Using Relink When Moving a SharePoint Form Library to a New Site

When InfoPath form files are saved to a SharePoint Form Library, SharePoint creates hard-coded references to the form template in the team site where the forms are being saved.  If the SharePoint Form Library is moved to a new location, the references in the InfoPath form files will continue to point to the old location, even after they've been moved into the new Form Library. In order to fix up the references in the form files to point to the new form template location, you need to perform a Relink operation.

Important   Before performing the Relink operation, make sure that the Windows SharePoint Services server you are working with has been updated with Windows SharePoint Services Service Pack 1. This service pack release fixes a bug that can cause data corruption when performing a Relink operation.

Note   You cannot relink a form if the all data in the form has been digitally signed (the form template has been configured for signing by using the Enable digital signatures for the entire form option, or by using the Enable digital signatures for specific data in the form option with the Set of signable data specified using an XPath expression of "/"). This is because when a form has been signed using this configuration the link to the form template is treated as part of the form data, and relinking would invalidate the signature. You can relink a form that has only part of the data signed (the form template has been configured for signing by using the Enable digital signatures for specific data in the form option with the Set of signable data specified as a subset of the data). For more information on using digital signatures, see Digitally Signing Data in InfoPath 2003.

Here are the steps for performing a Relink operation:

1. Open the new form library.
2. Click Modify Columns and Settings to the left of the view.
3. Under General Settings, click Relink forms to this form library.
4. In the view presented, select all of the forms that you want to relink.
5. Click the Relink button.

The references in all of the forms you selected in step 4 will now point to the current form library location.

Note   It is also possible to update the references in the form files using the Processing Instruction Update Tool provided with the InfoPath 2003 Software Development Kit (SDK); however in most cases the using the procedure above is simpler.