RE: xforms and wokflow?

> I don't quite follow, but are you saying that the XForms processor can't
> send an email? If that's so, then there is no reason why not. We added
> support for MAPI to version 2 of formsPlayer. And on our big list of things
> to do (which does include going to the pub at lunchtime on a Friday, but we
> just don't seem to get down that far in our list), we've even spec'd
> everything out so that you can get at your contacts list via an XForms
> instance.
> 
> If anything, the tricky bit is not email support, but support for submitting
> to a dynamic URI, and for submitting to a variable number of end-points.

ah, no you misunderstand.
X-forms knows how to send email, and submit to my sink - we implemented a generic sink using sink://...
and that's exactly my point.
to do what I want - I think.
I need to do something like this.
form request
user fills in form and submits.
instance is put in stasis somewhere,
workflow engine sends requests via email for other users to complete other forms to validate the first form results.

now assuming validation results are all good, I want to complete what the first form should have done.
send emails, submit to sink://..., send email to original author letting them know the state, and whatever else may have been defined 
in the initial form.

In order to complete this last part I need to either:
1) split the initial form into two parts, and somehow render the second part (that does all the emails etc) serverside, or somewhere 
because there wont be any real client, unless I can get the workflow engine to instantiate a form and hit submit!

or 
2) do as I previously stated and implement the last part of the x-form by hand - not very practical long term!

does that make sense?




> We support variable URIs in both versions of formsPlayer, although in quite
> different ways. In fP 1 you need to use the xf:extension element, but in fP
> 2 it's much easier, and we use attribute value templates (AVTs). However,
> neither of these techniques is standard, and since to do all the clever
> things you described this feature is of fundamental importance, we need it
> to be added to the XForms specification.
> 
> We don't yet support looping constructs, but David at Novell has spec'd out
> a @while attribute, and we plan to implement that. (He has already
> implemented it.) That should allow you to send a variable number of
> submissions.
> 
> The point I'm making is that XForms is evolving very quickly, and it's
> exactly the kind of 'real world' scenarios that you describe that XForms
> aims to address. So the more use cases that get posted to this list, the
> better XForms will become.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Mark
> 
> 
> Mark Birbeck
> CEO
> x-port.net Ltd.
> 
> e: Mark.Birbeck@x-port.net
> t: +44 (0) 20 7689 9232
> w: http://www.formsPlayer.com/
> b: http://internet-apps.blogspot.com/
> 
> Download our XForms processor from
> http://www.formsPlayer.com/
> 
>

Received on Friday, 19 August 2005 13:52:20 UTC