Enter InfoPath
October 21, 2003
InfoPath launched today, to quite a bit of fanfare from Microsoft and its many partners. Despite Microsoft’s size and success, they don’t often create the best buzz at a product launch. To some, they seem stingy about the details, and with a product line as ubiquitous as Microsoft Office, it is all about the details. But with InfoPath, they do seem to have done a good job of getting the word out. My inbox has been flooded with InfoPath-related press releases, especially from the partner companies. Moreover, technical and marketing folks have been very available to discuss the launch.
I am tempted to say something tongue-in-cheek about InfoPath (e.g., InfoPath is Latin for "Microsoft Office everywhere, damnit!"). But, in fairness to Microsoft, I have not really looked that closely at it yet. I have been using the beta version of Office 11 for several months, but I never installed the InfoPath componentry. I have spent some time working with Microsoft Word output to XML, and have a pretty good idea about that.
There are at least two interesting things about InfoPath. First, on the one hand, it seems to be very true to XML, but it still looks like a complex and heavy client installation. Second, it is pretty clear that InfoPath is positioned as Microsoft's entree to the electronic forms market; however, Microsoft has been "doing" forms for a long time through products such as Visual Basic, Access, Excel, and even Word. Is InfoPath more than the sum of those parts? Less? And what about XForms? InfoPath specifically does not support XForms. Does this set up InfoPath to be its own, unique vocabulary for forms development, despite the fact that it is based on XML?
With the public announcement of InfoPath today, Microsoft published a great deal more material about the product on the Microsoft Web site today. See, for example, the FAQ and some customer case studies.
I would love to hear from people in the field who have started working with InfoPath, especially in content applications, about their experiences thus far.
Bill Trippe
btrippe@nmpub.com
Posted by Bill Trippe at October 21, 2003 4:15 PM
