Get User's Manager In InfoPath & SharePoint Online Forms

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Get User's Manager in InfoPath & SharePoint Online Forms

Navigating the InfoPath Maze for User Manager Data in SharePoint Online

Hey guys, so you're diving into the world of InfoPath forms on SharePoint Online in Office 365, and you've hit that classic hurdle: trying to snag a user's manager information. Trust me, you're not alone! It's a question that pops up a lot, and for good reason – knowing who a user reports to is super important for many business processes, like approval workflows or even just displaying organizational structure. But here's the dealio: while InfoPath was a powerhouse back in the day, especially with on-premises SharePoint, its capabilities in the SharePoint Online realm, particularly concerning deep user profile properties like "Manager," are... well, let's just say they're limited.

When you're working with InfoPath 2013 forms for SharePoint Online, your primary go-to for user data is usually the User Information List data connection. This connection is awesome for grabbing basic stuff: display name, account ID, email address, maybe even some custom fields if they're synced up correctly. But what about the manager? That's where things get a bit hairy. The User Information List, by default, doesn't directly expose the 'Manager' field in a way that InfoPath can easily consume and display. This isn't a flaw in your understanding, folks; it's a fundamental architectural limitation when trying to bridge the gap between InfoPath's aging technology and the more dynamic, cloud-based Azure Active Directory (AAD) where manager relationships are truly maintained in SharePoint Online. If you've been banging your head against the wall trying to find that elusive 'Manager' field in your User Information List data connection, take a breath. It's not you; it's the system.

Think of it this way: InfoPath forms operate within a specific sandbox. They can connect to certain data sources – lists, libraries, web services, and yes, the User Information List. However, accessing the rich user profile service that holds the intricate details like 'Manager' directly from InfoPath in SharePoint Online is like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. While SharePoint User Profile Service Applications in on-premises environments offered more robust connections, the SharePoint Online equivalent, which is deeply integrated with Azure AD, doesn't expose these specific 'Manager' properties through the simple data connections InfoPath relies on. This limitation often forces us to get creative or, more accurately, to look for alternative solutions that are better suited for the modern SharePoint Online landscape. We're talking about situations where you need to pre-fill a form with the submitter's manager, route an specific approval to their boss, or simply display their organizational hierarchy. The traditional InfoPath approach of just adding a data connection and picking a field usually falls short here. In the following sections, we're gonna dive deep into why this happens and, more importantly, how you can actually achieve this critical functionality, even if it means stepping a little outside the pure InfoPath comfort zone. We'll explore the ins and outs of what's possible and what's not, giving you the best strategies to conquer this challenge in SharePoint Online.

Why Direct Manager Retrieval is Tricky with InfoPath in SharePoint Online

Alright, let's peel back another layer of this InfoPath and SharePoint Online onion, guys, and really get into the nitty-gritty of why grabbing a user's manager directly through an InfoPath form is such a pain. The core issue boils down to how SharePoint Online manages user identities and profiles, and how InfoPath tries (and often fails) to interact with that modern architecture. Back in the day, with on-premises SharePoint, you had a dedicated User Profile Service Application (UPSA). InfoPath could, with some configuration, potentially connect to a web service that exposed UPSA data, including manager information. But SharePoint Online is a different beast entirely.

In SharePoint Online, user profiles, including critical relationships like 'Manager,' are primarily sourced from and managed within Azure Active Directory (AAD). This is Microsoft's cloud-based identity and access management service. While SharePoint Online syncs certain properties from AAD to its own internal user profiles (which then populate the User Information List), not all properties are synced, or at least not in a way that's easily consumable by InfoPath's older data connection mechanisms. The 'Manager' property, while present in AAD, isn't something that's simply exposed as a straightforward field in the User Information List that you can just 'point and click' to in InfoPath. This fundamental disconnect is the reason for your struggle.

The User Information List, which is what your InfoPath data connection is hitting, is essentially a cached version of some user properties from AAD. It's great for names, emails, and login IDs, but it lacks the direct, robust connection to the full fidelity of the user profile or the organizational hierarchy that resides in AAD. InfoPath doesn't have a native, out-of-the-box data connection type that allows it to directly query Azure Active Directory via the Microsoft Graph API or the more specific SharePoint Online User Profile REST APIs. If it could, getting the manager would be a breeze! But alas, it cannot. This fundamental disconnect is the reason for your struggle to retrieve a user's manager in InfoPath for SharePoint Online.

Moreover, it's important to remember that InfoPath itself is deprecated. Microsoft stopped active development on it years ago, and while it still works in many SharePoint Online scenarios (especially for existing forms), it's not the platform's future. The tools that are built for the future – like Power Apps and Power Automate (formerly Microsoft Flow) – have direct connectors to Office 365 User Profiles and Azure AD. These connectors can easily pull manager information. So, when we talk about InfoPath's limitations, we're also talking about trying to force an older tool to perform modern tricks it wasn't designed for, especially in a rapidly evolving cloud environment. So, what does this mean for you? It means that if you're absolutely committed to using InfoPath for your form, you're going to need to look at indirect methods or external helper processes. You can't just slap on a new data connection and expect to see 'Manager Name' pop up. We need to think outside the InfoPath form itself. We'll explore strategies that involve leveraging other SharePoint capabilities or even entirely different platforms to feed that manager data into your InfoPath form, because getting it directly is pretty much a no-go. This understanding is crucial before we dive into potential workarounds, because it clarifies why these workarounds are necessary in the first place for obtaining manager information.

Indirect Approaches: Crafting Workarounds to Get Manager Data into InfoPath

Alright, since we've established that directly pulling manager data into an InfoPath form on SharePoint Online is about as easy as teaching a cat to fetch, let's talk about the indirect approaches – the clever workarounds you can use if you're absolutely stuck with InfoPath for your solution. These methods aren't as straightforward as a direct data connection, but they can get the job done by leveraging other parts of the SharePoint ecosystem or by bringing in more modern tools to assist your InfoPath form. Think of these as plumbing solutions – we're redirecting the flow of information to eventually get it where we need it.

One of the most common and historically popular workarounds involves using SharePoint Designer Workflows. While SharePoint Designer is also a bit long in the tooth, it does have actions that can query the User Profile Service in SharePoint Online (or at least, its equivalent in the SharePoint REST API). Here's the gist: you could have a workflow trigger when your InfoPath form item is created or modified. This workflow would then use an action like 'Call HTTP Web Service' to query the SharePoint REST API for the current user's profile and extract their manager's email or display name. Once it has that information, the workflow can update a field in your SharePoint list item, which your InfoPath form is bound to. So, your InfoPath form wouldn't get the manager directly, but it would display the manager's name after the workflow has run and populated the field. This method requires some finesse with REST API calls and parsing JSON, but it is doable for those comfortable with SharePoint Designer, making it one of the methods to obtain manager information in InfoPath forms on SharePoint Online.

Another, more modern and increasingly preferred approach, especially given SharePoint Designer's own deprecation, is to use Power Automate (formerly Microsoft Flow). This is where the real magic happens for modern SharePoint Online! You can create a Power Automate flow that triggers when an item is created in the SharePoint list associated with your InfoPath form. Within the flow, you'd use the 'Office 365 Users' connector. This connector has an action specifically called 'Get manager (V2)', which, given a user's UPN (User Principal Name, usually their email), can directly retrieve their manager's profile information, including their display name, email, and more. Once Power Automate has this data, it can then update a field in your SharePoint list item. Your InfoPath form, when opened, would then simply read this pre-populated field. This is a much more robust, reliable, and future-proof way to get manager data into a SharePoint list item that your InfoPath form can consume.

Alternatively, you could consider having a 'Helper List' in SharePoint. This list might be populated overnight (or periodically) by a custom script or a Power Automate flow that queries AAD/User Profiles and builds a list of users and their managers. Then, your InfoPath form could use a secondary data connection to this 'Helper List' to perform a lookup based on the current user's ID. This requires maintaining that helper list, which adds a layer of complexity, but it does keep the InfoPath form itself simpler. The key takeaway here, guys, is that InfoPath alone isn't going to cut it for manager retrieval. You need an external process – be it a workflow, a flow, or a custom service – to do the heavy lifting of querying the Azure Active Directory or Office 365 User Profiles and then feeding that data back into a SharePoint list field that your InfoPath form can access. While these methods add extra steps, they are currently the most viable ways to achieve your goal while still retaining an InfoPath front-end in SharePoint Online for manager retrieval.

The Modern Way: Embracing Power Apps and Power Automate for User Profiles

Okay, guys, we've talked about the challenges and the workarounds for using InfoPath with SharePoint Online to get a user's manager. Now, let's be real for a minute: while those workarounds can technically achieve the goal, they often feel like trying to fix an old car with duct tape when there's a shiny new model waiting in the garage. The modern, recommended, and truly efficient way to handle scenarios like retrieving manager information in SharePoint Online is to fully embrace the Power Platform, specifically Power Apps for your forms and Power Automate for your logic and data retrieval.

InfoPath is a legacy tool. It's deprecated, and while it's not going anywhere tomorrow, it's not getting new features, nor is it optimized for the dynamic, cloud-first environment of SharePoint Online and Azure Active Directory. This is where Power Apps shines as the successor for custom forms. With Power Apps, you get a much more flexible and powerful canvas to design your forms, and crucially, it has native, robust connectors to all the Office 365 services you need. The most relevant here is the Office 365 Users connector. This connector can directly query user profiles, including their managers, with incredible ease. This significantly simplifies methods to obtain manager information in InfoPath forms on SharePoint Online.

Imagine this: instead of messing with complex data connections or waiting for workflows to run, in Power Apps, you can simply add a text input or a label, and set its 'Default' property to something like Office365Users.ManagerV2(User().Email).DisplayName. Boom! Just like that, you've got the current user's manager's name displayed on your form in real-time. This is leveraging the Microsoft Graph API behind the scenes, providing a direct, efficient, and reliable way to get that crucial piece of information. Not only is it easier to configure, but it also provides a much better user experience because the data is retrieved instantly, without any delays associated with server-side workflows.

Furthermore, when you combine Power Apps with Power Automate, you unlock a whole new level of automation and sophistication. While Power Apps can get the manager directly on the form, you might still need Power Automate for more complex scenarios, like triggering approvals to the manager, logging manager details to a separate system, or enriching data after form submission. Power Automate's 'Office 365 Users - Get manager (V2)' action is incredibly powerful and straightforward to use. It means your business processes can be built directly on the platform, without resorting to the historical complexities of SharePoint Designer or InfoPath-specific workarounds. This holistic approach ensures your solutions are future-proof, maintainable, and aligned with Microsoft's strategic direction for modern workplaces. Making the switch from InfoPath to Power Apps isn't just about getting manager data; it's about upgrading your entire form and process automation strategy. It allows for responsive designs, integration with other services like Dataverse, and a significantly more dynamic and engaging user interface. While it might involve a learning curve if you're deep into the InfoPath world, the investment is absolutely worth it for the long-term benefits in terms of functionality, performance, and overall solution longevity in SharePoint Online. So, if you're starting fresh or have the opportunity to migrate, seriously consider making the leap to Power Apps and Power Automate – it's the smart move for handling user profiles and so much more, especially for retrieving a user's manager.

Step-by-Step (Conceptual) InfoPath Failure & Power Automate Success

Alright, let's walk through a conceptual scenario to really hammer home why InfoPath struggles and how Power Automate comes to the rescue. This isn't a literal click-by-click guide, but it illustrates the process and highlights the crucial differences. Imagine you're building an expense report form in InfoPath for SharePoint Online, and you need to display the submitter's manager for review.

The InfoPath Only Attempt (and where it falters):

  1. Start in InfoPath: You open your InfoPath 2013 form.
  2. Add Data Connection: You navigate to 'Data Connections' and choose 'Receive data from a SharePoint library or list'.
  3. Select User Information List: You point it to your SharePoint Online site and select the 'User Information List'. This list contains basic details about users who have interacted with your SharePoint site.
  4. Try to find Manager Field: You scroll through the available fields in the data connection wizard. You'll see fields like 'Name', 'Email', 'Account ID', 'Picture', etc. But here's the kicker: you won't find a direct 'Manager' field that consistently holds the manager's name or email from Azure AD. If by some rare chance there's a field that looks like a manager, it's likely a custom property that was manually populated or synced in a very specific (and often complex) on-premises migration scenario, not a standard out-of-the-box feature from Azure AD. This clearly demonstrates the challenge of retrieving a user's manager in InfoPath for SharePoint Online directly.
  5. Bind to Control: Even if you selected the current user's UPN/Email, there's no native InfoPath function or simple data connection that can then take that UPN and query Azure AD to return the manager. You're simply hitting a wall because the User Information List doesn't expose that particular relational data. This is where the direct InfoPath approach usually grinds to a halt, leaving you without the manager information you need.

The Power Automate Success Story:

Now, let's pivot to how you actually get this done reliably by combining your InfoPath form with the power of Power Automate. The goal here is for Power Automate to fetch the manager and write it to a field in your SharePoint list that your InfoPath form can then simply display. This is one of the effective methods to obtain manager information in InfoPath forms on SharePoint Online.

  1. InfoPath Form Setup: First, in your InfoPath form, make sure you have a field (e.g., SubmitterManagerEmail) where you want to store the manager's email. This field should be mapped to a column in your SharePoint list (e.g., a single line of text column named 'ManagerEmail'). Your InfoPath form will submit the form and the current user's email to this SharePoint list as usual.
  2. Create a Power Automate Flow: Go to Power Automate (flow.microsoft.com).
  3. Trigger the Flow: Create an 'Automated cloud flow' that triggers 'When an item is created or modified' in your specific SharePoint list where your InfoPath form submits data.
  4. Get User's Manager: Add an action: search for 'Office 365 Users' and select the 'Get manager (V2)' action. For the 'User (UPN)' input, you'll dynamically select the 'Created By Email' or 'Submitter Email' field from the SharePoint item that triggered the flow. This action directly queries Azure AD for the manager of the user who submitted the InfoPath form.
  5. Update SharePoint Item: Add another action: search for 'SharePoint' and select 'Update item'. Choose your SharePoint site address and list name. For the 'ID', use the 'ID' from the trigger. Now, for the 'ManagerEmail' column in your SharePoint list, you'll use the dynamic content from the 'Get manager (V2)' action – specifically, 'Mail' (which is the manager's email). You could also grab 'DisplayName' for the manager's name.
  6. Form Display: When a user submits their InfoPath form, the item is created in SharePoint. The Power Automate flow kicks in, finds the manager, and updates that 'ManagerEmail' column in the SharePoint list item. Now, if the user (or anyone else) opens that same InfoPath form (which is bound to the SharePoint list item), the SubmitterManagerEmail field will be pre-populated with the manager's email. You can even set this field to be read-only in InfoPath so users can't change it.

This structured approach clearly separates the responsibilities: InfoPath handles the data entry, and Power Automate handles the complex Azure AD lookup and data enrichment. It's a robust and reliable pattern for getting that elusive manager information into your InfoPath-driven processes in SharePoint Online.

Wrapping It Up: Your Best Path Forward for Manager Data in SharePoint

Alright, guys, we've covered a lot of ground here, diving deep into the complexities of getting a user's manager information when you're working with InfoPath forms in SharePoint Online. We started by acknowledging that, yes, it's a tough nut to crack directly within InfoPath due to its architectural limitations and the way SharePoint Online integrates with Azure Active Directory. The short answer to 'Can InfoPath directly get the manager?' is a pretty firm 'No' – at least not in a straightforward, built-in manner that you might expect from a modern platform connector.

We explored why this is the case, touching on InfoPath's legacy status and the shift towards Azure AD as the authoritative source for user profiles and organizational hierarchies. The User Information List, while useful for basic data, simply doesn't expose the 'Manager' property in a way that InfoPath can easily consume. This understanding is crucial because it helps you stop chasing a ghost and start looking for practical solutions that actually work in the current SharePoint Online landscape. This is vital for retrieving a user's manager in InfoPath for SharePoint Online.

Then, we delved into the various workarounds – the indirect methods you can employ if you absolutely must stick with InfoPath. We talked about leveraging SharePoint Designer Workflows (though increasingly outdated) and, more importantly, using Power Automate flows to fetch manager data from Office 365 Users and then push that data into a SharePoint list column that your InfoPath form can read. This approach, while requiring an external process, is the most viable path if InfoPath is your unshakeable front-end. It emphasizes using Power Automate as the bridge between InfoPath's limitations and Azure AD's rich user profile data, offering effective methods to obtain manager information in InfoPath forms on SharePoint Online.

However, the overarching message, and frankly, the strongest recommendation we can give you, is to look beyond InfoPath. The future of forms and process automation in SharePoint Online firmly lies with the Power Platform. Embracing Power Apps for your custom forms and Power Automate for your backend logic and data integration offers a vastly superior experience. Not only does it provide direct, simple, and real-time access to manager information (and a myriad of other user profile details) through the Office 365 Users connector, but it also delivers modern, responsive user interfaces, better performance, and a solution that is actively supported and evolving with Microsoft's cloud ecosystem.

So, what's your best path forward? If you're building new solutions, or have the capacity to migrate existing ones, strongly consider Power Apps. If you're stuck maintaining an existing InfoPath form and absolutely need manager data, then use Power Automate as your trusty sidekick to fetch and inject that information into your SharePoint list. This hybrid approach ensures you get the job done while setting yourself up for an easier transition to fully modern solutions down the road. Remember, adapting to the modern SharePoint Online environment means leveraging the tools that are designed for it. Good luck, and happy automating, guys!