Re: Asynchronous submission is the default?

Hi Erik,

First, to answer as an implementer, we also implemented synchronous 
submission because this is what XForms 1.0 called for.

I believe the issue was discussed in June 2006.  When it was discussed, it 
turned out that many implementers who were building for client-side web 
browsers did not believe that the spec said this.

The spec says it quite clearly, and when faced with the text, the response 
was that they assumed the spec was obviously in error since asynchronous 
submission was more natural for the web and that it was probably quite 
difficult for them to even implement synchronous submission. This is my 
chance to reiterate that it is up to *all of us* not to let the spec get 
out of synch with our reality like this.  If anyone thinks the spec is 
wrong, it is more work to raise an issue but we really need you to do so.

Anyway, putting the process soapbox aside for the moment, the above 
arguments caused the WG to decide that asynchronous should be the default 
for 1.1.  I think that if implementer feedback suggests that synchronous 
operation is indeed too hard to implement, then the conformance section 
could reduce it to recommended (rather than the current level of 
required).  But this feedback is most likely to occur during CR.

Cheers,
John M. Boyer, Ph.D.
STSM: Lotus Forms Architect and Researcher
Chair, W3C Forms Working Group
Workplace, Portal and Collaboration Software
IBM Victoria Software Lab
E-Mail: boyerj@ca.ibm.com 

Blog: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/JohnBoyer





Erik Bruchez <ebruchez@orbeon.com> 
Sent by: public-forms-request@w3.org
08/07/2007 02:46 PM
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Subject
Asynchronous submission is the default?







All,

I notice in the current XForms 1.1 spec that the default value for
xforms:submission/@mode is "asynchronous". I am not sure why this is
the case. It seems that this is backward, but I may be mistaken. Did
we discuss this and was there a good rationale for using asynchronous?

If you are to implement submission in XForms 1.0, say, it seem to me
that you would go with the more naive implementation and not bother
with asynchronism, as this will may require spawning another thread or
comparable mechanism.

At least, that's the way we implement it in Orbeon Forms. What do
other implementations do?

If it is the case that in 1.0 the default is (or is interpreted) as
synchronous, then shouldn't the default in XForms 1.1 be the same?

-Erik

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Orbeon Forms - Web Forms for the Enterprise Done the Right Way
http://www.orbeon.com/