RE: Using XForms to edit XML

Jeremy,

as I understand your question, you're wondering how the actual update is
accomplished, don't you?

Basically, XForms resides on the client. Therefore, if you plan to "edit"
large xml resources that are stored on the server, you'll need something
serverside that updates your xml when the client hits submit.

Now it'll be a common approach to make the client send HTTP-posts which are
beeing processed by the server, but the higher level protocol by which
client and server communicate is not defined by XForms.

IMO, http is not the right way for transmitting xml-edit information. Even
M$ has been criticized for using it within SOAP. Http is for transmitting
hypertext. XML is not hypertext. 
The practical reason why we shouldn't use it for sending back xml-edit
information, is that http itself can't be filtered by firewalls. We won't be
able to setup a secure webserver that may restrict xml-edit access to
certain resources. 

SOAP prevents this drawback by introducing new HTTP headers that can be
recognized by firewalls. But XForms doesn't define means for telling a
firewall which xml resource is going to be updated. Therefore, it's
uncertain that XForms can be used to edit xml where security is relevant.

What XForms is lacking is a protocol tailor made for accessing and editing
xml over tcp. I think of something like ftp. 

Does anyone know of projects that deal with this issue?


Matthias




> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: Josef Dietl [mailto:josef@mozquito.com]
> Gesendet: Dienstag, 2. Oktober 2001 14:02
> An: Jeremy Quinn; www-forms@w3.org
> Betreff: RE: Using XForms to edit XML
> 
> 
> Dear Jeremy,
> 
> what you ask for is a fairly often requested feature. 
> Unfortunately, it
> is also a very difficult one. With the usual disclaimers, XForms 1.0
> does not support markup in the data. "<" and "&" will be 
> recoded on the
> fly to "&lt;" and "&amp;". The handling is essentially identical to
> XSL-T's.
> 
> I'm sure we will look into this very deeply when we come to 
> XForms 2.0.
> Do you have any idea how to make this work with arbitrary markup
> languages?
> 
> Josef
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Jeremy Quinn [mailto:www-forms@media.demon.co.uk]
> > Sent: Friday, September 28, 2001 4:48 PM
> > To: www-forms@w3.org
> > Subject: Using XForms to edit XML
> > 
> > 
> > Dear All,
> > 
> > One of the purposes we will initially use (server-side) 
> > implementations of
> > XForms for, is the development of content-management systems.
> > 
> > One thing I cannot work out at the moment ..... will the 
> > XForms standard be
> > able to deal with editing XML.
> > 
> > ie. Serialising an XML Fragment from the XFormInstance, to a 
> > textfield,
> > then parsing the edited content back in again.
> > 
> > 
> > Thanks for any help
> > 
> > regards Jeremy
> > -- 
> >    
> ___________________________________________________________________
> > 
> >    Jeremy Quinn                                           
> Karma Divers
> >                                                        
> webSpace Design
> >                                             HyperMedia 
> Research Centre
> > 
> >    <mailto:sharkbait@mac.com>     		 
> <http://www.media.demon.co.uk>
>    <phone:+44.[0].20.7737.6831>             <pager:jermq@vizzavi.net>
>

Received on Tuesday, 2 October 2001 09:51:11 UTC