- From: Janet Daly <janet@w3.org>
- Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2002 10:11:01 -0500
- To: w3c-news <w3c-news@w3.org>
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) announces the release of the XForms
1.0 Candidate Recommendation, the foundation for next-generation
Web-based forms, by combining the ability to separate purpose,
presentation, and results with the Extensible Markup Language (XML).
For more information, please contact Janet Daly, Head of Communications,
at +1 617 253 5884.
Web Resources
Press release
in English:
http://www.w3.org/2002/11/xforms-pressrelease.html.en
in French:
http://www.w3.org/2002/11/xforms-pressrelease.html.fr
in Japanese:
http://www.w3.org/2002/11/xforms-pressrelease.html.ja
Testimonials from Blast Radius, Cardiff Software, E-XMLMedia,
Handwise, Helsinki University of Technology, IBM,
Mozquito Technologies/SAP, Novell, PureEdge Solutions,
Xerox and x-port.net Ltd:
http://www.w3.org/2002/11/xforms-cr-testimonial
XForms Homepage:
http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Forms/
XForms 1.0 Candidate Recommendation
http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/CR-xforms-20021112
World Wide Web Consortium Publishes XForms 1.0 as a W3C Candidate
Recommendation
W3C's Next-generation Forms Technology Ready for Implementors
Contact Americas, Australia --
Janet Daly, <janet@w3.org>, +1.617.253.5884 or +1.617.253.2613
Contact Europe --
Marie-Claire Forgue, <mcf@w3.org>, +33.492.38.75.94
Contact Asia --
Saeko Takeuchi <saeko@w3.org>, +81.466.49.1170
http://www.w3.org/ -- 12 November 2002 -- The World Wide Web Consortium
(W3C) announces the release of the XForms 1.0 Candidate Recommendation.
XForms 1.0 is the foundation for next-generation Web-based forms, by
combining the ability to separate purpose, presentation, and results
with the Extensible Markup Language (XML).
Advancement of this document to Candidate Recommendation is a statement
that the specification is stable. The W3C XForms Working Group invites
the Web development community at large to implement the specification
and demonstrate interoperability.
After Nearly 10 Years, It's Time to Upgrade Forms on the Web
When HTML Forms were introduced to the Web in 1993, they provided a
means to gather information and perform transactions. The structure of
forms served the needs of many users at that time, as well as the
devices used to access the Web.
Now, nearly 10 years later, the original HTML Form design is showing its
limitations. Users now wish to access the Web through cell phones,
handheld devices, and assistive technologies such as screen readers.
Forms Authors are looking to both minimize scripting and maximize reuse
of form components, as well as cleanly separate the purpose,
presentation and results of a form. And of course, companies which have
made the move to XML are looking for ways to bring forms along with the
rest of the enterprise.
"W3C's XForms allow authors to use their choice of markup language -
XHTML, SVG, XML - with minimal scripting and maximum usability,"
explained Steven Pemberton, co-chair of the W3C XForms Working Group.
"The XForms Working Group has provided a model that makes it easy for
implementers to develop and reuse form components, delivering
functionality to users and devices previously not possible."
XForms Cleanly Separates Purpose, Presentation, and Results
In contrast to HTML Forms, with functional and presentation markup
intertwined, XForms lets forms authors distinguish the descriptions of
the purpose of the form; the presentation of the form, and how the
results (the instance data) are written in XML.
By splitting traditional HTML forms into three parts—XForms model,
instance data, and the XForms user interface—it cleanly separates
presentation from content. This separation brings new advantages:
* Reuse: XForms modules can be reused independent of the
information they collect
* Device Independence: as the User Interface controls are
abstract - that is, their generic features are the only
thing indicated - they can easily be re-presented on
different devices with different capabilities
* Accessibility: separation of presentation from content
leaves information more readily available for users of
assistive technologies; in addition, the User interface
controls encapsulate all relevant metadata such as labels,
thereby enhancing accessibility of the application when
using different modalities.
Practically speaking, XForms technologies make it possible to use forms
from a PDA, a cell phone, screen reader or conventional desktop machine
- without loss of functionality for the end user.
XForms delivers the power of XML to online forms
XML is at the core of the XForms model, and delivers key advantages to
the XForms technology:
* Data received from an XForm is already strongly typed,
well-formed, easy to validate, and process - in other words,
it's XML. This also speeds up form filling since it reduces
the need for round trips to the server for validation.
* XML Schemas may be reused and updated by XForms, which allows
one form to remain useful and functional even if there are
changes in the Schema
* Using XML 1.0 for the description of results - called 'instance
data' - ensures that the submitted data may be easily
internationalized.
Moreover, XForms, while initially designed to be integrated into XHTML,
may be adopted by any suitable markup language, such as Scalable Vector
Graphics (SVG). By defining XML-based declarative event handlers that
cover common use cases, the majority of XForms documents can be
statically analyzed, reducing the need for imperative scripts for event
handlers.
XForms Working Group Includes Industry Leaders, Seeks Implementations
In the competitive field of forms technology, it's almost unheard of to
have so many leading participants working together on the development of
a standardized technology to be used by all. The W3C XForms Working
Group serves as the place where these technology and industry leaders
meet to produce results that have immediate use on the Web today. The
XForms Working Group includes: Adobe; AOL/Netscape; Cardiff; Computer
Associates; CWI; Electricité de France R&D; Helsinki University of
Technology; IBM; Novell; NTT DoCoMo, Inc.; Openwave; Oracle; PureEdge
Solutions; SAP/Mozquito Technologies; Sony/Ericsson; and Xerox. Many
companies have announced support for XForms in current and future software.
The XForms Working Group encourages developers to work with the new
specification, and to send feedback about implementations to the XForms
Working Group mailing list.
Testimonials for W3C's XForms 1.0 Candidate Recommendation
These testimonials are in support of the W3C XForms 1.0 Candidate
Recommendation Press Release.
In English: Blast Radius | Cardiff Software | E-XMLMedia | Handwise |
Helsinki University of Technology | IBM | Mozquito Technologies/SAP |
Novell | PureEdge Solutions | Xerox | x-port.net Ltd
In German: Mozquito Technologies/SAP
XForms is a leading example of the new generation of Web standards. Like
SVG and XHTML 2, it builds upon XML and other established Web
specifications such as CSS, ECMAScript and the DOM. As a developer of
Web technology, Blast Radius strongly supports the standardization of
XForms and the continued evolution of platform-neutral, XML-based Web
technology. We look forward to using XForms to develop content-creation
and e-commerce applications for our global clients.
-- Paul Prescod, Blast Radius Inc.
The certification of XForms 1.0 CR marks an important milestone in the
history of the Web--a single standard based on open technology for form
data interchange and presentation. Cardiff Software is pleased to be one
of the first vendors to support XForms with out-of-the-box design and
publishing capabilities for XForms.
-- Micah Dubinko, Chief XML Architect, Cardiff Software Inc.
The XForms standards committee has done an excellent job. Our XFE
product continues to receive a lot of attention from customers because
of this standard. The strong market trend towards merging XML with forms
as a means to manage data entry reinforces the bright future of this new
standard." If it is used, please ascribe it to .
-- Anthony Tomasic, US CEO and co-founder of E-XMLMedia
XForms is the key to successful mobile web services. By adopting XForms'
device-independent approach, the Handwise Informate framework can
support a wide variety of devices without making any compromises on user
interface or usability. With XForms' solid foundation of XML standards
and its advanced validation and strong typing features, the application
integration work is significantly easier and less error-prone. We are
strongly committed to XForms and will continue to leverage the power of
XML in our products.
-- Tomi Kankaanpää, CTO, Handwise Ltd.
HUT is pleased to see that the XForms specification has progressed to
Candidate Recommendation. We have support for XForms and other W3C
technologies in the Open Source XML browser X-Smiles. XForms enhances
the Web by adding to forms many important user interaction features,
which were previously only possible through extensive use of scripting
or server side programming. It also enables clients to receive and send
structured XML data. We have also found in our research that integration
of XForms with XHTML, SMIL and SVG is feasible and will provide new
usage scenarios for these languages.
-- Prof. Petri Vuorimaa, Head of TML laboratory, Helsinki University of
Technology, Finland
Why has the Web succeeded? It's been successful because people knew that
the underlying technology was standardized in an open way. HTML was an
important tool in connecting people to the information they needed and
we learned important lessons about avoiding company-specific extensions.
Now XForms extends the power of XML to further enhance how companies and
individuals do business on the Web. XForms has a great opportunity to be
the standard, open, non-proprietary technology that will help people
access information online on any device--and do everything from shopping
and banking to checking their e-mail or calendar.
As one of the editors of the XForms specification, IBM is very pleased
to see XForms become a W3C Candidate Recommendation. The XForms
Candidate Recommendation is an important step toward establishing a true
electronic forms standard which will be critical for cross-industry
interoperability.
-- Dr. Bob Sutor, Director, IBM Web Services Strategy
As a founding member of the XForms activity, Mozquito is very pleased to
see this important technology advance to Candidate Recommendation. It
was an honor to work together with the members of the XForms working
group on XForms 1.0.
Mozquito announces MarkupLanguage.net, the personal XML web, leveraging
the power of XForms, delivered to browsers anywhere in the Mozquito
XForms implementation.
-- Sebastian Schnitzenbaumer, CEO & Founder, Mozquito
The XForms 1.0 Release Candidate represents an important step forward
for Web services-based application development. By standardizing XML
data binding and device independent presentation, XForms will
significantly streamline the development of Web pages and forms. Future
releases of Novell exteNd, our integrated Web application development
suite, will feature new presentation and page flow designers based on
XForms to simplify and accelerate the delivery of portal-style Web
applications. This will enable enterprise application developers with
little or no Java experience to visually and rapidly build
standards-based pages and page flows, tasks that previously required
specialized programming skills. Novell believes that XForms will become
a cornerstone for the delivery of next generation Web solutions and
we're very pleased to support and be part of the W3C's efforts with XForms.
-- David Litwack, Novell's senior vice president for Web application
development
PureEdge Solutions is very pleased that XForms 1.0 has become a W3C
Candidate Recommendation, and we will support XForms in our Internet
Commerce System™. PureEdge was the first to implement secure and dynamic
XML e-forms and has participated throughout this important W3C effort.
Standardizing the dynamic data and processing needs of complex forms
will hasten migration from paper forms and result in web applications
that are more robust, interoperable and maintainable than is possible
with HTML systems. It was an honor to co-author XForms 1.0, and I look
forward to a lead role in the ongoing development of XForms.
-- John Boyer, Ph.D., Senior Product Architect, PureEdge Solutions Inc.
Customers trust our products to handle their most important business
documents, and being standards compliant is important to Xerox and to
our customers, because they want to know how their information is
handled. XForms will enable us to leverage XML technologies to provide
cutting-edge document services and solutions that integrate seamlessly
into the customer's environment.
-- Richard W. Peebles, Chief Technology Officer, Office Systems Group, Xerox
XForms is a technology which will change the way we build applications.
With XForms we can now build systems that take advantage of the
cheapness and ubiquity of the internet, without sacrificing the
reliability and resilience gained through our traditional languages and
tools. And because XForms dramatically eases the maintenance burden of
large internet applications, we will see large, multi-language,
multi-platform sites - in which the user can see information in the way
that best suits them - becoming the norm, rather than the exception.
-- Mark Birbeck, Managing Director, x-port.net Ltd.
XForms Technologie ermoeglicht Benutzeroberflaechen im WWW, die in
Sachen Funktionalitaet bisheriger PC Software in nichts nachstehen,
allerdings mit dem grossen Vorteil, dass XForms Anwendungen nicht auf
dem Rechner fest installiert werden muessen, sondern von ueberall im Web
im Browser aufgerufen werden koennen. XForms ist darueber hinaus
Platform- und Endgeraeteunabhaengig: Ein mobiles, dezentrales Arbeiten
und Kommunizieren wird dadurch effizienter. Teleworking,
netzwerk-orientiertes Arbeiten, mobiles Leben: XForms bietet hier
zusammen mit den vorhandenen XML Bausteinen des W3C die notwendige
Infrastruktur fuer Anwendungen. Mozquito, Gruendungsmitglied der W3C
XForms Arbeitsgruppe, sass dieser internationalen Arbeitsgruppe bei der
Definition von XForms 1.0 mit vor. Aus dem Selbstverstaendnis heraus,
dass das WWW der gesamten Welt zur Verfuegung steht, ist es hier einem
kleinen Team aus Deutschland gelungen an der Weiterentwicklung des Webs
aktiv mitzuwirken. Auf der Basis dieser Erfahrungen bietet Mozquito
weiterhin Unterstuetzung durch Know-How, Software und Loesungen fuer
XForms und Anwendungen im WWW an.
-- Sebastian Schnitzenbaumer, CEO & Founder, Mozquito
About the World Wide Web Consortium [W3C]
The W3C was created to lead the Web to its full potential by developing
common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its
interoperability. It is an international industry consortium jointly run
by the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science (MIT LCS) in the USA, the
National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control (INRIA)
in France and Keio University in Japan. Services provided by the
Consortium include: a repository of information about the World Wide Web
for developers and users, and various prototype and sample applications
to demonstrate use of new technology. To date, over 450 organizations
are Members of the Consortium.
For more information about the World Wide Web Consortium, see
http://www.w3.org/
Received on Tuesday, 12 November 2002 10:11:08 UTC