Role of ItemMetadata.xml in Infopath forms [SharePoint 2207 workflow]

 Introduction:

ItemMetadata.xml is the file used to store/transfer
the data from one Infopath to another. The name of the file is case -
sensitive.

For example, in a sharepoint workflow, there are 10 steps, in
each step we are using infopath and we want send some information from one to
the next infopath form, the information won't save any where. we need to tell
explicitly to infopath to store in xml file. that is nothing but
ItemMetadata.xml.

It acts as the secondary data source to the
infopath.

To compensate for the possibility of schema differences between
the task data and the form it only stores the schema instead of
data.

Example schema is

<z:row xmlns:z="#RowsetSchema"
ows_fieldname=""/>

Note: Every field name should be prefixed with
ows

In programming, we can retrieve the data from info path using the
property called
ExtendedProperties.

afterProperties.ExtendedProperties["filedName"].ToString();