How to publish infopath forms as content type in sharepoint 2013/2016/Online

This SharePoint InfoPath tutorial explains how we can publish an InfoPath form as a content type in SharePoint 2013/2016/Online site. Once we publish an InfoPath form as a content type, we can reuse the template in multiple SharePoint list or libraries in the site as well as in the child site of that SharePoint site.

Here first we will see how we can design an InfoPath form using InfoPath designer 2013, then we will see how we can publish the InfoPath form as content type and finally we will add the InfoPath content type to various lists or libraries in SharePoint Online/2013/2016.

Design InfoPath Form for SharePoint 2013/2016/Online

First, we will design an InfoPath form template.

Open InfoPath Designer 2013. Before this make sure “SharePoint Server Enterprise Site Collection features” is already activated. You can go to Site Settings and in the Site collection feature under the Site Collection Administration section, you can verify whether the feature is activated or not. If not activate the feature in SharePoint 2013/2016.

The other thing you need to verify is whether State Service is already started or not. We can verify this from Central Administration. Go to Central Administration -> Application Management, Then click on the Manage Service Application which is under Service Application section.

Now we can design our InfoPath form.

Once you open Infopath designer 2013, it will display lots of form templates which we can use to design InfoPath form. Apart from 2013, it will also show InfoPath 2010 templates.

Here choose a blank form template and then click on Design Form as shown in the fig below:

Now we can add our controls to the form. From the Insert tab, we can choose to insert a table layout to the form. Here I have added a two-column layout. Once we will add this, we can see the layout in the form will appear like below:

We will design a simple Employee details form which has 3 text boxes and one option button with two options. The form will look like below:

By default if you will see the Fields section in the right site you will able to see by default InfoPath gave the name as field1, field2, field3 etc.

To give a valid name right click on the Control in the form and then click on Textbox properties. Then give a good name in the Field name box like below:

Publish InfoPath form to SharePoint 2013 content type

Now our SharePoint InfoPath form is ready, we can publish it now as a content type to SharePoint 2013/2016/Online.

Click on File -> Publish and then click on SharePoint Server as shown in the fig below:

Then it will ask the form to Save before publishing the form to SharePoint server. Click on OK and Save the form.

I have saved the form in my local desktop with the name as “MyEmployeeDetails”.

Then it will ask for the local SharePoint site like below:

Then in the next screen, choose the checkbox, “Enable this form to be filled out by using a browser“. So that people can open the form in the browser and submit the form. And then choose “Site Content Type (advanced)” option as shown in the fig below:

Then in choose Create a new content type and choose base content type as Form as shown in the fig below:

Then it will ask to give a Name for the content type and a Description of the content type as shown in the fig below:

Then we need to give a library and a file name where the form will be published.

Then we can add the columns which will be available as columns in SharePoint site. Click on Add button and then choose the column and click on OK.

Here we can add all the columns and it will appear like below:

Then it will ask to verify the details and click on the Publish button to publish the form.

Once the form successfully published it will display a successful message like below:

To validate this you can navigate to the form library and you can see the form there.

We can also go to the site settings and then click on Site content types which is under Web Designer Galleries. In the Site Content Types page, You can filter based on Microsoft InfoPath form and you can see our form is published as a content type as shown in the fig below:

Add InfoPath Content Type to a SharePoint 2013/2016/Online Document Library

In the next step, we will see how we can add the published InfoPath content type to a document library.

Open your SharePoint site and then create a document library. Then open the document library and then from the ribbon click on library settings to go to the document library settings page.

Then in the Library settings page, click on “Advanced settings” which is under the General Settings section.

Then in the Content Types section choose, Allow management of content types? to Yes as shown in the fig below:

Then in the document library settings page, go to the Content Types section and click on Add from existing site content types as shown in the fig below:

Then in the Add Content Types page, choose Microsoft InfoPath group and then from the type select the content type and click on Add. Then click on OK.

Then go to the document library, From ribbon click on Files -> New Document and then you will see our content type which we have deployed like below:

Once you will click on the option the InfoPath form will open like below:

You may like following SharePoint InfoPath tutorials:

• Working with InfoPath form library SharePoint 2013/2016/Online
• Make attachment field mandatory in InfoPath Designer 2013 in SharePoint Online list
• InfoPath 2013 show hide section using Rules in SharePoint online
• Limit attachment size in InfoPath 2013 SharePoint online
• InfoPath 2013 Navigate to NewForm page on button click from EditForm page using JavaScript or jQuery
• Print issue with SharePoint 2013 InfoPath form
• JSON is undefined error in SharePoint 2013 InfoPath Person Group Picker in IE 11
• InfoPath 2013 People Picker browse button does not work on InfoPath form Nothing happens after click
• SharePoint 2013 InfoPath Submit option multiple click issue

Conclusion

This SharePoint InfoPath tutorial explains, how can we design an InfoPath form using InfoPath designer 2013 in SharePoint Online/2013/2016.

Also, how we can publish an InfoPath form as a content type to SharePoint 2013/2016 sites. Then we saw how we can add the InfoPath form content type to SharePoint document libraries.