HTML output of the form rendered through Form Runner

Hi,

I am interested in getting the plain HTML (+CSS+JavaScript) of the form that I designed in Form Builder and that has been rendered by Form Runner. I would like to use this HTML separately for our application for a different business case.

What I would like to know is that, Is there any API that I can call from my Servlet, pass the XHTML and get the plain HTML (as described in the HTML Converter processor)? I am not going to use XPL in my application (for the lack of better knowledge of XPL) and I would be interested if this same thing can be done in Servlets.

I know Erik has answered a similar question in the following thread but I have no way to understand how to invoke the epilogue-servlet.xpl (or any related code) from my Servlet.

http://orbeon-forms-ops-users.24843.n4.nabble.com/Obtain-generated-html-td35514.html

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
K

Hi K!

You could try to make simple HTTP request to following URL:
http://localhost:8080/orbeon/fr/[APPLICATION_NAME]/[FORM_NAME]/view/[DOCUMENT_ID]

Or if you would prefer PDF, then:
http://localhost:8080/fr/[APPLICATION_NAME]/[FORM_NAME]/pdf/[DOCUMENT_ID]

Keep in mind, that HTML+Javascript alone cannot be used to enter data,
they need Orbeon backend.

   Tambet

On 29.12.2010 15:27, ktangirala wrote:

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K,

To make sure: how do you plan to use that HTML? Asking because that
HTML won't be functional without the Orbeon runtime behind it anyway.

-Erik

On Wed, Dec 29, 2010 at 5:27 AM, ktangirala
<[hidden email]> wrote:

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Thanks, Tambet and Erik!

Erik, we are planning to have an offline client (stand alone desktop app) that renders the Orbeon form in the same way the browser is doing for the online submission. We are required to build the desktop app that does this, so I am investigating ways of rendering it without much effort. We are considering Java Swing or JavaFX from a technology perspective.

I had one another related question. Orbeon does provide HTML Converter that converts the XHTML form to pure HTML and they also explain in the documentation on how to use HTML converter with XPL. However I would like to know how to invoke the HTML converter from a Java servlet (possibly in a different web context and not same as Orbeon). And if this is possible, can I use that rendered HTML to open it in any browser or a desktop app that supports HTML rendering.

Hope I was clear enough!

Cheers,
K

On 30.12.2010 9:52, ktangirala wrote:
> Thanks, Tambet and Erik!
>
> Erik, we are planning to have an offline client (stand alone desktop app)
> that renders the Orbeon form in the same way the browser is doing for the
> online submission. We are required to build the desktop app that does this,
> so I am investigating ways of rendering it without much effort. We are
> considering Java Swing or JavaFX from a technology perspective.

You might want to look into XSLTForms then - see
http://www.agencexml.com/xsltforms. It is purely javascript-based XForms
engine, which runs in browser. The XForms  is transformed into HTML
using XSLT stylesheet, which can be run in browser or server-side.

It has limitations tough - it lacks support for upload and there are
performance issues with large forms. But it was under active development
last time I checked (maybe 6 months back).

But your desktop app has to have decent javascript and DOM support then.
This might become your biggest obstacle.

   Tambet


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K,

> Erik, we are planning to have an offline client (stand alone desktop app)
> that renders the Orbeon form in the same way the browser is doing for the
> online submission. We are required to build the desktop app that does this,
> so I am investigating ways of rendering it without much effort. We are
> considering Java Swing or JavaFX from a technology perspective.

> I had one another related question. Orbeon does provide HTML Converter that
> converts the XHTML form to pure HTML and they also explain in the
> documentation on how to use HTML converter with XPL. However I would like to
> know how to invoke the HTML converter from a Java servlet (possibly in a
> different web context and not same as Orbeon). And if this is possible, can
> I use that rendered HTML to open it in any browser or a desktop app that
> supports HTML rendering.

Mmh, the HTML converter just serializes XML into HTML according to the
HTML serialization rules of XML. It is probably not of much help to
you.

Now the Orbeon Forms XML pipeline engine has an API, and you could run
that API within your own servlet, and run the converter, etc. But this
probably won't do what you need.

If I understand well, are you thinking of taking a form (I assume
XHTML+XForms), generate plain HTML from it, save that HTML, and run it
in an offline client?

This won't work, because you need the Orbeon runtime for the form to
work. Even in Noscript mode, the form needs the runtime to POST the
HTML form whenever the user clicks on a button.

The easiest path at this point if you need offline might be to embed a
local servlet container (Tomcat or Jetty) and web browser on the
client.

-Erik


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