RE: @number attribute on xforms:repeat

It is a hint, and as such can rightly be ignored.

Just in terms of why it's a hint, the problem is more the other way round;
how would we come up with a cross-platform, device-independent way of
defining @number? Obviously we could say that it is used to indicate how
many 'rows' of a xf:repeat are rendered, but then is a photocopier or a fax
machine non-conformant if it can only show one row at a time?

Having said that, hints like @appearance and @number do capture authors'
*intent*, so it is important that implementations do the best they can to
use the information in some way. This means that although the author cannot
rely on their form being rendered with exactly the number of rows that they
want (since they don't know the target device of their form, or its
capabilities), by the same token the implementer should at least *try* to
render only the correct number of iterations, obviously within the limits of
the device.

At one time I was keen for at least number="1" to have mandated behaviour
(i.e., the device could process any other values of @number as best they
could, but '1' should always only show one iteration), since that makes
wizard-style forms really easy to write, safe in the knowledge that they
will be the same on all devices. But even with that we found that there were
other ways to do it, and so the enthusiasm for mandating that waned!

Finally, on the specific questions raised in this thread: no, @number
doesn't affect index() or setindex, and no, it can't be used for things like
paging. The latter needs to be set up by the form author (there are a number
of examples on our site).

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/

Download our XForms processor from
http://www.formsPlayer.com/  

> -----Original Message-----
> From: www-forms-request@w3.org 
> [mailto:www-forms-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Allan Beaufour
> Sent: 28 November 2005 12:10
> To: www-forms@w3.org
> Subject: Re: @number attribute on xforms:repeat
> 
> 
> Monday 28 November 2005 12:33 skrev Erik Bruchez:
> > Peter Nunn wrote:
> >  > Best not to use this to implement scrolling.  Wrap the 
> repeat in a  
> > > div and use css to turn on scroll bars using overflow=scroll
> >
> > Thanks but this opinion does not appear to be very 
> substanciated: why 
> > is it "best" not to use this XForms hint to show a scrolling window?
> > What about paging? If none of these two options, then what is the 
> > "@number" attribute for?
> 
> I have also looked at it for Firefox... it's not clear how it 
> should be handled. Does it influence the index()/setindex, 
> and if so, how, etc. I zoomed in on the "hint" part and put 
> on my "ignore"-goggles :)
> 
> --
> Allan Beaufour
> Linux Software Engineer
> 
> Novell, Inc.
> Software for the Open Enterprise
> www.novell.com/open
> 
>

Received on Monday, 28 November 2005 13:02:34 UTC