Web Forms, Workflow, lots of docs - Advice needed

[jvolk123]

Hi all,

I'm very new to MOSS/WSS and I had a very quick, general question. I've been tasked with implementing a forms solution within Sharepoint. The broad requirements are...

1) Documents must be accessible across the globe and editable without the Infopath client (so web forms only)

2) There may be well over 2k documents of a single document type.

3) Custom workflow will be required.

4) We will ultimately need to report on all data within the forms.

Now, my question broadly comes down to: where do I store all this data?

Should I store it in a sharepoint list? I've read that performance seriously degrades at or after 2000 documents in a list. Moreover, if the data is stored in a list, can I report on unpromoted fields? How do I get the data out again if I'm not in an Infopath Form? I would *love* to store the data in a list - it just seems much easier if I can overcome the above issues.

I didn't think lists would work, so I thought I would store the form data in a separate sql server 2005 db and submit via web services in the infopath form. I could then access my external database via web services by using the Business Data Catalog. I would have fine control over performance and the document limit is no longer a problem. However, it is really unclear to me how workflow would integrate into that solution - not to mention it seems like a ton more work and I'm under a very tight deadline (when aren't we?).

Any help or suggestions would be most appreciated! Thanks
Jeff

 

[philhege]

Although you can place form information in list columns, it's advisable to put the salient searchable information in a data store. You can still display information as columns in the list AFAIK.

As part of the form data submission or the workflow process, you should be able to capture submitted information in a database. Infopath is not, from what I understand, required for the client in MOSS, so that's not an issue.

I hope this works out for you. (Note to self: time to dive into MOSS when I can get away from the current .NET madness.)