Submission of high-value characters from an XFORMS form

Folks,

I've just been exploring a limitation with today's browsers / HTTP
protocol and it occurred to me that I had not noticed any reference to
the equivalent 'problem' in XFORMS.



The situation in today's browsers:

If you put a character into an <input type=text> field with a code
value between 0x80  and 0xFF it is transmitted in the HTTP using a '%'
escape sequence. It can then be correctly decoded at the server.

If you insert a character with value > 0xFF it appears to be masked
with 0xFF, i.e. only the 8 least significant bits are transmitted.
There appears to be no attempt at anything like Unicode encoding.

My inspection of the HTTP1.0 and 1.1 RFCs reveals no recommendations
for how to encode character values > 0xFF in the submitted data.

My conclusion is that, with today's browser/protocol combination, it
is impossible to submit inputted data with character values > 0xFF
(even though they can be downloaded and displayed into both the HTML
document and even into the <input> field using &#nnn; encoding.



My questions to the XFORMS community:

(1)  Is there anything in the XFORMS specification which says that
characters with values > 0xFF  must be capable of being submitted?

(2) If (1)==true: Does that require changes in HTTP?

(3) If (2)==true: How are current XFORMS pilots etc. working?

(4) If (2)== false: How is the submitted data encoded? Where is it
specified?

(5) If (1)== false: Is this regarded as a 'proper' requirement for
XFORMS to address?

(6) If(5)==true: How/when will it be addressed?

(7) If (5)==false: There appears to be no guarantee that the full
range of Unicode characters can be submitted under XFORMS. Is this
acceptable?

Happy new year to all!

Chris Haynes

Received on Wednesday, 2 January 2002 05:22:28 UTC