SharePoint 2013 Forms

0
votes

I am working on SharePoint 2013 Public Facing site which has few complex forms for user input. there are approx 20-30 fields on each form with requirement to display data in table/grid , some repeating data elements on form etc. Also there are few complex validation requirements on the forms.

What are the options available in SharePoint 2013 for developing this kind of application with forms?

  1. If Icreate web parts/visual webpart in SharePoint 2013 which holds all this logic and we store data in SQL database , than there is not much benefit which we will get from SharePoint platform.

  2. If I use Business Connectivity Service and store data in external list , we have to develop the front end forms as .net user control, i don't see much value from SharePoint platform in this scenario.

  3. If I consider infopath 2013 forms, as an option for developing forms,i was not able to find any official reference on msdn or technet which explains that info path is good for public facing site and i haven't seen one example of PUBLIC FACING SP2013 site using info path forms on public facing.

  4. If I consider Nintex forms, I think Nintex forms are not there yet for public facing as the level of CSS control, validation which they provide is very limited at the moment and Nintex forms are very difficult to manage once you have more fields on form, more importantly i don't see Nintext forms used on any PUBLIC FACING SP2013 SharePoint site , even Nintex site itself is not using NINTEX forms on public facing.

  5. If i consider K2 smart forms, it has similar limitations as mentioned in point 3 & 4.

Any thoughts or suggestions for having for developing forms for SP2013 (PUBLIC FACING) other than .NET forms?

1
formssharepointsharepoint-2010k2nintex-workflow

1 Answers

0
votes

I explain you our experience. We have developed complex forms for Sharepoint in three ways:

(1) .NET Forms. We build controls or webparts that we integrate within Sharepoint. It’s is the most powerful option, of course.

(2) Defining lists with all the fields in the form and customizing a view of the list with Sharepoint Designer. The disadvantage of this option is that the validations and logic of the form has to be developed in JS or/and with event listeners attached to the list.

(3) Infopath 2013. It’s is possible to build powerful forms for a public facing site with the business logic in .NET. The disadvantage of this option is that you don’t have control over the HTML.

The three options are valid, the option we choose depends on the requirements.