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Re: xsd -> form

• To: Dean Karres <karres@i...>
• Subject: Re: xsd -> form
• From: Mark Seaborne <m_seaborne@m...>
• Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 21:50:26 +0000
• Cc: xml-dev@l...
• In-reply-to: <20060313201241.GA15849@z...>
• References: <1142194281.29913.ezmlm@l...> <20060313201241.GA15849@z...>

Dean

If you don't mind using XForms then you can use the IBM form  
generator here : http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/xfg

It generates an XForm from an XML instance + schema and runs as an  
Eclipse plug-in. The forms are functional, but not beautiful.  
However, they are quite easy to tart up using XSLT.

The great thing is that the forms will use your schema directly to do  
validation, and will submit an XML instance to your server.

The forms can either be run in a browser (IE has various plug-ins/ 
Javascript implementations available, and there is an extension for  
Firefox. Alternatively you can use a server-side  tool like Chiba or  
Orbeon to serve your forms as XHTML to a standard browser.

All the best

Mark

On 13 Mar 2006, at 20:12, Dean Karres wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I have cobbled together one xsd that is in use by my group.  I do not
> claim to be any sort of expert.  I am looking for a clue and recent
> web searches are not helping much.
>
> My problem is that we have the xsd mentioned above that we are using
> to validate xml files that we generate internally and that might come
> to us from third parties.  This is working for us.
>
> We have a few versions of the xsd and some of the older xml
> files expect the older versions of the xsd.  This is also fine.
> We occasionally change the xsd as the need arises.
>
> The question has been raised: can we create a CGI form based on the
> xsd?  As the xsd changed the form would change as well.  The answer
> is yes but the value of the answer has to do with how much pain is
> involved with doing the conversion.
>
> I've made an initial attempt and rolling my own xsd->form generator
> but the possibilities are nearly endless due to the xsd having various
> references and user defined "types".  I have *just* started looking at
> XSLT as an alternative but I don't have a full understanding of it  
> yet.
>
> Are there xsd/xml -> form generation tools out there [that I'm not
> finding]?
>
> Is XSLT the best way to go for this?
>
> Is there a better way?  For example it would suite me just as well
> to start with a form and derive the xsd from that.  Are there tools
> or frameworks for that?
>
> Dean...K...
>
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• References:
  • xsd -> form
    • From: Dean Karres <karres@i...>

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