We are trying to move from Infopath to nintex. What is the best practise to handle the infopath fields that are not list columns. Should we promote all fields to columns?
1 Answer
Are you moving to Nintex forms? If you are, then you have a few options:
- You can use workflow variables to store the fields you need. Use these variables as you need (for calculations, business logic), and then write results to columns. Be aware of list limitations as you design your lists: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262787.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396#ListLibrary
- My preference is to use Site Content Types and Site Columns through lists. You can then replace those Infopath fields with list columns when required (List Settings > Advanced > Allow Management of Content Types).
- Are you replacing workflow start forms, list forms or workflow task forms? This has an impact on how you'll collect information, what you'll do with it, and where you'll store results. FYI, I use Nintex forms for all three of these scenarios.
If you're just using Nintex Workflow you'll be forced to use Site Content Types into lists and manage the collection. However, you'll be greatly limited.
I'm not sure there's a clear "best practice." I dabbled with Infopath a while back but when I discovered Nintex Forms I never went back. From what I can tell Nintex Forms gets me the core functionality I need and integrates effortlessly with workflow. In addition, with the eventual retirement of InfoPath has made the path much clearer for Nintex Forms (and other like products).