Using Orbeon XForms with an alternating style/theme

Hi!

We've encountered a problem on using Orbeon in the context of our
project. We're trying to inject/use the content of an XHTML delivered by
Orbeon in(to) an other XHTML page.

A short description of what's going on:

1. Issue
========

On calling Orbeon, there is a parameter, that specfies an request
parameter for an other service and the service return a XML. So this XML
is referenced directly by the URL with the parameter inside.

Once we've received the XML we use it as model for XForms.

(Right now we retrieve the XML for the model by an triggered submit
insinde the page.)
Can it be done before. I think the XPL is the right place to do that,
but I'm not sure how we can do it?


2. Issue
========

Once the page is loaded and the XForm was build we would like to insert
the contents (including all the scripts and so on) into an already
existing, XHTML compliant web page.

The reason to do it this somehow awkward way is: We have alternating
styles the web page uses and it is quite complicated and redundant to
build all the styling with Orbeon again.
So we would like to use Orbeon as a "XForms source code generator".

Is this possible?

As an alternative I could imagine to provide dynamically an empty
webpage to Orbeon that was styled as requested (but has no form content)
and Orbeon injects it's XForms definitons itself into this page.

After that the page is delivered to the user by Orbeon.

Is that possible? I have the feeling it is, but I don't know where to start.


3. Issue
========

We would like to alter the way, the orbeon page is styled. Where can I
find the themes, the epilogue.xpl that is used in all examples and how
can I apply an certain, altered theme and epilogue to my own application?




4. Issue
========

I was trying to find an information what the oxf exactly means (to read
and alter the epilogue and the standard themes). But I couldn't find any
  information.



5. Issue
========

Does anybody know a documentation for Orbeon that is up to date?


I know, that's a lot of questions, but if anybody has got any idea on a
single issue: I'd really appreciate every little bit of information!

Thx a lot in advance,

Thorsten




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>
Thorsten,
Yes, it is possible: we have code that does this from a PHP content  
management system (TYPO3, which you may know as it is widely used in  
Germany): we include the form within an existing HTML page. That also  
requires setting some Apache proxying for handling resources and the  
Ajax server. You can start by trying just adding ?orbeon-portlet at  
the end of a URL to see what is produced.

> 3. Issue
> ========
>
> We would like to alter the way, the orbeon page is styled. Where can I
> find the themes, the epilogue.xpl that is used in all examples and how
> can I apply an certain, altered theme and epilogue to my own  
> application?

What about these properties:

http://www.orbeon.com/ops/doc/reference-properties#epilogue

Standard XSLT themes are under:

   RESOURCES/config/

Hopefully, that means you don't need to modify the epilogue pipelines.  
Those are stored within orbeon-resources-private.jar.

Then, Firebug is your friend to figure out the CSS.

> 4. Issue
> ========
>
> I was trying to find an information what the oxf exactly means (to  
> read
> and alter the epilogue and the standard themes). But I couldn't find  
> any
> information.

http://www.orbeon.com/ops/doc/home-faq#xpl-oxf-prefix

> 5. Issue
> ========
>
> Does anybody know a documentation for Orbeon that is up to date?

Doc is not perfect, but it is reasonably up to date. Resources:

* http://www.orbeon.com/ops/doc/
* http://wiki.orbeon.com/forms/

 > I know, that's a lot of questions, but if anybody has got any idea  
on a single issue: I'd really appreciate every little bit of  
information!

No problem. BTW I would recommend for the rest to create one email  
thread per question.

-Erik

--
Orbeon Forms - Web Forms for the Enterprise Done the Right Way
http://www.orbeon.com/



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Hi erik!

Erik Bruchez schrieb: Uhm, I'm not shure, but what's actually the supposed difference? I can't
find any difference at all?

Maybe you can give me an addiotional hint?

Of course I found
   <http://www.orbeon.com/ops/doc/integration-portlets>
but I can't find anything detailed on the parameter "orbeon-portlet".

As far as I can read (between the lines), it needs/uses a different
epilogue file.

As of now I'm really unfamiliar with the epilogues, which means if I
read through the file, the biggest part of it seems pretty clear to me,
but I'm really not shure if I'm able to write one myself.


Ok, that's cool if you want a single theme, epilogue etc. But what I'm
really looking for is an option to set up a different themeing, look and
behaviour for seperate applications.

Maybe that's possible by writing an own epilogue? Am I right?
I'll see if these are going to work :-S


> Standard XSLT themes are under:
>
>   RESOURCES/config/
>
> Hopefully, that means you don't need to modify the epilogue pipelines.

I guess I'll have to...


> Those are stored within orbeon-resources-private.jar.
> Then, Firebug is your friend to figure out the CSS.

Why do I have to alter the CSS if I alter an epilogue?

Well, the problem with these is that some of the examples in the
tutorial/documentation are a bit differnet to the examples that are online.

It's really a lot of stuff one needs to know to get a application to
work the way it should.
The existing docs are a good start; though I'd really appreciate a
complete step-by-step tutorial for dummies dealing with all the steps
necessary to set up an own servlet/portlet.


> I know, that's a lot of questions, but if anybody has got any idea on
> a single issue: I'd really appreciate every little bit of information!
>
> No problem. BTW I would recommend for the rest to create one email
> thread per question.

Thanks a lot for your reply, it was very useful.
Right now I'm not used to write XForms and neither to write Orbeon
configuration files. But I try to improve ;-)

So thanks again,

JT


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What version of Orbeon Forms are you using? Compare:

   http://www.orbeon.com/ops/xforms-controls/
   http://www.orbeon.com/ops/xforms-controls/?orbeon-portlet=true

> As of now I'm really unfamiliar with the epilogues, which means if I  
> read through the file, the biggest part of it seems pretty clear to  
> me, but I'm really not shure if I'm able to write one myself.

The point of my comment above was that have a way to produce a HTML  
fragment instead of an entire page. Then you also need to put in place  
proxying of certain requests, in particular to the XForms server.

> Ok, that's cool if you want a single theme, epilogue etc. But what  
> I'm really looking for is an option to set up a different themeing,  
> look and behaviour for seperate applications.
>
> Maybe that's possible by writing an own epilogue? Am I right?
> I'll see if these are going to work :-S

Yes, if you write your own epilogue, that will be possible.

>> Those are stored within orbeon-resources-private.jar.
>> Then, Firebug is your friend to figure out the CSS.
>
> Why do I have to alter the CSS if I alter an epilogue?

You may not have to, unless you want to override CSS used by the  
XForms engine. That CSS is automatically included by the XForms engine.

> Well, the problem with these is that some of the examples in the  
> tutorial/documentation are a bit differnet to the examples that are  
> online.
>
> It's really a lot of stuff one needs to know to get a application to  
> work the way it should.
> The existing docs are a good start; though I'd really appreciate a  
> complete step-by-step tutorial for dummies dealing with all the  
> steps necessary to set up an own servlet/portlet.

We are clearly weak on the portlet part, but you have seen the  
tutorial, right?

   http://www.orbeon.com/ops/doc/intro-tutorial

> Thanks a lot for your reply, it was very useful.
> Right now I'm not used to write XForms and neither to write Orbeon  
> configuration files. But I try to improve ;-)

I hope you find answers to your questions :-)

-Erik

--
Orbeon Forms - Web Forms for the Enterprise Done the Right Way
http://www.orbeon.com/



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