Creating Contextual Forms

Hi All,

Is there an easy way to create contextual forms with Orbeon? Meaning, suppose I have the following model where book can appear any number of times:
<books>
  <book>
    <title />
    <author />
  </book>
</books>

So, I create a xforms:repeat and have a list of books. Then, when a user selects a book, a form would appear bound to the title and author of the selected book. Could this be accomplished with an xforms:switch? The only caveat is that the book list must remain on screen while the contextual form is present.

I am currently using a model to keep track of state data, a relevant binding, and a group to hide and show the form. However, this seems a bit hacky. Is there an easier way?

Thanks in advance,
-Tom

Tom,

Where is that sub-form defined, and where does its data come from?

-Erik

On Dec 4, 2008, at 6:04 PM, tom.rudick wrote:
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Hi Eric,

The sub-form would be, ideally, in another div away from the selection form. So for the XML instance I gave earlier, when a user clicked a book title from the list, the subform would be able to edit the title and author of that book. This data comes from the same model as the selection list.

Erik Bruchez wrote

Where is that sub-form defined, and where does its data come from?

Tom,

> So, I create a xforms:repeat and have a list of books. Then, when a user
> selects a book, a form would appear bound to the title and author of the
> selected book. Could this be accomplished with an xforms:switch? The only
> caveat is that the book list must remain on screen while the contextual form
> is present.

one approach could be to add a "control instance" that points to one of
the book elements using its position. a selection trigger puts the
current position (using the index() function (*)) there.

Now, either a xforms:group "checks" the control instance and displays
the selected book, or a xforms:switch / xforms:case is toggled by the
selection trigger. Personally, i would prefer the xforms:group -
switch/case may be better suited to toggle between two sets of controls,
whereas xforms:group is ideal to display or hide a certain set of controls.

I've attached a simple sandbox example showing a list of book items and
a little form to edit the selected item. The input form controls are
shown / hidden using xforms:group.

hth
florian

(*) i wasn't able to get the position written correctly using position()
or count(preceding-sibling::*) - only index() worked for me.


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