RE: xforms development questions: anyone there?

Hi micah,

I "solved" this by creating a new widget.  I was also biased against a 
checkbox because it is visually unappealing in a form with mostly wider 
widgets, and doesn't lend itself well to more verbose labeling of boolean 
options (ie, married: yes/no vs. marital status: married/single).  This 
widget has an "unspecified" state, so the user doesn't mistakenly think the 
default setting is a value in the instance data.  Here are what it looks 
like in a form:

Unspecified:   http://www.jbrix.org/ss-unspecified.gif

Specified:   http://www.jbrix.org/ss-married.gif

Thanks so much for the input,
Jim


At 12:14 PM 11/5/2001 -0800, Micah Dubinko wrote:
>Hi Jim,
>
>This isn't carved in stone, but one way to indicate an 'unvisited' control
>would be to "nil" it. (As defined in XML Schema)
>
><xforms:instance>
>   <my:root xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
>     <my:child xsi:nil="true"/>
>   </my:root>
></xforms:instance>
>
>When the XForms Processor sets a value on my:root/my:child, it will remove
>the xsi:nil attribute.
>
>It is an interesting question how this would map to a selectBoolean
>represented as a checkbox. This seems like an area the group needs to
>discuss further.
>
>Thanks,
>
>.micah
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Jim Wissner [mailto:jim@jbrix.org]
>Sent: Sunday, November 04, 2001 10:11 AM
>To: Micah Dubinko; 'www-forms@w3.org'
>Subject: RE: xforms development questions: anyone there?
>
>
>
>Hi,
>
>Thank you very much for the reply.  I apologize for the length of my
>earlier posts, I guess I was a little over-anxious! I will keep my posts
>short from now on. :)
>
>This question is a simple one. With the selectBoolean control, how is it
>handled when the field to which it is bound is optional, and for a given
>instance data set there is no value? Having it displayed as true or false
>misleads the user to thinking that there is in fact a value set, and if it
>is "defaulted" to their desire choice, they may not touch it, thinking it
>is set properly. Should a value automatically be assigned upon display of
>this control? I have wondered the same thing about selectOne, with a
>drop-down box, however in that case I assume it is acceptable to add a
>blank item to the top of the choice list.
>
>Thanks,
>Jim
>
>At 05:23 PM 11/3/2001 -0800, Micah Dubinko wrote:
> >Jim,
> >
> >Let me second Andrew's wise advice: one question per message is better. :-)
> >
> >Look for an updated Schema for XForms on the www-forms list today. At this
> >stage, your best resource for complete examples is probably yourself! If
>you
> >share your experiences on the list, we will absolutely read and be
> >influenced by your messages (even if we don't do a good job answering every
> >time).
> >
> >Also, the friendly folks at http://www.zvon.org are interested in
> >maintaining examples and a test suite for XForms 1.0. Get in touch with
>them
> >and see what happens.
> >
> >Thanks,
> >
> >.micah
> >
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: Jim Wissner [mailto:jim@jbrix.org]
> >Sent: Saturday, November 03, 2001 11:00 AM
> >To: www-forms@w3.org
> >Subject: xforms development questions: anyone there?
> >
> >
> >
> >Hi,
> >
> >I posted some questions on this list a while ago and received zero
> >responses. Before I give up I'll try one more time, with a few new
> >questions:
> >
> >Is this the wrong place to post questions about development of xforms
> >implementations?
> >If so, can somebody please direct me to a more appropriate place?
> >
> >...and some more technical questions:
> >
> >In the specification I see many sample fragments, but only one complete
> >example. Is there someplace where I can find several more comprehensive
> >xforms examples? How about some that don't presume to be embedded in an
> >XHTML document? Or, as I asked before, are browsers (big and small) the
> >only interest that merits discussion at this point?
> >
> >What if any are the constraints for enclosing bodies that hold xforms
> >information? For instance, can I have a larger application definition file
> >that includes xform:xform definitions, xform:defComponents, xform:groups of
> >components, in any arbitrary containing element, and then process them as
> >appropriate?
> >
> >I guess I'll hold off on my other technical questions until I know where to
> >direct them.
> >
> >Thanks,
> >Jim

Received on Monday, 5 November 2001 15:35:25 UTC