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For other uses, see XForms (disambiguation).

XForms is an XML format for the specification of a data processing model for XML data and user interface(s) for the XML data, such as web forms. Don't change "Extensible" The user interface (or Human Computer Interface) is the aggregate of means by which people&mdash the users '&mdash interact with the System A webform on a Web page allows a user to enter data that is typically sent to a server for processing and to mimic the usage of paper forms. XForms was designed to be the next generation of HTML / XHTML forms, but is generic enough that it can also be used in a standalone manner or with presentation languages other than XHTML to describe a user interface and a set of common data manipulation tasks. HTML, an initialism of HyperText Markup Language, is the predominant Markup language for Web pages It provides a means to describe the structure The Extensible Hypertext Markup Language, or XHTML, is a Debt AIDS Trade in Africa (or DATA) is a Multinational non-government organization founded in January 2002 in London by U2 's

XForms, much like XHTML 2.0 which is currently under development as of 2008 and within which XForms will be embedded, differs from previous versions of XHTML. The Extensible Hypertext Markup Language, or XHTML, is a 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Because of this there is a learning curve for developers, but because XForms in general provides a large time savings for the development of enterprise quality web forms, it can be an attractive alternative for many uses.

XForms 1. 0 (Third Edition) was published on 29 October 2007. Events 437 - Valentinian III, Western Roman Emperor, marries Licinia Eudoxia, daughter of his cousin Theodosius II Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. The original XForms specification was made an official W3C Recommendation on 14 October 2003. A W3C Recommendation is the final stage of a Ratification process of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C working group concerning the Standard. Events 1066 - Norman Conquest: Battle of Hastings - In England on Senlac Hill seven miles from Hastings, the forces Year 2003 ( MMIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar.

XForms 1. 1, which introduces a number of improvements, reached the status of W3C Candidate Recommendation on 29 November 2007. Events 1777 - San Jose California, is founded as el Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century.

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Differences from HTML forms

Unlike the original HTML forms, the creators of XForms have used a Model-View-Controller approach. Model-view-controller ( MVC) is an architectural pattern used in Software engineering. The "model" consists of one or more XForms models describing form data, constraints upon that data, and submissions. The "view" describes what controls appear in the form, how they are grouped together, and what data they are bound to. CSS can be used to describe a form's appearance.

An XForms document can be as simple as an HTML form (by only specifying the submission element in the model section, and placing the controls in the body), but XForms includes many advanced features. For example, new data can be requested and used to update the form while it is running, much like using XmlHttpRequest/AJAX except without scripting. XMLHttpRequest ( XHR) is an API that can be used by JavaScript and other Web browser Scripting languages to transfer XML The form author can validate user data against XML schema data types, require certain data, disable input controls or change sections of the form depending on circumstances, enforce particular relationships between data, input variable length arrays of data, output calculated values derived from form data, prefill entries using an XML document, respond to actions in real time (versus at submission time), and modify the style of each control depending on the device they are displayed on (browser versus mobile versus text only, etc. ). There is often no need for any scripting with languages such as JavaScript.

Like legacy forms, XForms can use various non-XML submission protocols (multipart/form-data, application/x-www-form-urlencoded), but a new feature is that XForms can send data to a server in XML format. XML documents can also be used to prefill data in the form. Because XML is a standard, many tools exist that can chop and modify data upon submission, unlike the case with legacy forms where in general the data needs to be parsed and manipulated on a case by case basis. XForms is itself an XML dialect, and therefore can create and be created from other XML documents using XSLT. Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations ( XSLT) is an XML -based language used for the transformation of XML documents into other XML or "human-readable" Using transformations, XForms can be automatically created from XML Schemas, and XForms can be converted to legacy XHTML forms: this is basically how server side XForms work today. An XML schema is a description of a type of XML document typically expressed in terms of constraints on the structure and content of documents of that type above and beyond

Software support

At the time of this writing, no widely used web browser supports XForms natively. A web browser is a software application which enables a user to display and interact with text images videos music games and other information typically located on a However, various browser plugins and client-side extensions exist. The following lists some client-side implementations:

The following implementations are pure client-side implementations that do not reside in a web browser:

XForms can also be used today through various server-side technologies which convert XForms to HTML forms and other widgets (typically based on Ajax technology) on the fly and transparently to users. Technology is a broad concept that deals with a Species ' usage and knowledge of Tools and Crafts and how it affects a species' ability to control and adapt Implementations include:

The following implementations provide a server-side compiler that produces HTML and JavaScript from XHTML/XForms documents:

Implementation technologies compared

FormFaces, AJAXForms, Chiba and Orbeon Forms are based on Ajax technology. Open source is a development methodology which offers practical accessibility to a product's source (goods and knowledge The amount of server-side and client-side processing varies across these implementations. For example, FormFaces provides 100% XForms client-side processing and data model updates via pure Ajax processing on the XForms standard. The others use server-side Java XForms processing transcoding to Ajax markup prior to delivering the content to the browser. Both techniques can work across browser. Each implementation is significantly different with respect to dependencies, scalability, performance, licensing, maturity, network traffic, offline capability, and cross browser compatibility. System architects should evaluate these constraints against their need to determine potential risks and objectives.

Plugins like FormsPlayer and other client-side technology can have some benefits as well: because they integrate themselves into the browser, they will work with existing server architectures, can be more responsive, require fewer server fetches. They can also present themselves in more user-friendly ways (i. e. controls that do not already exist in the browser, like sliding scales, can be added to a page), although the advent of JavaScript widgets is currently offsetting that benefit.

The tradeoff between server-side and client plug-in solutions is where the software is maintained; either each client must install the required plug-in, or the server architecture must change to accommodate the XForms transcoder engine language technology. It is in theory possible to mix both of these solutions, for instance testing the browser for a client-side XForms implementation and serving native XForms in that case, and defaulting to a server solution in other cases.

FormFaces provides a "zero software" solution on either the client or server: no new software needs to be installed on the client and the solution can be used in conjunction with any server-side architecture. This is possible because FormFaces is written 100% in Ajax. The tradeoff is that compared to other solutions, more JavaScript code is initially downloaded to the client (JavaScript can be cached on the client), and XML Schema validation is not yet supported.

All XForms implementations share the ability to integrate with Web 2. 0 APIs such as Google Maps, Yahoo Traffic Alerts, Kiko Calendar, and Skype Voice Service.

XForms for Mobile Devices

Benefits

XForms provides specific benefits when used on mobile devices:

Mobile Implementations

Despite the benefits of XForms for mobile devices, XForms on mobile devices is still an emerging technology at best. So far, PicoForms, SATEC(DataMovil), IBM, Oracle and FormFaces have produced significant initiatives:

References

External links

IBM Lotus Forms is a suite of products by IBM 's Lotus Software division that interact to develop and deliver data-driven XML-based electronic forms (e-forms to end-users
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