Forum Discussion
InfoPath support in SharePoint Online
- Bill and i are tracking the source down...it is NOT accurate, as you noted.
Hey Chris McNulty - Just to confirm the datehttps://blogs.office.com/en-us/2016/01/20/sharepoint-server-2016-and-project-server-2016-release-candidate-available/:
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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.