Orbeon Forms as a front-end for DITA

I'm investigating using Orbeon Forms to create a form-based interface for writing DITA task topics and maps. Has anyone here done anything like that? If so, how well did it work?

In particular, I'd like a form that lists all the steps (for example) in a DITA conref resource file, and that lets the user select the needed ones, put them in sequence, and then set the values of attributes on them.

The goal is to enable SMEs to draft DITA topics without having to know much, if anything, about DITA.

I suspect that I'll need an XSL transformation to create a form from an existing DITA topic (or perhaps to provide data for a predefined form), and then another to transform the data that is output from the form back into a DITA topic. Essentially, if I understand it correctly, I need a custom persistence layer to read and write DITA files instead of using the built-in eXist database. Is this correct?

Thanks!

Earl Morton



--
You receive this message as a subscriber of the [hidden email] mailing list.
To unsubscribe: mailto:[hidden email]
For general help: mailto:[hidden email]?subject=help
OW2 mailing lists service home page: http://www.ow2.org/wws

Earl,

I have not heard that somebody has done this before (which doesn't
mean that nobody has done it).

Do you want to handcrafts those forms, or to use Form Builder?

With Form Builder, currently, you either:

1. use the XML format produced automatically by Form Builder (which is
a simple format where elements contain field data; those can be nested
within elements representing sections, etc.).

2. or, since recently, you can provide your own custom XML template,
but then you have to bind each control you insert in the form to the
data, using an XPath expression

With option #1 above, you would need a translation layer back and
forth to your own format.

-Erik

On Mon, Aug 8, 2011 at 3:33 PM, Morton, Earl D <[hidden email]> wrote:

--
You receive this message as a subscriber of the [hidden email] mailing list.
To unsubscribe: mailto:[hidden email]
For general help: mailto:[hidden email]?subject=help
OW2 mailing lists service home page: http://www.ow2.org/wws

I don't know enough about it yet to decide how we'll build our forms, but I'm sure we'll explore both options. It wouldn't surprise me if we ended up using both methods in different situations.

Earl

-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Erik Bruchez
Sent: Monday, August 08, 2011 10:27 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [ops-users] Re: Orbeon Forms as a front-end for DITA

Earl,

I have not heard that somebody has done this before (which doesn't
mean that nobody has done it).

Do you want to handcrafts those forms, or to use Form Builder?

With Form Builder, currently, you either:

1. use the XML format produced automatically by Form Builder (which is
a simple format where elements contain field data; those can be nested
within elements representing sections, etc.).

2. or, since recently, you can provide your own custom XML template,
but then you have to bind each control you insert in the form to the
data, using an XPath expression

With option #1 above, you would need a translation layer back and
forth to your own format.

-Erik

On Mon, Aug 8, 2011 at 3:33 PM, Morton, Earl D <[hidden email]> wrote:

--
You receive this message as a subscriber of the [hidden email] mailing list.
To unsubscribe: mailto:[hidden email]
For general help: mailto:[hidden email]?subject=help
OW2 mailing lists service home page: http://www.ow2.org/wws