K2 solution deployment to production appears to be successful and I can see the form is associated with the SharePoint library. However when I try to add a new item to the library the browser opens but I get the following error ‘This form cannot be opened in a web browser. To open this form, use Microsoft Infopath’ .
I have checked the InfoPath forms service on my Production environment and it appears to be running and configured correctly, the Forms Library has also been configure to use the browser and the InfoPath form itself was designed as a browsers compatible form. The content of the form is very basic, just text boxes and labels there is nothing complex which I can see that could be contributing to the error. I have raised a Support ticket with K2 to determine If the K2 integration is causing the problem but I’m not convinced.
In the meantime can you offer any advise in terms of the InfoPath forms service?
Any advice appreciated?
Regards,
Kathy
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Hi Asif,
You mentioned: “However, to fill out the form ‘in the browser’, you will need SharePoint Server Enterprise (which comes with Forms Server built in)”
… So you need SharePoint Enterprise on the server, but do the users need eCALs to fill out the form ‘in the browser’?
Also, if you upsize a List edit form in InfoPath, do users need an eCAL to fill out the form ‘in the browser’?
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In regards to InfoPath, main things to remember:
Need to be running SP Enterprise to show forms in the browser
Make sure Forms Services is configured properly
Before publishing the form, make sure it’s web browser compatible
If above things are true, form should work just fine.
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Server needs SP Enterprise running. Users need to have eCAL to interact with and fill out forms in the browser. Same with list edit forms customized with InfoPath.
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Just a slight clarification here … you stated “To design the form and publish to SharePoint, only SharePoint Foundation and copy of InfoPath is required. However, to fill out the form ‘in the browser’, you will need SharePoint Server Enterprise (which comes with Forms Server built in)”
And later talk about a user consuming the form needing eCal (enterprise cal) not sCal (standard cal).
to create form you need (from a licensing perspective):
– let’s assume SP2010 and form services running with enterprise installed on server
Actor: to create and publish form
1) eCal
2) because eCal for this actor assume infopath available as SP2010
Actor: Consume form (different user)
1) sCal or eCal?
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one additional note, assume you have MS Office Pro Plus licenses
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eCal to consume the form in the browser.
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Thank you for your useful posts and always informative Blog. We have a small company (~60 employees) and use MS365 which includes Enterprise, Sharepoint and Infopath all in the cloud at Microsoft; We have MS CRM. We want our hundreds of clients to be able to complete certain forms (presumably Infopath?) that we send them by email, but these individuals won’t obviously have Infopath or Sharepoint. The data fields would then be completed (via a browser?) and returned to become incorporated into CRM and Sharepoint. What I can’t seem to get a yes-no answer on from microsoft is whether this logic works, or whether there is a better way to go given licensing issues. So, can you say something now about small businesses who don’t have Enterprise in-house but use these services via the Cloud? Are there restrictions/differences? THANKS!
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If you are sure you have Office 365 Enterprise (E3 I believe) then yes, your users can fill out the forms using the browser. Only creating and editing those forms requires InfoPath (one copy of it would be sufficient)
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Hello, we have an enterprise license and the Infopath form services are not enabling for us to use Infopath to create Sharepoint Lists.
We are able to create Form Libraries and build Infopath Forms but it will not allow us to create or edit a Sharepoint List.
I have already gone into our admin to make sure the Infopath form services are enabled
I also made sure that port 443 is not blocked
I also made sure that the form settings for a list in our site had the Infopath form services are enabled
Can you provide any help?
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@Stephanie – We can have one of our experts take a look at your environment to see where the issue is… You can check out our remote consulting option on visualsp.com. Let us know if we can help.
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Hi Asif!
Referring back to the 1st couple comments on this thread, in Dec. 2011 — I’m confused…
Walter asked, “Are enterprise CALs required for users to open and fill in these web forms?”
Your reply made me happy, “Purchase one copy of InfoPath for yourself as the designer of the forms and that’s it!”
But then you said, “your users need only a web browser… as long as you have Enterprise CALs for those users.”
ummmm…. huh? So — I have an Enterprise CAL for myself, so I can create Infopath forms. My server has the Enterprise license (MOSS 2007). My users do not have the Infopath client, but they do have a web browser. They can open and complete my browser enabled forms. Am I supposed to have CALs for each user who might want to complete one of my forms? Or does my Enterprise server license allow this?
Thanks!
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In addition to the Enterprise Server CAL, an Enterprise Client CAL is necessary for ‘each’ user to fill out the forms on the web/intranet.
The person who is creating/designing the InfoPath forms (that would be you John) has to have the InfoPath software on your computer.
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Hi again Asif,
You don’t need to post this to your blog — just wanted to thank you for responding to my question.
John
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Hi Asif,
I’ve been reading thought all the posts and it seems the without Enterprise you can’t fill out forms in a browser end of story. Right? I’m using 2007 Standard isn’t there anything work around for this maybe a infopath viewer, they don’t need to use a browser, but I sure don’t want to purchase 5000 copies of Infopath. Let me know if you have any suggestions for a work around. I thought I saw something about a infopath viewer you could use to fill out forms….
Thanks for your time in this matter.
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Alan, my memory regarding InfoPath 2007 licensing requirements is kind of blurry unfortunately.
I would suggest putting your questions out to infopathdev.com for a better explanation. These guys are our buddies. Mention my name there and hopefully you’ll get a faster response. Best!
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Hi,
Nice Post ! Hard to find clear informations about infopath workflow forms licencing.
I just want to ask you if all that post apply also the same way to SharePoint 2013 ??
Thanks
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Yes, it’s the same deal in 2013 as well David.