Embedding form runner in a separate exist-db installation

> Alex or anyone,
>
> Alex, I posted a message not long ago about how to configure orbeon to to
> talk to an external instance of an exist db instead of its internal exist
> db. I figured that out but now we have a bigger challenge that we've been
> struggling with for a few days. We have gone through most of the orbeon
> documentation and done a lot of search on this forum as well as orbeon site
> but have not found a clear or specific instructions no how to embed or
> integrate the orbeon form runner with a separate installation of exist-db
> external to the orbeon installation.
>
> However, we want to use what we have developed in exist db without having to
> use the form builder to create forms from scratch. Essentially, we want to
> configure our exist db to replace the betterForm engine with orbeon form
> runner.
>
> * We haven't packaged our application into any WAR file as such because our
> app will be packaged as xar file for deployment per exist documentation. So,
> our understanding is that our deployment package will not be like a java
> deployment package. These are the closet tips to what we want to accomplish
> that we have found on orbeon site so far.
>
> * According to "XForms - Using the Orbeon Forms XForms Engine with Java
> Applications" topic in this link:
> http://wiki.orbeon.com/forms/doc/developer-guide/xforms-with-java-applications
>
> 1 - We are adding the following to web.xml file under
> EXIST_HOME/webapps/WEB-INF
>
> <filter>
>     <filter-name>orbeon-xforms-filter</filter-name>
>     <filter-class>org.orbeon.oxf.servlet.OrbeonXFormsFilter</filter-class>
>     <init-param>
>         <param-name>oxf.xforms.renderer.context</param-name>
>         <param-value>/orbeon</param-value>
>     </init-param>
>     <init-param>
>         <param-name>oxf.xforms.renderer.default-encoding</param-name>
>         <param-value>UTF-8</param-value>
>     </init-param>
> </filter>
>
> <filter-mapping>
>     <filter-name>orbeon-xforms-filter</filter-name>
>     <url-pattern>/myapp/*</url-pattern>
>     <dispatcher>REQUEST</dispatcher>
>     <dispatcher>FORWARD</dispatcher>
> </filter-mapping>
>
> <filter-mapping>
>     <filter-name>orbeon-xforms-filter</filter-name>
>     <url-pattern>/orbeon/*</url-pattern>
>     <dispatcher>REQUEST</dispatcher>
>     <dispatcher>FORWARD</dispatcher>
> </filter-mapping>
>
> 2 - We are not deploying our app as a WAR file
> 3 - We have deployed orbeon under tomcat as suggested in the orbeon
> documents
> 3 - Copy WEB-INF/lib/orbeon-xforms-filter.jar from the Orbeon Forms WAR into
> our EXIST_HOME/webapps/WEB-INF/lib/ directory
> 4 - Setup our application in cross-context mode. This is supposed to go in
> server.xml file but the only server.xml file under exist home is in
> /test/src/ant directory which doesn't seem to be the right file.
> Additionally, we are not sure whether the parameter values are correct or
> not in this tag.
>         <Context path="/myapp" docBase="/apps/myapp" crossContext="true"/>
> 5 - Disable betterForm in betterform-config.xml as such
>         <property name="filter.ignoreResponseBody" value="true" />
>
> To summarize, our goal is to use our application developed in exist-db to
> take advantage of orbeon form runner instead of native betterForm, by
> wrapping our existing xform code with orbeon form tags without having to
> rebuild anything using orbeon interface. Any clear instructions on how to
> accomplish this is very much appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> Smylie
>
> --
> View this message in context: http://discuss.orbeon.com/Embedding-form-runner-in-a-separate-exist-db-installation-tp4659842.html
> Sent from the Orbeon Forms community mailing list mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
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> Hi Alex,
>
> Musa and I are working together on this project. First, thanks for all of
> your help with this. It is very much appreciated.
>
> Part of the issue here, I think, is that Musa and I are both still trying to
> understand Orbeon and very likely misusing Orbeon terminology as we attempt
> to describe what it is we're trying to do. Our exist-db web app uses xquery
> to return xforms through exist-db's rest interface. It is an XRX web app.
> The problem is that we are not particularly fond of the look and feel of
> either betterFORM or XSLTForms and would therefore like to switch to Orbeon
> so that we can get the very polished look and feel that only Orbeon offers.
>
> It is our understanding that switching to Orbeon is possible; however, we do
> not know how much work it will take or understand exactly how best to go
> about it. We don't know whether we're supposed to use Form Runner, Form
> Builder, both or neither, for example. We were looking at the
> xforms-with-java-applications document most recently because we thought it
> sounded like the closest possible match to what we imagine needing, but the
> truth is that neither of us really knows which Orbeon document(s) is most
> relevant to our context or exactly which type of implementation we should be
> working toward.
>
> Having said that, I suspect the answer to your question below is that we are
> specifically looking for the XForms engine. If, however, only having the
> XForms engine means that we would not be able to make our forms look
> polished and pretty, then that is not the answer and we must be looking for
> something else. Sorry to be so vague, Alex, but hopefully this will make
> sense and give you enough information to help steer us in the right
> direction.
>
> Thanks again,
> Lance
>
>
> On Monday, April 27, 2015 at 1:33:23 AM UTC-5, Alessandro Vernet wrote:
>>
>> Hi Musa,
>>
>> First, you're saying that you don't wish/need to use Form Builder to
>> create the forms, since you already have existing forms you'd like to
>> leverage. So far so good.
>>
>> But you seem to want to use Form Runner. Is this really what you'd
>> like or are specifically looking for the XForms engine?
>>
>> To be more specific, Form Runner adds a number of capabilities on top
>> of what XForms provides, but it also needs forms to be in a special
>> format, which might not be a good fit if you want to reuse existing
>> XForms with minimal modifications.
>>
>> Alex
>>
>> On Thu, Apr 23, 2015 at 8:07 PM, smylie <[hidden email]> wrote:
>> > Alex or anyone,
>> >
>> > Alex, I posted a message not long ago about how to configure orbeon to
>> > to
>> > talk to an external instance of an exist db instead of its internal
>> > exist
>> > db. I figured that out but now we have a bigger challenge that we've
>> > been
>> > struggling with for a few days. We have gone through most of the orbeon
>> > documentation and done a lot of search on this forum as well as orbeon
>> > site
>> > but have not found a clear or specific instructions no how to embed or
>> > integrate the orbeon form runner with a separate installation of
>> > exist-db
>> > external to the orbeon installation.
>> >
>> > However, we want to use what we have developed in exist db without
>> > having to
>> > use the form builder to create forms from scratch. Essentially, we want
>> > to
>> > configure our exist db to replace the betterForm engine with orbeon form
>> > runner.
>> >
>> > * We haven't packaged our application into any WAR file as such because
>> > our
>> > app will be packaged as xar file for deployment per exist documentation.
>> > So,
>> > our understanding is that our deployment package will not be like a java
>> > deployment package. These are the closet tips to what we want to
>> > accomplish
>> > that we have found on orbeon site so far.
>> >
>> > * According to "XForms - Using the Orbeon Forms XForms Engine with Java
>> > Applications" topic in this link:
>> >
>> > http://wiki.orbeon.com/forms/doc/developer-guide/xforms-with-java-applications
>> >
>> > 1 - We are adding the following to web.xml file under
>> > EXIST_HOME/webapps/WEB-INF
>> >
>> > <filter>
>> >     <filter-name>orbeon-xforms-filter</filter-name>
>> >
>> > <filter-class>org.orbeon.oxf.servlet.OrbeonXFormsFilter</filter-class>
>> >     <init-param>
>> >         <param-name>oxf.xforms.renderer.context</param-name>
>> >         <param-value>/orbeon</param-value>
>> >     </init-param>
>> >     <init-param>
>> >         <param-name>oxf.xforms.renderer.default-encoding</param-name>
>> >         <param-value>UTF-8</param-value>
>> >     </init-param>
>> > </filter>
>> >
>> > <filter-mapping>
>> >     <filter-name>orbeon-xforms-filter</filter-name>
>> >     <url-pattern>/myapp/*</url-pattern>
>> >     <dispatcher>REQUEST</dispatcher>
>> >     <dispatcher>FORWARD</dispatcher>
>> > </filter-mapping>
>> >
>> > <filter-mapping>
>> >     <filter-name>orbeon-xforms-filter</filter-name>
>> >     <url-pattern>/orbeon/*</url-pattern>
>> >     <dispatcher>REQUEST</dispatcher>
>> >     <dispatcher>FORWARD</dispatcher>
>> > </filter-mapping>
>> >
>> > 2 - We are not deploying our app as a WAR file
>> > 3 - We have deployed orbeon under tomcat as suggested in the orbeon
>> > documents
>> > 3 - Copy WEB-INF/lib/orbeon-xforms-filter.jar from the Orbeon Forms WAR
>> > into
>> > our EXIST_HOME/webapps/WEB-INF/lib/ directory
>> > 4 - Setup our application in cross-context mode. This is supposed to go
>> > in
>> > server.xml file but the only server.xml file under exist home is in
>> > /test/src/ant directory which doesn't seem to be the right file.
>> > Additionally, we are not sure whether the parameter values are correct
>> > or
>> > not in this tag.
>> >         <Context path="/myapp" docBase="/apps/myapp"
>> > crossContext="true"/>
>> > 5 - Disable betterForm in betterform-config.xml as such
>> >         <property name="filter.ignoreResponseBody" value="true" />
>> >
>> > To summarize, our goal is to use our application developed in exist-db
>> > to
>> > take advantage of orbeon form runner instead of native betterForm, by
>> > wrapping our existing xform code with orbeon form tags without having to
>> > rebuild anything using orbeon interface. Any clear instructions on how
>> > to
>> > accomplish this is very much appreciated.
>> >
>> > Thanks,
>> > Smylie
>> >
>> > --
>> > View this message in context:
>> > http://discuss.orbeon.com/Embedding-form-runner-in-a-separate-exist-db-installation-tp4659842.html
>> > Sent from the Orbeon Forms community mailing list mailing list archive
>> > at Nabble.com.
>> >
>> > --
>> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
>> > Groups "Orbeon Forms" group.
>> > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send
>> > an email to [hidden email].
>> > To post to this group, send email to [hidden email].
>
> --
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> Thanks Alex. I think we're finally making some progress although I must admit
> it has been tough going. FYI - the XForms Tutorial lists 'my-bookcast' for
> its rest path, but as best I can tell, it should be 'xforms-bookcast'.
>
> Lance
>
> --
> View this message in context: http://discuss.orbeon.com/Embedding-form-runner-in-a-separate-exist-db-installation-tp4659842p4659883.html
> Sent from the Orbeon Forms community mailing list mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Orbeon Forms" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [hidden email].
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