Re: XForms 1.1 xforms-close

Hi Eric,

The only intent of xforms-close is to be dispatched by the xforms:close 
action as a means
of allowing host document processors and user agents to create a listener 
that would discover 
that *the XForm* wants the document to be closed.  You appear to want a 
feature that works
the other way 'round.

I will add your request for this feature to the future requirements 
document (for other readers,
please note that this document is an internal working group document that 
has not yet been 
published as a working group note).

Cheers,
John M. Boyer, Ph.D.
Senior Product Architect/Research Scientist
Co-Chair, W3C XForms Working Group
Workplace, Portal and Collaboration Software
IBM Victoria Software Lab
E-Mail: boyerj@ca.ibm.com  http://www.ibm.com/software/

Blog: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/JohnBoyer





Erik Bruchez <ebruchez@orbeon.com> 
Sent by: www-forms-request@w3.org
06/27/2006 05:14 AM

To
"'www-forms'" <www-forms@w3.org>
cc

Subject
XForms 1.1 xforms-close







All,

There is currently not much information about "xforms-close" in the
1.1 draft spec, although I see it was discussed at a f2f in 2004 [1]
(note that this link is currently restricted to WG members).

I assume this is meant to capture things like the user closing the
window or application showing the form. For an engine running in a
browser, this would capture a window or tab close, for example. The
event handler has the opportunity to ask the user for a confirmation,
and then resend the event if the confirmation is accepted. Am I right?

Now consider the following types or actions that can be performed by
the user in a browser environment:

1. Window / tab close
2. Back / next buttons pressed
3. HTML anchor followed
4. Form submission

An application like GMail (not implemented with XForms, but it could
be ;-) will, for every single of those present the user with a
confirmation dialog. I believe that it is necessary to allow doing the
same with XForms, as in a browser environment there is nothing worse
then working on a form for 1/2 hour and then lose your work because
you navigated away from the page.

Note that there are two other ways of navigating away from a page in
XForms:

o xforms:load
o xforms:submission/@replace="all"

These two however are under the control of the XForms page author, who
can present the user with a confirmation.

It seems clear that xforms-close would apply to #1, and that with
XForms #4 above is handled by xforms:submission.

But what about #2 and #3? Is it reasonable for an implementation to
also send xforms-close in those cases? Or do we need other events to
indicate that the user is trying to move away from the page?

-Erik

[1] http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Group/2004/09/f2f/2004Sept08

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