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InfoPath support in SharePoint Online

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While reviewing the settings on the InfoPath page in a SharePoint Online admin center, I saw the following warning.  Note that is says 2015. Has MS already stopped support InfoPath in SPO?

InfoPathSupport.png

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Best I could find on InfoPath Form Services for Office 365 was "supported until further notice." I haven't seen/found anything from any source that directly states when support for InfoPath in SharePoint Online is/was stopping aside from what was stated at aka.ms/ipfs.

AFAIK, InfoPath support will end in 2022 as stated by Microsoft at Ignite 2015...I'm not aware of any change in this statement cc @Chris McNulty

The 2022/2023 date was for SharePoint Server though, right? It seemed less certain than that for Online tenants.

As mentioned in the MS Cloud show, I feel this will be the same case as Sandbox web parts, 2015 2025 they will just stop working, and it will be you've had 7 years to migrated away from using them.

I'm not sure what 2015 has to do with this.

With all due respect to our friends on the Cloudshow, they are not up to speed with the way we deprecate features on line. I discussed this at length during the ignite conference last year.

it is our general rule to announce replacement technology at the time of deprecation and then provide at least a years notice, if not longer. Of course, we always act to assure stability and security of the service.
slip of the finger sorry, 2025 I meant.

With all due respect, what Microsoft says they will do, and what Microsoft actually does are two completely different things (yes a generalization, Microsoft are generally pretty good with it) :)

@Chris McNultythanks for the response and the link to the information that I remembered seeing, but could not find. Given that the popup message mentions 2015 and is not consistent with the message from January 2016, I have to assume that it is a mistake.

 

Can you please make sure that it gets corrected so that others are not confused?

best response confirmed by VI_Migration (Silver Contributor)
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Bill and i are tracking the source down...it is NOT accurate, as you noted.

Hey @Chris McNulty - Just to confirm the date from the blog post you referenced:

 

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As we continue to evolve, we recognize the need for a long runway as we augment existing business app offerings with new tools and capabilities. As a result, we’re updating the support timelines in conjunction with SharePoint Server 2016, specifically:

  • SharePoint Server 2016 will include an ongoing capability to host InfoPath Forms Services. InfoPath Forms Services on SharePoint 2016 will be supported for the duration of SharePoint 2016’s support lifecycle.
  • InfoPath Forms Services on Office 365 will continue to be supported.
  • InfoPath 2013 and SharePoint Designer 2013 will be the last versions of those products. SharePoint Designer is not being re-released with SharePoint Server 2016, although we will continue to support custom workflows built with SharePoint Designer and hosted on SharePoint Server 2016 and Office 365. Support for InfoPath 2013 and SharePoint Designer 2013 will match the support lifecycle for SharePoint Server 2016, running until 2026.

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Is that last point trying to state that InfoPath forms and SharePoint Designer workflows will continue to function in Office 365 until 2026?  

 

I ask because every time I heard a Microsoft person answer this question at Ignite 2016, the answer was "Microsoft will support Designer as long as we need to in SharePoint Online" and the 2026 date was only applicable to SharePoint Server 2016.

Everything you heard at Ignite is 100% correct.

 

The support cycle for InfoPath on SharePoint 2016 is that it will run until 2026.  It bears repeating, however, that InfoPath is deprecated which also means that it can be removed from subsequent versions of the on premises product, vNext and beyond.

 

There is DIFFERENT governance for service removals in Office 365. The strict guidance is that Microsoft will give at least 30 days notice when we've indiciated a replacement product; 365 days notice if there is no replacement; and that undocumented, unsupported features or risks which are found to compromise the security or platform integrity could be turned off immediately.  For example, if we found a huge security loophole in the "Widget" web part, for example, we might remove that web part immediately to protect our customers while we work on the issue.  

 

The 2026 date has no relationship to a "date" for Office 365, because we consciciously haven't published a timeline for taking that out of service.  That said, as we (me) also discussed at Ignite last year, we couldn't consider taking IPFS out of service in Office 365 without significant lead time.  By precendent , even though we identified a replacement tech for Access Web Apps (PowerApps) we communicated that service removal 15 months in advance.

 

Moving forward, to be fair, I hope we've clearly indicated we see PowerApps as the eventual replacement for InfoPath.  InfoPath is deprecated which means it no longer gets invetment in new fearueres or scenarios.   Have we covered all the critical scenarios for PowerApps yet?  No - and that's why we also hope you let us know which InfoPath features are the most important to you at http://SharePoint.UserVoice.com.  Thanks.

InfoPathMessage (2).pngI still see the 2015 message in O365 - SharePoint Admin center when enabling InfoPath.

Will this eventually be updated, or did "until further notice' end up being 2015?

Does anyone have any experiences they can share with enabling/using InfoPath with SharePoint Online?

I am not creating anything new in InfoPath and we are advising our clients to use other technologies to create new forrms. It still works but there are so many limitations and better options, that I would be hard pressed to find a good scenario that would require its use. 

I read the following in this redmondmag article:

 

The idea that InfoPath will live on as a tool for SharePoint Server 2019 also was affirmed by Vlad Catrinescu, a Microsoft MVP and president of vNext Solutions, in an Oct. 2 Crow Canyon Softwaretalk, which is available on demand here. Catrinescu said that while not much is known about SharePoint Server 2019, "we know for sure that InfoPath will be back."

 

I can't see replicating what InfoPath can do using Flow and PowerApps (though I do see lots of great uses for those!)

 

There's hope yet!

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best response confirmed by VI_Migration (Silver Contributor)
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Bill and i are tracking the source down...it is NOT accurate, as you noted.

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