Functionality Lost in InfoPath 2007 "Web-Enabled" Forms

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Quick update to this post (6/7/2007).   Saw this article https://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa945450(VS.80).aspx which is pretty comprehensive on this topic.   Worth a read. 

Folks,

Getting tired of waiting for a list to be published, so will start to build my own from scratch as I go along.   Many of you know that InfoPath 2007 will have the ability to build forms that are "web-enabled".  What that means is that Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007, if you've bought Enterprise CALs, will allow you to build an InfoPath form that will render either in the rich client application or can be served up as an ASP.NET page.   This has been done with cross-platform, zero-footprint considerations in mind.   It's a nice and much-asked-for capability.  However, there are a bunch of things that won't work when you go to web environment.   Here is a small list that I've started to compile.  It will grow and I will repost as I discover more things.

  1. No native write to SQL databases.   The ease of use of establing an ADO connection to SQL or Access, and being able to query and write back to a database is lost.   Instead you will probably need to talk to the DB via a web service.
  2. No roundtripping for cascading picklists.   Something I do all the time is have one picklist be a filter for another picklist.  Common example, pick a state, which then filters the city field dropdown.   Can't do that in a web form.
  3. Summary list of controls that aren't supported in web forms:
    • ComboBox
    • Multiple-Selection List Box
    • Master/Detail
    • Bulleted, Numbered and Plain List
    • Picture
    • Ink Picture
    • Vertical Label
    • Scrolling and Horizontal Region
    • Horizontal Repeating Table
    • Choice Group
    • Repeating Choice Group
    • Choice Section
    • Repeating Recursive Section
    • ActiveX Controls

More to follow.