RE: Is editing of literal XML supported using XForms?

Hi Daniel,

We want to be able to use an XForms processor as an XML editor, but that is not 
what Gary asked about, i.e. the requirement you quoted is not the answer for him.

We want an XML file to be able to carry an association to an (XForms model + host 
language document) so that clicking the XML data file, for example, launches the 
host document/XForms processor.  We then want normal XForms 1.0 processing to 
occur, e.g. editing the XML with the XForm.  So, the controls continue to edit
atomic data units within the XML (text nodes) and actions like insert and delete 
continue to be the mechanism for structural change within the data.

Then, when the XML data is to be submitted (possibly to file), then we want the
processor to preserve the association mechanism when the XML data is serialized.
This will allow the resulting file to be clicked again, for example, with the
result being that the newer data is reloaded into the same XForm.

There's no plan right now for 1.1 to have a new form controls that could bind to 
a subtree root and allow modifications of its hierarchic content.  It's not that
it isn't a good idea, but it causes a lot of trouble in the processing model because
right now we assume that form controls modify text content only and don't make
structural changes. 

We associate structural changes with a rebuild of the master dependency digraph, 
and we didn't want to rebuild every time the user makes a change and tabs out of a 
form control.

Cheers,
John Boyer

-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel Fowler [mailto:daniel.fowler@focus-solutions.co.uk]
Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2004 3:52 AM
To: 'Gary Stewart'; 'www-forms@w3.org'
Subject: RE: Is editing of literal XML supported using XForms?



The XForms 1.1 Requirements does list the ability to use XForms as XML
Editors

http://www.w3.org/TR/xforms-11-req/#xml-editor

DAN

-----Original Message-----
From: Gary Stewart [mailto:gary@deltagreen.co.uk]
Sent: 31 May 2004 13:04
To: Thompson, Bryan B.
Cc: 'www-forms@w3.org'
Subject: Re: Is editing of literal XML supported using XForms?



> Overall I am quite pleased by the extent to which XForms 1.0 supports
> this activity.  However, I am curious whether or not XForms permits
> the user to edit XML data directly, e.g., in a big old textarea with
> a lot of angle brackets in it.  I see this as useful primarily in a
> fall-back mechanism supporting direct editing of the XML resource when
> there is, as yet, no vocabulary specific XForm for that purpose.  This
> was something that you could do in the HTML FORM, but it seems like the
> use of XPath to identify an updatable binding in the XML instance data
> might make this no longer possible.

I am pretty certain that it doesn't allow direct editing of XML data.
However you can write XML data in a text area which is then escaped to
character data, therefore you could also populate an instance with XML
data by escaping the data you want inserted.

It was also something that I tried to do with XForms (when designing a
form that could add any tags to a HTML "header" space) see
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-forms/2004Apr/0006.html.

I'm not sure whether it would be feasible or not to try and make it an
XForms 1.1 requirement, or whether the committee sees it as a useful
feature.

Hope this information was helpful, 

Gary

Received on Friday, 4 June 2004 13:36:00 UTC