[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] RE: Elliote Rusty Harold: W3C XForms The Next Big Thing?
Hi Gerald, Here's my two cents on the subject. In essence, what I find useful about xform is the capacity to edit an XML document and send the modified version to a server for processing or storage. What I find restrictive is that the actual form objects are very limited and poor. For example, recently I had to edit data organized as a hierarchy. The natural widget to do so is a tree View as found in Microsoft explorer. The model representation to be edited is encoded in XML. The problem with Xform is that in its actual form I cannot edit the data with something more sophisticated than a text box or any other widget mirrored on HTML forms. So. The PROs: The model declaration part and the capacity to edit an XML document are tremendously useful. The CONs: A very limited set of widgets. In some contexts, a less abstract language is needed and layout information has to be provided. Higher level as in HTML (flow layout) or more specific as in SVG (position based layout). Maybe the solution is to create a set of specification for abstract pattern of interactions, for example: Select one element from a list, Select several elements form a list, Browse and edit a tree representation, Browse and edit a table representation, Enter text, Enter rich format text, Etc... What is abstract is the interaction pattern, what is specific is the implementation. We probably need for user interface what we got for domain modeling. Some people in CHI call these patterns: interaction patterns. Cheers Didier PH Martin
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