Creating instance data from external resources

"If the external resource is an XML format (i.e. with a content type  
matching any of the specifiers in [RFC 3023]), then an XPath data model is  
created as defined in [XDM]."
https://www.w3.org/community/xformsusers/wiki/XForms_2.0#initialize-instance-external

However, not all XML documents are served using one of the mediatypes in  
RFC 3023.
Three that immediately come to mind are abiword, some HTML, and Open  
Office files.

So that "i.e." above worries me a bit, because it suggests that if the  
resource isn't served with a known XML media type, it can't be treated as  
XML.

Some possible solutions:

1. If it is a known mediatype (including the XML media types), treat it as  
such. If it is an unknown media type try to treat it as XML.

1a. Treat special cases (JSON, CSV) as required, and treat the rest as XML.

2. Allow an attribute on <submission/> and <instance/> elements to tell  
the system what mediatype to use, regardless of what is reported.

Steven

Received on Tuesday, 24 October 2017 10:50:13 UTC