Hello Jonathan, *, On Monday 26 September 2005 23:15, Jonathon Coombes wrote: > On Fri, 2005-09-23 at 15:37 +0200, Thomas Hackert wrote: > > On Friday 23 September 2005 06:47, Jean Hollis Weber wrote: > > > > although I am not Iain, I have something to comment ... ;) > > > > > Does the chapter on using forms in Writer cover XForms? > > > > A quick search through the document have not brought up > > everything ... :( > > I doubt it very much, as I am trying to work with xforms in > OpenOffice.org and am finding great difficulty in any form of > documentation.
good to know ... ;) > > > If not, it should! > > Agreed. If I get some time, I will try and contribute :) Good luck then ... :) <snip> > > > Unless you think XForms should be covered in > > > some other chapter? > > > > If someone knows how to use it, (s)he should test it before > > writing something about it ... ;) > > I am certainly testing it at the moment. I am working on a > project that will ultimately define whether the xforms is useful > as a part of OpenOffice.org or not for large organisations. I > must say that so far, the thought that has gone into it is very > good and it does appear to provide distinct advantages over other > methods. On the downside, it does take some learning and the lack > of documentation is noticable. To live is to learn, or not ... ;? And if it is lacking in documentation, write some ... "G" > > > I don't know much about XForms, but my understand is that > > > they're a really important feature. Or am I completely > > > confused here? > > > > I do not know ... I think, I know less than you about the > > XForms ... ;) > > The xforms are the "next generation" of HTML forms which is what > is in OOo 1.x series and on the web. The differences are summed > up as: > > * XML-based rather than HTML-based. > * MVC model - separation of content and display > * Allows automation using calculations based on XPath > * Constraints and validation built in to the controls > * Selectable relevancy of the data items > * W3C standard (not that HTML forms are not a standard) Thank you for your explanation (although I have to look up "MVC" or "XPath" in the net on Sunday ... :( )! > As I mentioned, they are difficult to learn, particularly in OOo, > but once you understand the power of xforms, they will prove to > be quite useful. I am designing my project based around xforms to > not only allow flexibility, scalability and validation, but also > to make it platform independent. That is, xforms should be able > to be shifted from OOo onto a suitable web server and still > function exactly the same as before. Aha, o.k. ... As I have not used forms by now (I have not needed them - maybe later in my life ... ;) ), this is all new to me. > Hope this helps clear up some details on xforms in OOo as it > stands. So let me thank you for your detailed explanation ... :) Have a nice one Thomas. -- "There is nothing new under the sun, but there are lots of old things we don't know yet." -Ambrose Bierce
