Re: Sorting the exforms way

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
>> --------------------------------------------
>>
>>
>


-- 
--------------------------------------------
David Landwehr (david.landwehr@solidapp.com)
Chief Executive Officer, SolidApp
Web: http://www.solidapp.com
Office: +45 48268212
Mobile: +45 24275518
--------------------------------------------

Received on Monday, 29 May 2006 12:55:57 UTC