Re: Sorting the exforms way

It seems to me that a sorting action would make sense, probably more so 
than implicit sorting before submission.

The action would be more generic because you can explicitly execute the 
sorting action before submitting.

-Erik

Ulrich Nicolas Lissé wrote:
> 
> David,
> 
> why not having a function for sorting the UI as you suggest and a sort 
> /action/ which affects the instance data ? This action could/should 
> resemble XSLT sort semantics as your extension element already does. I 
> think it would be most flexible for a form author to have an action for 
> sorting.
> 
> Regards,
> Uli.
> 
> David Landwehr wrote:
>>
>> Hi Mark
>>
>> There is both an element and a function because implementors currently 
>> have both. It is possible with the function to change the criteria of 
>> the sorting in a easier way than when the element is used. But with 
>> many sorting criteria the function will be messy because if has to 
>> nest one sorting within the other where the elements will simply be a 
>> list of elements. I will try to make this clearer.
>>
>> The sort element can be a child of bind/@nodeset (I have to document 
>> this) and therefore be used in the model. It is not possible to 
>> rearrange the instance DOM using this sorting. Using other extensions 
>> from exforms it will be possible to sort an instance before 
>> submission. It is also possible to always maintain a sorted order in 
>> XForms 1.1 using the event() but it is less than trivial (see attached 
>> example).
>>
>> The sort function will work in all cases, e.g. also for @ref, @value 
>> and so on. The function has the greatest flexibility but as said it 
>> could "obfuscate" forms (maybe this is also the reason XSLT decided to 
>> use an element).
>>
>> Thanks for the feedback :)
>> David
>>
>>
>>
>> Mark Seaborne wrote:
>>> Hi David,
>>>
>>> Sorting was a bad miss for XForms 1.0 (I think anyway).
>>>
>>> Both an element and function are documented, I think it would be 
>>> useful if the documentation explained  why it is useful to have both.
>>>
>>> Is the sort element intended only for use in the UI (i.e. only affect 
>>> the display sort order, not the document order), or could I use it as 
>>> a child of a bind in a model to change document order (bind being an 
>>> element that takes a node-set binding)?
>>>
>>> Alternatively, could the function be used in the model to change 
>>> document order in the target node-set?
>>>
>>> Anyway, you will have guessed that I would like to be able to both 
>>> sort the UI and sort within an XML document.
>>>
>>> All the best
>>>
>>> Mark
>>>
>>> On 29 May 2006, at 11:39, David Landwehr wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> I have created a set of extensions for sorting on exforms.org 
>>>> (http://exforms.org/sorting.html). Any feedback will be welcomed.
>>>>
>>>> Best regards,
>>>> David
>>>>
>>>> ----------------------------------------------
>>>> David Landwehr (david.landwehr@solidapp.com)
>>>> Chief Executive Officer, SolidApp
>>>> Web: http://www.solidapp.com
>>>> Office: +45 48268212
>>>> Mobile: +45 24275518
>>>> --------------------------------------------
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>>
> 
> 


-- 
Orbeon - XForms Everywhere:
http://www.orbeon.com/blog/

Received on Thursday, 1 June 2006 14:11:53 UTC