Question

I have a basic install of Sharepoint running, and the first programming type task I want to do is make a form to collect some data.
I want to have a page have a form, collect a name and a phone number, submit the form, then have a confirmation page display the saved data.
My basic questions are: do I make my own db, as in a classic web app (if not, do I care where the data is stored?), is the programming similar (I know how to do this in java web apps), and is InfoPath something I should look into to do this?

Answer 1

SharePoint is nothing like anything. 😉

Windows Sharepoint Services is a .net application and set of APIs combined with a DB schema that isn’t meant to be human readable.

To collect data and store it in SharePoint, there tends to be two typical options:

1) Create a list of some sort (survey, task list, etc.) within the SharePoint GUI, set up permissions, and send it out to have people fill it in.

2) Use InfoPath as the tool to create the form’s interface, mapping to a SharePoint list.

These methods can be fairly simple compared to a custom web app, but there are also limitations that may lead you down the path of skipping SharePoint and creating your own web application to collect the data.