CForms should use typed DOM as "form model" -------------------------------------------
I also believe that making CForms use typed XML as data storage is important. This obviously require some changes, among other things the widget objects need to be split into a control part and a storage part, XML data types need support. I will return with a detailed proposal in the near future (hopefully ;)). I also hope to get some feedback from the people involved in CForms development.
(some parts OT perhaps)
We have quite good experiences exploiting XMLBeans for O/XML mappings in the buildup of Daisy - our forthcoming CMS framework. XMLBeans requires you to opt for XML Schemas, which provide (some halfway decently form of) data typing, and adds a whole lot of flexibility when moving in between objects and XML. Maybe we should also try to explore XMLBeans as a part of this equation. Based on gut feeling (as always) however, I'm pretty sure that the change in form model from a proper object hierarchy towards a generic DOM model will need some strong convincing of the Woody dev folks (not including myself into that group). While the idea sounds nice, it might be overly generic. IIRC, I also heard Bruno muttering about some possible upcoming refactorings w.r.t. caching and dynamic form models.
FWIW: Bruno is enjoying Italian snow ATM, and won't be back (and still be very busy after that) until next week.
</Steven> -- Steven Noels http://outerthought.org/ Outerthought - Open Source Java & XML An Orixo Member Read my weblog at http://blogs.cocoondev.org/stevenn/ stevenn at outerthought.org stevenn at apache.org
