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I have several custom content types defined in a site collection defined as a hub. These content types have been published and I have some other sites that use these content types. I would like to know if InfoPath 2010 Designer can be used to build a form from one of these content type definitions.

  • I know how to build a form template from scratch by adding fields.

  • I know a form can be published to create a new content type.

In short, can an existing content type be used to "jumpstart" the building of an InfoPath form (effectively skipping the manual definition of fields and using the existing columns defined within the content type itself).

Some of these content types have columns defined as managed metadata terms and if they could somehow form the entries of a drop-down list in an InfoPath form that would be awesome.

Is this type of thing possible using the InfoPath 2010 Designer?

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  • Just to warn you InfoPath does not work well with Managed Metadata, it requires quite a bit of custom work.
    – Ryan Erickson
    Apr 4, 2013 at 3:56
  • What kind of content types? List or Library? InfoPath List forms get applied at the list level, not at the content type level, and managed metadata will be a major road block. You can create browser forms and use code to include managed metadata. The easiest way I've found is to use the qRules library from Qdabra.com. With that add-on you can do these things without writing code.
    – teylyn
    Apr 4, 2013 at 7:05
  • @RyanErickson - Thanks - I suspected that MMdata would be a hassle at best...but what about the general question? That is, could an existing CT (say without any MMdata) be used to "jumpstart" the building of a form for data entry of such a document library item?
    – John Adams
    Apr 16, 2013 at 16:27
  • @teylyn - not sure what you mean by "kind of content types". Mine are derived from parent document and used in document libraries but I think could be applied to new list also. The gist of my post is as above (can the content type somehow be used as the basis for a beautiful form for the data entry of say a "large" content type (lots of items). Good tip about the add-on which I will read up on more.
    – John Adams
    Apr 16, 2013 at 16:33

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An InfoPath content type and a document content type are two different things.

InfoPath forms can be published as a content type, but they will be InfoPath forms. An item created from an InfoPath form content type will be an XML document.

You cannot easily use InfoPath forms to edit the metadata of a document content type. It's different with lists, where InfoPath can be used to style the list form.

So, no, you cannot create an InfoPath form based on the columns of a document content type out of the box.

You could create an InfoPath form and use code or Qdabra's qRules to pull the metadata of a document library into the form and edit it. qRules can also handle managed metadata fields. The form itself would not be saved; it would just be the interface to access the metadata.

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