As InfoPath approaches its end of life in July 2026, organizations must transition to modern form technologies like Microsoft Power Apps, Lightning Forms, Nintex, or Skybow. This guide walks you through migrating an InfoPath form library to Nintex K2 SmartForms, using Lightning Tools Form Migrator.
Prerequisites
- InfoPath form design file (.XSN) or a published InfoPath form library in SharePoint
- Follow the steps in Lightning Tools — Form Migrator basics to Add, Read, and Analyze your InfoPath form.
- Access to Nintex K2 SmartForms
- Lightning Tools Form Migrator installed with either a trial or full license key
- Permission to create SharePoint lists on the destination site and authenticate connections
Create the target SharePoint lists
NOTE: This step is only necessary if your source is a Form Library published form. If it was published to a list, you can just use that same list, as long as it's available in the destination (SharePoint SE or Online).
First, the target SharePoint lists and columns must be created and configured as SmartObjects, and then the actual form can be migrated. If your InfoPath form is on a SharePoint list rather than a library, then you don't need to perform this step, because the lists already exist.
Select your form in the tool, and click the blue Write button (you need to have either a Trial or Full “Form Template Conversion” license for this button to be visible).
Select SharePoint as the Writer, because first you are only creating the required SharePoint lists. Select (or enter if necessary) your destination SharePoint Online site, and either accept the default list name (based on your form name) or create a new list from the site's treeview.
Click Go. The Migrator tool will create the primary list based on the fields in your InfoPath form, and if there are repeating sections in your form, the tool will create a child list for each repeater. Child lists will be named as the primary list name followed by the repeater name.
Set up SmartObjects for each list
NOTE: If your InfoPath form is on a list rather than a library, and if the list has already been “appified” with Nintex, then you don't need to perform this step.
Next, you must open each of the just-created SharePoint lists and register them with Nintex K2 to set up SmartObjects.
Navigate to the primary list, and click Application in the command bar:
A Nintex Designer page will open. Simply click OK at the bottom of the page.
You should then see the list of SmartObjects that have been created for your primary list:
Click the Back to YourSite button in the upper left corner.
Perform the same steps for each of the child lists (if any); you can find the lists on the Site Contents page. For each child list, click Application from the command bar, click OK to view the created SmartObjects, and go back to your site.
Create the K2 SmartForm
The next step is to actually convert your InfoPath form to a K2 SmartForm.
Back on the Migrator main screen, again select your form and click the blue Write button. This time, select the Nintex K2 Five writer.
Select an existing Nintex K2 Five Connection, or click the blue + to add a new connection if needed.
- Host: May be the host name or IP address
- Port: Leave this at 5555 unless a K2 admin confirms the port was changed to something else
- Security Label: “K2” essentially means you're using Windows Security. “K2 SQL” means you're using the built-in K2 SQL manager for security.
- User ID: If you're using Windows Authentication (K2 security), include the domain. If you're using K2 SQL security, do not include a domain.
This Nintex reference article may also help you: Authentication and Connection Strings
Your form name should appear by default. Select a Category, Style Profile, and Theme if you wish. Select SharePoint as the Entity Type, and select the destination SharePoint Connection (the same connection you used in the steps above). Select the primary SharePoint List that you created in the steps above (or the existing list if your InfoPath form was on a list rather than a library).
If you wish this to be a SharePoint Integrated Form (where users can click New or Edit in the list to open your form), go to the Experimental tab, and select Yes for “SharePoint Integrated Form?”. If you also wish the tool to create a read-only display form based on the InfoPath default form, select Yes for “Create a View Form?”
Click Go to write the customized form to the specified list.
After the process is complete, you should now see your customized forms in the Nintex Designer:
Now, you need to set these forms as the list's New, Edit, and Display forms (assuming you've selected “SharePoint Integrated Form”). Our tool is not able to perform this automatically due to the nature of the Nintex application. To do this, go to your primary list and again click Application in the Command Bar. On the Application page, go to Settings > Form Settings.
On the Manage Form Settings dialog, change each form from the default SharePoint form to your new SmartForm. Note that if you had the tool create a View Form, set that ReadOnly form as the Display form. Click Save.
Note: If your source InfoPath form had multiple views, you can publish those as individual forms, and you may wish to specify that other form as the Edit form.
Now, when you click “Add New Item” on the SharePoint list, your customized form should open!