RE: What is the best way to deep copy an element?

Hi Adam,

First, on xf:copy--it is intended to behave in the same way that xf:value
does in a xf:select. So in the same way that you can choose one item from a
list and have the 'value' of the item you have chosen 'copied' to a node, so
too, you can do the same with an element and its children. (I say this,
because I don't really understand what you mean by having xf:copy on
xf:repeat.)

For example, if you had a selection control with some currencies as choices:

  USD
  EUR
  GBP

If you had selected 'EUR' then some target node would be set to 'EUR'--as
you would expect!

Now, if we replace xf:value with xf:copy, we might have choices like this:

  <ccy name="USD" rate="..." />
  <ccy name="EUR" rate="..." />
  <ccy name="GBP" rate="..." />

In this situation, if you selected the second one, your target node would
actually be the whole node plus any children.

So xf:copy 'copies' a tree to the target, in the same way that xf:value
'copies' a string of text to the target.

However, I'm not sure this is going to help you in what you are trying to
do, since it only applies to xf:select and xf:select1. I'm assuming that you
actually want to edit XHTML in a xf:textarea and have whatever the user
types saved to the instance. This is not currently possible in *standard*
XForms, although there is no reason why implementations shouldn't provide a
control that allows trees to be edited.

In some stuff we have done, we do it slightly differently and store the
encoded data, such as:

  <mif:annotation>
    Hello, &lt;em&gt;world&lt;/em&gt;
  </mif:annotation>

This is what you get if you type '<' or '>' into the xf:textarea, although
to make it easier we have a version of xf:textarea that allows you to do
simple XHTML editing (bold, italics, that kind of thing), which is invoked
by using @appearance.

Regards,

Mark


Mark Birbeck
CEO
x-port.net Ltd.

e: Mark.Birbeck@x-port.net
t: +44 (0) 20 7689 9232
w: http://www.formsPlayer.com/
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: www-forms-request@w3.org 
> [mailto:www-forms-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Flinton Adam
> Sent: 17 October 2005 18:29
> To: www-forms@w3.org
> Subject: What is the best way to deep copy an element?
> 
> 
> Dear All,
> 
> I am trying to write an Xforms app which allows a user to add 
> & change annotations written in XHTML where the annotation is 
> contained within a textarea
> 
> If I use a repeat e.g.:
> 
> <xf:repeat id="r2" style="" nodeset="mif:class/mif:attribute">
> 						<tr>
> 							<td>
> 	
> <xf:output ref="@name">
> 							</xf:output>
> 							</td>
> 							<td
> style="width: 50%; text-align: left; vertical-align: top;">
> 	
> <xf:textarea id="annotation" ref="mif:annotation/*" />
> 							</td>
> 						</tr>
> 					</xf:repeat>
> 
> Then I just get the first bit of text etc but the moment it 
> rus into an xhtml element (e.g. <p> </p> then that's the end.
> 
> I noticed that itemset contains a copy element:
> 
> http://www.w3.org/TR/xforms/slice9.htm
> 
> 9.3.4 The copy Element
> 
> Which seems to do what I require (i.e. copy everything 
> between <annotation & </annotation>
> 
> There is (at present) only one annotation & I am wondering if 
> within the repeat I can "auto-select" the single choice
> 
> Just out of interest, why isn't there a copy element in a 
> repeat? I you are looking to display/edit chunks of XHTML 
> (e.g. as documentation) then it may be necessary.
> 
> TIA
> 
> Adam
> 
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Received on Monday, 17 October 2005 19:01:06 UTC