Date: 2004-09-22T12:36:04 Editor: LarsHuttar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Wiki: Cocoon Wiki Page: XFormsInCocoon URL: http://wiki.apache.org/cocoon/XFormsInCocoon
no comment Change Log: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ @@ -8,80 +8,60 @@ As I looked for XForms implementations, my ideal was an open-source package that would allow client-side XForms functionality without users having to install additional software (such as a plugin). -* XMLForms was an XForms package that was part of Cocoon, but -has been removed. (See http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=xml-cocoon-dev&m=108876021513344&w=2) + * XMLForms was an XForms package that was part of Cocoon, but has been removed. (See http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=xml-cocoon-dev&m=108876021513344&w=2) -* There seems to have been a project called ExFormula, which, -according to http://cocoon.apache.org/link/projects.html, -was to implement XForms for Cocoon. However the sourceforge -project page seems to lack anything beyond the initial -"what it's going to do" statement. - -* (Side note: The Web Service Proxy in Cocoon 2.1 depends on XMLForms, -but the samples for the proxy in 2.1.5.1 did not work for -me. I don't know if that is because XMLForms was removed, or what. -If this sample is no longer expected to work, it should probably -be marked as such. Too bad; it sounds like a useful thing.) + * There seems to have been a project called ExFormula, which, according to [http://cocoon.apache.org/link/projects.html], was to implement XForms for Cocoon. However the sourceforge project page seems to lack anything beyond the initial "what it's going to do" statement. -* Chiba (http://chiba.sourceforge.net/) is a servlet webapp (i.e. like a sibling of Cocoon rather than its child) that implements XForms. I'm not sure how easy it would be to use Chiba from within Cocoon. -There is a project called Chicoon whose purpose is to integrate Chiba into Cocoon. The latest available release, 0.1, is not compatible with recent versions of Chiba or Cocoon, but the author says "I have been working on Chicoon and posted revised source code to the Chiba CVS repository recently, so it is hardly dormant. More to come in the way of revised code and docs very shortly." I look forward to that. In the last release (0.1), there was little documentation on how to use chicoon. + * (Side note: The Web Service Proxy in Cocoon 2.1 depends on XMLForms, but the samples for the proxy in 2.1.5.1 did not work for me. I don't know if that is because XMLForms was removed, or what. If this sample is no longer expected to work, it should probably be marked as such. Too bad; it sounds like a useful thing.) + + * Chiba (http://chiba.sourceforge.net/) is a servlet webapp (i.e. like a sibling of Cocoon rather than its child) that implements XForms. I'm not sure how easy it would be to use Chiba from within Cocoon. +There is a project called Chicoon whose purpose is to integrate Chiba into Cocoon. The latest available release, 0.1, is not compatible with recent versions of Chiba or Cocoon, but the author says "I have been working on Chicoon and posted revised source code to the Chiba CVS repository recently, so it is hardly dormant. More to come in the way of revised code and docs very shortly." If another release has occurred since 0.1, please correct this wiki page. In the last release there was little documentation on how to use chicoon. === Experiences with Mozquito DENG === Looking through the list at [http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Forms/#implementations] (which still lists Cocoon XMLForms, btw), I found "Mozquito DENG zero-install XForms". (Another helpful XForms implementation list is at [http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2003/09/10/xforms.html?page=1].) The DENG blurb says "Mozquito's latest XForms implementation is fully client-side and written in -Actionscript to allow instant deployment for any flash-6-enabled browser on the web. Mozquito -deploys XForms on MarkupLanguage.net for personal communication including Email and Blog over the -web via XForms. Supported are subsets of CSS2, CSS3, XHTML, XForms, XFrames and SVG." +Actionscript to allow instant deployment for any flash-6-enabled browser on the web... Supported are subsets of CSS2, CSS3, XHTML, XForms, XFrames and SVG." I tried DENG and have had good success with it, with a few caveats. Good points: -1) It's free. -2) Doesn't require an explicit software download (if SWF is already there). -3) DENG is tiny - about 76KB. -4) Looks good. -5) Cool idea -- using a Shockwave movie as an XForms renderer. -6) Lets you deploy XForms to users right away, without having - to develop or decide on stylesheets for rendering. -7) It's pretty easy to generate the necessary code from Cocoon. -You just generate an HTML page that contains an <object> tag; -the latter has URLs for (a) the deng.swf renderer file on your server, -and (b) the XForms XML document you want to use. Make sure you also put -pipelines in your sitemap to serve requests for (a) and (b). -8) The rendering is customizable via CSS. + + * It's free. + + * Doesn't require an explicit software download (if SWF is already there). + + * DENG is tiny - about 76KB. + + * Looks good. + + * Cool idea -- using a Shockwave movie as an XForms renderer. + + * Lets you deploy XForms to users right away, without having to develop, or decide on, stylesheets for rendering. + + * The rendering is customizable via CSS. + + * It's pretty easy to generate the necessary code from Cocoon. You just generate an HTML page that contains an <object> tag; the latter has URLs for (a) the deng_test.swf renderer file on your server, and (b) the XForms XML document you want to use. Make sure you also put pipelines in your sitemap to serve requests for (a) and (b). Demos of DENG can be found at [http://claus.packts.net/deng/examples/] See e.g. [http://claus.packts.net/deng/deng_test.php?f=examples/xforms/textarea.html&debug=1] OK, now the caveats: -1) It's not highly obvious how to get your web pages to use DENG. -However I wrote a tiny how-to which is currently at -http://claus.packts.net/deng/forum/viewtopic.php?t=201 -and with that, it should be easy. -2) Only a subset of XForms is supported. I'm not sure what's left out; -a feature list is available at http://claus.packts.net/deng/features.php -3) Users do have to have a Flash plugin installed. However it seems to -me that most will already have it, or can easily do so. -4) It's a little slow in "rendering" the forms... it can take a few seconds. -But if you have something for users to look at at the top of the page -and the XForm rendering at the bottom, it's not noticeable. -5) If it has to scroll, instead of using browser scrollbars at the side -of the window where you expect them, you have SWF scroll buttons across -the top and bottom of the window, which are not as easy to use. -6) The rendering of the XForms is customizable with CSS, but if you -needed to do more flexible transforms, a la XSLT, between the XForms -markup and the rendering step, you don't have that option. - -The caveats don't seem to bad for the time being. Moreover, I feel -comfortable with them because I'm not locked in. If I decide on a -different solution, I should be able to repurpose the XForms output to -some other renderer, such as Chicoon, without much trouble. -I haven't done this yet, but I will most likely create an "insert DENG object" -transformer that isolates any DENG-specific code from the rest. + * It's not highly obvious how to get your web pages to use DENG. However I wrote a tiny how-to which is currently at http://claus.packts.net/deng/forum/viewtopic.php?t=201 and with that, it should be pretty straightforward. (To do: add a section at the end of this page describing how to use DENG in Cocoon pages. See also the last bullet above under "Good Points".) + + * Only a subset of XForms is supported. I'm not sure what's left out; a list of supported features is available at [http://claus.packts.net/deng/features.php]. This list looks pretty inclusive. + + * Users do have to have a Flash plugin installed. However it seems to me that most will already have it, or can easily do so. + + * It's a little slow in "rendering" the forms... it can take a few seconds. But if you have something for users to look at at the top of the page and the XForm rendering at the bottom, it's not noticeable. + + * If the form has to scroll, instead of using browser scrollbars at the side of the window where you expect them, you have SWF scroll buttons across the top and bottom of the window, which are not as easy to use. + + * The rendering of the XForms is customizable with CSS, but if you needed to do more flexible transforms, a la XSLT, between the XForms markup and the rendering step, you don't have that option. + +The caveats don't seem to bad for the time being. Moreover, I feel comfortable with them because I'm not locked in. If I decide on a different solution, I should be able to repurpose the XForms output to some other renderer, such as Chicoon, without much trouble. I haven't done this yet, but I will most likely create an "insert DENG object" transformer that isolates any DENG-specific code from the rest. -I would be interested in hearing from others about their experiences -with Cocoon and XForms. +I would be interested in hearing from others about their experiences with Cocoon and XForms.
