Office 365 InfoPath Forms are Available to Fill-In for Kiosk Users

The following question came up the other day.

If I have a SharePoint list with an InfoPath form (front-end) on my Office 365 site (obviously built by a user with sufficient permissions to design such a form), can my K level (Kiosk) users fill that form in?

In our case, a customer wanted to have a few enterprise users (who could build such forms), and a number of kiosk users, who were merely users of the system.  However, the kiosk users needed to have the capacity to fill in company forms, in order for such a solution to be viable.  We decided to try this out, and it turns out that in fact, yes, this is possible. 

Essentially, what we did was the following.  Firstly, we logged in as a user with permission to build the form (enterprise user).  Next, we built a very simple custom SharePoint list, with a couple of additional custom fields added (a single line of text and a multi-line).  Then we customized the list form, by adding an InfoPath front-end (using the InfoPath button on the Ribbon, and a machine with InfoPath 2013 on it).  We published that form, and verified the form worked for the enterprise user.  Finally, we logged out as the enterprise user, logged in as a kiosk user, and attempted to go to that list.  Once at that list we tried to create a new item in the list, the form appeared (in the browser), and we were able to fill in data for that form.  Finally, we saved the data in the form entry, and looked back at the data in the list, and voila!  The data the kiosk user had attempted to add was successfully added to the list for all to see and use.  Total success!

According to the article below on deploying InfoPath Forms Services, this functionality can be deployed on any online Enterprise site (E1 or higher), and also in an online Midsize plan (though I have not tried to do this in the Midsize plan – so don’t quote me on that one).  However, it appears that in order to use the InfoPath Form Web Part, you’ll need at least the Enterprise level E3 plan to take advantage of that.  The web part is not integral to solving the above problem, it’s just an interesting piece of information.  I suppose if you wanted to have a dashboard with an InfoPath form on it, that form would not be accessible to kiosk users, but again, I’ve not tried this, so I couldn’t say.

Enjoy building your InfoPath forms online!

This article covers how to deploy InfoPath Forms Services online: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/products/configure-infopath-forms-services-HA102771487.aspx?CTT=1

Using the InfoPath Form Web Part: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-help/use-the-infopath-form-web-part-HA102770988.aspx?CTT=1

This page describes what’s available in a Kiosk plan: http://office.microsoft.com/en-001/business/compare-office-365-kiosk-plans-FX103178917.aspx?CTT=1

This page describes what’s available in a Midsize plan: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/buy/compare-office-365-for-business-plans-FX102918419.aspx?tab=2

This page describes what’s available in the Enterprise plans: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/buy/compare-office-365-for-business-plans-FX102918419.aspx?tab=3