Using xForms client-side rendering tools

Hello Orbeon Users,

My name is Jim Manico, I'm a Sun contractor and am currently working on
the OpenMRS system. We are seriously considering xForms for medical
record forms. We already have an elaborate JEE server-side architecture
in place. We are looking for an OSS client-side xForms rendering system
and are currently considering the FireFox plugin and FormFaces. However,
Orbeon looks to be the best of breed.

** Is it possible to only use the Orbeon xForms client-side rendering
capacity (the JavaScript library) without needing any of the Orbeon
server-side tools? If so, any suggestions to go that route?

Best Regards,
Jim Manico


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Jim,

The short answer is that no, you can't do that with Orbeon Forms:  
XForms processing in Orbeon Forms consists of a client-side part and a  
server-side part, and both are needed to provide XForms support.

The long answer is that Orbeon Forms is not a pure JavaScript  
implementation of XForms: it is a hybrid implementation, with most of  
the intelligence residing on the server, and a rendering client  
written in JavaScript running in the web browser. The two pieces talk  
to each other through Ajax.

We took that route back in 2005 after carefully considering whether  
writing an entire XForms implementation in JavaScript was a good  
alternative option. We decided against that route, and so far we  
haven't regretted this one bit.

There are multiple reasons for this decision, and you will find some  
in this blog entry we wrote almost three years ago:

   http://www.orbeon.com/blog/2005/07/21/about-the-ops-30-xforms-engine/

In addition, a server-side implementation will allow you to provide  
JavaScript-less operation, which we are looking into, and which is  
needed to meet certain very strong (if not extreme)  accessibility  
requirements in particular in certain European countries.

But for us today what makes the Orbeon Forms approach all the more  
appealing is that you can use it like Java or Ruby or PHP frameworks:  
as a complete user interface platform, able to access and process data  
which you cannot send to the client. If you use a pure client-side  
implementation, either native or written in JavaScript, for security  
reasons none of the data seen by the XForms engine can be sensitive,  
as you cannot trust the user or the browser. We would be unable to  
write the type of applications we write today with Orbeon Forms if we  
were limited that way.

This said, you can use Orbeon Forms as a pure XForms engine (still  
requiring the server-side part). We provide some integration  
documentation about this here:

   http://www.orbeon.com/ops/doc/reference-xforms-java

I hope this helps,

-Erik

On Mar 24, 2008, at 3:00 AM, Jim Manico wrote:
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Orbeon Forms - Web Forms for the Enterprise Done the Right Way
http://www.orbeon.com/



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