RE: xfoms suspend and resume support

I tend to think that one either needs to limit the scope of Xforms , to
a online technology
or define a redunent replication proccess where the data is stored
locally(if possible) and on the server.

It is important to remember the Xform will extend far beyond the scope
of current web browsers. Many mobile phone and voice browsers may not
have the ability to store data locally.

Having said this i don't believe that this is a criticle element of
Xforms but rather a "nice to have".


Nick Alexander
TranXactive Operations

-----Original Message-----
From: Josef Dietl [mailto:josef@mozquito.com]
Sent: 21 September 2001 02:11
To: CULANG Stéphane; www-forms@w3.org
Subject: RE: xfoms suspend and resume support


Bonjour Stéphane,

Indeed, the functionality of Suspend and Resume was moved to "Future
Considerations" in the last revision of the requirements document [1]
dated 4 April. Consequently, there are currently no plans to pick this
feature up for XForms 1.0.

The change happened partly because suspend/resume requires a more
elaborate protocol and authentication framework. This has been taken on
now partly by the XML Protocol WG, but their results are not yet mature
enough for us to incorporate in a specification that wants to enter Last
Call now.

On the other hand, we still have to agree on what exactly we want to do.
The scenario you give is close to one of the positions, but the other
one is to save the file on the server side so that the end user can
resume work from a different machine. There are major security concerns
attached to both alternatives.

Offline work on suspended forms was - as far as I can see - not really
on the agenda for suspend/resume - it is one of the primary goals of
XForms alltogether: Load the form and its instance, go offline, fill out
the form, go online again. However, if your computer goes up ins smoke
for whatever reason, the data you have entered until then is lost.

The main goal of suspend/resume was precisely to prevent that: IF you
have the form, THEN enable the user to save the current state (whatever
that is, and wherever it may be saved) and continue. Some argue that it
must be stored on the server because otherwise you can't resume from a
different machine, some argue that it must be stored locally because
otherwise you can't do it offline. 

It is easy to see the two are mutually exclusive. What are the opinions
of other people here on the list?

Josef

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml-forms-req

> -----Original Message-----
> From: CULANG Stéphane [mailto:Stephane.CULANG@France-boissons.fr]
> Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2001 9:43 AM
> To: 'www-forms@w3.org'
> Subject: xfoms suspend and resume support
> 
> 
> Hello everybody,
> 
> I did not found an implementation of a Suspend and Resume 
> support in the new
> Working Draft 28-Aug-2001. 
> 
> My understanding of this concept was that a user could work 
> "offline" with a
> local xform linked to a local xml file. While offline, the 
> user would load
> and manipulate the xml instance locally in it's browser using 
> the power of
> the xform logic and be able to save any change in the local 
> document before
> submiting the instance back to a server when coming back online.
> 
> This support was announced in previous documents and WD, see 
> for instance :
> 
> http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Forms/
> http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/WD-xforms-20010216/rpm.html
> 
> This is a key goal that addresses many real world business needs.  Did
> anyone found any evidence that this is still part of the project ?
> 
> Stéphane Culang
> Architecte technique - ORVIS
> 0147144975
> stephane.culang@france-boissons.fr
> 
>

Received on Friday, 21 September 2001 08:40:07 UTC