XFDL Integration

> Hi,
>
>  
>
> I’m using IBM Workplace Forms Designer tool to create some eForms.
> Workplace Forms are written in an XML syntax called XFDL (eXtensible
> Forms Description Language), and support the XForms standard. Ie,
> certain controls are written in xforms. My application is in orbeon. I
> need to convert this XFDL to XHTML + XForms so that I could run directly
> in Orbeon. Now I have written an xpl which does an xsl transform to the
> input XFDL so that only the required xforms tag are taken from the xfdl
> and create an xhtml using those tags. But this involves a bit
> complication, because XFDL has not only xforms controls, but also some
> tags like itemlocation, datatype etc too which does not have the xforms
> namespace. So I feel writing an xsl transform to convert the whole XFDL
> to XForms is complicated.
>
>  
>
> Is there some way to do the same? Would you please provide me the sample
> code too since I’m new to Orbeon.
>
>  
>
> Thanks
>
> Jency

>
> Erik,
>
> I am attaching an XFDL along with the screen shot of the form (ie, how
> the form looks like when we run it using IBM Workplace Forms viewer).
> This XFDL has XForms controls for which it has non-xforms properties
> such as item location, datatype, etc. I need to convert this XFDL to
> XForms so that when I run it in Orbeon, I should get the same look and
> feel (with proper datatype, alignment and size of controls, background
> color etc). I have written an XSL to transform this, but it involves
> much coding and I could not do transformation for all the properties.
> Please find the attached XFDL and the screenshot of the form which uses
> this XFDL.
>
> Your help would be much appreciated.
>
> Thanks
> Jency
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Erik Bruchez [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Erik Bruchez
> Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2007 4:01 PM
> To: [hidden email]
> Subject: Re: [ops-users] XFDL Integration
>
> Jency,
>
> As you noticed Orbeon Forms does not support XFDL, or even converting
> from XFDL to XHTML, out of the box.
>
> The big question to me is not so much whether to use XSLT or not to
> perform the conversion: there is a good chance that using XSLT,
> especially 2.0, will give you all the flexibility you need to perform
> the conversion.
>
> But not knowing XFDL well, I can't tell you whether it is possible to do
>
> a perfect conversion from XFDL + XForms to XHTML + XForms, what are the
> trade-offs, etc.
>
> If you could send to the list a short but telling example of a very
> specific issue you are encountering, this could help.
>
> (And if you have trouble with this conversion and can't manage to go
> forward, remember that Orbeon provides support services and that we
> would be happy to help you.)
>
> -Erik
>
> Jency Chackummoottil wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> >
> >
> > I'm using IBM Workplace Forms Designer tool to create some eForms.
> > Workplace Forms are written in an XML syntax called XFDL (eXtensible
> > Forms Description Language), and support the XForms standard. Ie,
> > certain controls are written in xforms. My application is in orbeon. I
>
> > need to convert this XFDL to XHTML + XForms so that I could run
> directly
> > in Orbeon. Now I have written an xpl which does an xsl transform to
> the
> > input XFDL so that only the required xforms tag are taken from the
> xfdl
> > and create an xhtml using those tags. But this involves a bit
> > complication, because XFDL has not only xforms controls, but also some
>
> > tags like itemlocation, datatype etc too which does not have the
> xforms
> > namespace. So I feel writing an xsl transform to convert the whole
> XFDL
> > to XForms is complicated.
> >
> >
> >
> > Is there some way to do the same? Would you please provide me the
> sample
> > code too since I'm new to Orbeon.
> >
> >
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > Jency
>
> --
> Orbeon Forms - Web Forms for the Enterprise Done the Right Way
> http://www.orbeon.com/
>
>
>
>
> --
> 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
> ObjectWeb mailing lists service home page: http://www.objectweb.org/wws
>
>
>
>

>
> Erik,
>
> I am attaching an XFDL along with the screen shot of the form (ie, how
> the form looks like when we run it using IBM Workplace Forms viewer).
> This XFDL has XForms controls for which it has non-xforms properties
> such as item location, datatype, etc. I need to convert this XFDL to
> XForms so that when I run it in Orbeon, I should get the same look and
> feel (with proper datatype, alignment and size of controls, background
> color etc). I have written an XSL to transform this, but it involves
> much coding and I could not do transformation for all the properties.
> Please find the attached XFDL and the screenshot of the form which

> Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2007 4:01 PM
> To: [hidden email]
> Subject: Re: [ops-users] XFDL Integration
>
> Jency,
>
> As you noticed Orbeon Forms does not support XFDL, or even converting
> from XFDL to XHTML, out of the box.
>
> The big question to me is not so much whether to use XSLT or not to
> perform the conversion: there is a good chance that using XSLT,
> especially 2.0, will give you all the flexibility you need to perform
> the conversion.
>
> But not knowing XFDL well, I can't tell you whether it is possible to

> trade-offs, etc.
>
> If you could send to the list a short but telling example of a very
> specific issue you are encountering, this could help.
>
> (And if you have trouble with this conversion and can't manage to go
> forward, remember that Orbeon provides support services and that we
> would be happy to help you.)
>
> -Erik
>
> Jency Chackummoottil wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> >
> >
> > I'm using IBM Workplace Forms Designer tool to create some eForms.
> > Workplace Forms are written in an XML syntax called XFDL (eXtensible
> > Forms Description Language), and support the XForms standard. Ie,
> > certain controls are written in xforms. My application is in orbeon.

>
> > tags like itemlocation, datatype etc too which does not have the
> xforms
> > namespace. So I feel writing an xsl transform to convert the whole
> XFDL
> > to XForms is complicated.
> >
> >
> >
> > Is there some way to do the same? Would you please provide me the
> sample
> > code too since I'm new to Orbeon.
> >
> >
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > Jency
>
> --
> Orbeon Forms - Web Forms for the Enterprise Done the Right Way
> http://www.orbeon.com/
>
>
>
>
> --
> You receive this message as a subscriber of the

> Alex,
>
> I'm attaching my source code to transform XFDL to XHTML+ XForms along
> with this. Apply this XSL to the attached XFDL. You can see that the
> constraints in the <format> tag are not applied. We need to convert all
> these constraints in the <format> tag in XFDL to the corresponding
> xforms:bind attributes in XForms. Also, see the alert icon coming in the
> top left corner. Also, the width for input controls is not set.
>
> Another problem with this code is that it is not generic. As branching
> increases, (eg, xforms:group has got more number of branches than
> xforms:output), the looping too goes deeper. I don't think this is a
> good way to write XSL. For eg, there can be any number of xforms:group
> control under another xforms:group. Is there any generic way, so that we
> can optimize the code for any controls?
>
> Hope you can help me out in solving the issues.
>
> Thanks in advance
> Jency
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
> Alessandro Vernet
> Sent: Monday, February 05, 2007 1:04 PM
> To: [hidden email]
> Subject: Re: [ops-users] XFDL Integration
>
> Hi Jency,
>
> On 1/31/07, Jency Chackummoottil
> <[hidden email]> wrote:
> > One difficulty I faced during the transformation of XFDL to XHTML
> using
> > XSLT is that in XFDL, we can set the datatype for an input field, its
> > min length, max length etc using a non-xform tag (<format>). Please
> > refer the attached XFDL document. But in xforms, we add this in
> > xforms:model using xforms:bind. So, using XSLT, we need to convert all
> > these constraints in the <format> tag in XFDL to the corresponding
> > xforms:bind attributes in XForms.
>
> Now I see the <format> element which I overlooked the first time I
> went through your XFDL example. So we can have things like:
>
> <format>
>    <datatype>string</datatype>
>    <constraints>
>       <length>
>          <min>0</min>
>          <max>20</max>
>       </length>
>    </constraints>
> </format>
>
> > Another problem I faced is related to the alert icon. I have set some
> > constraints on certain fields and using XSLT, I placed all the
> controls
> > in correct position. But if a constraint failed, the alert icon is
> shown
> > at the top left corner.
>
> Are you saying that you would like the alert icon to be displayed next
> to the field but that it gets displayed at the top left corner? If
> this is the case, I don't know why this would happen. I would have to
> try this out.
>
> > Also, not all the controls are positioned with absolute coordinates.
> For
> > eg, the controls placed inside a xforms:repeat are not positioned
> using
> > absolute coordinates.
>
> Yes, that is an interesting case. And I don't fully understand yet how
> the repeat works in XFDL just by looking at the example. But before we
> tackle this down, we can start with the 2 other issues you mentioned.
>
> I have some ideas on how to convert the <format> into binds, but the
> devil lies in the details of the implementation. So rather than trying
> to describe it, I would like to give it a try. Do you have some code
> already to do this conversion in XSLT? Would you be willing to
> contribute it and share it with the community so we can build on it?
> And who knows, if this experiment is successful, this could even ship
> out of the box with Orbeon Forms.
>
> Alex
> --
> Orbeon Forms - Web Forms for the Enterprise, Done the Right Way
> http://www.orbeon.com/
>
>
>
> --
> 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
> ObjectWeb mailing lists service home page: http://www.objectweb.org/wws
>
>
>

> can optimize the code for any controls?
>
> Hope you can help me out in solving the issues.
>
> Thanks in advance
> Jency
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
> Alessandro Vernet
> Sent: Monday, February 05, 2007 1:04 PM
> To: [hidden email]
> Subject: Re: [ops-users] XFDL Integration
>
> Hi Jency,
>
> On 1/31/07, Jency Chackummoottil
> <[hidden email]> wrote:
> > One difficulty I faced during the transformation of XFDL to XHTML
> using
> > XSLT is that in XFDL, we can set the datatype for an input field,

> > these constraints in the <format> tag in XFDL to the corresponding
> > xforms:bind attributes in XForms.
>
> Now I see the <format> element which I overlooked the first time I
> went through your XFDL example. So we can have things like:
>
> <format>
>    <datatype>string</datatype>
>    <constraints>
>       <length>
>          <min>0</min>
>          <max>20</max>
>       </length>
>    </constraints>
> </format>
>
> > Another problem I faced is related to the alert icon. I have set

> > constraints on certain fields and using XSLT, I placed all the
> controls
> > in correct position. But if a constraint failed, the alert icon is
> shown
> > at the top left corner.
>
> Are you saying that you would like the alert icon to be displayed next
> to the field but that it gets displayed at the top left corner? If
> this is the case, I don't know why this would happen. I would have to
> try this out.
>
> > Also, not all the controls are positioned with absolute coordinates.
> For
> > eg, the controls placed inside a xforms:repeat are not positioned
> using
> > absolute coordinates.
>
> Yes, that is an interesting case. And I don't fully understand yet how
> the repeat works in XFDL just by looking at the example. But before we
> tackle this down, we can start with the 2 other issues you mentioned.
>
> I have some ideas on how to convert the <format> into binds, but the
> devil lies in the details of the implementation. So rather than trying
> to describe it, I would like to give it a try. Do you have some code
> already to do this conversion in XSLT? Would you be willing to
> contribute it and share it with the community so we can build on it?
> And who knows, if this experiment is successful, this could even ship
> out of the box with Orbeon Forms.
>
> Alex
> --
> Orbeon Forms - Web Forms for the Enterprise, Done the Right Way
> http://www.orbeon.com/
>
>
>
> --
> You receive this message as a subscriber of the

> can optimize the code for any controls?
>
> Hope you can help me out in solving the issues.
>
> Thanks in advance
> Jency
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
> Alessandro Vernet
> Sent: Monday, February 05, 2007 1:04 PM
> To: [hidden email]
> Subject: Re: [ops-users] XFDL Integration
>
> Hi Jency,
>
> On 1/31/07, Jency Chackummoottil
> <[hidden email]> wrote:
> > One difficulty I faced during the transformation of XFDL to XHTML
> using
> > XSLT is that in XFDL, we can set the datatype for an input field,

> > these constraints in the <format> tag in XFDL to the corresponding
> > xforms:bind attributes in XForms.
>
> Now I see the <format> element which I overlooked the first time I
> went through your XFDL example. So we can have things like:
>
> <format>
>    <datatype>string</datatype>
>    <constraints>
>       <length>
>          <min>0</min>
>          <max>20</max>
>       </length>
>    </constraints>
> </format>
>
> > Another problem I faced is related to the alert icon. I have set

> > constraints on certain fields and using XSLT, I placed all the
> controls
> > in correct position. But if a constraint failed, the alert icon is
> shown
> > at the top left corner.
>
> Are you saying that you would like the alert icon to be displayed next
> to the field but that it gets displayed at the top left corner? If
> this is the case, I don't know why this would happen. I would have to
> try this out.
>
> > Also, not all the controls are positioned with absolute coordinates.
> For
> > eg, the controls placed inside a xforms:repeat are not positioned
> using
> > absolute coordinates.
>
> Yes, that is an interesting case. And I don't fully understand yet how
> the repeat works in XFDL just by looking at the example. But before we
> tackle this down, we can start with the 2 other issues you mentioned.
>
> I have some ideas on how to convert the <format> into binds, but the
> devil lies in the details of the implementation. So rather than trying
> to describe it, I would like to give it a try. Do you have some code
> already to do this conversion in XSLT? Would you be willing to
> contribute it and share it with the community so we can build on it?
> And who knows, if this experiment is successful, this could even ship
> out of the box with Orbeon Forms.
>
> Alex
> --
> Orbeon Forms - Web Forms for the Enterprise, Done the Right Way
> http://www.orbeon.com/
>
>
>
> --
> You receive this message as a subscriber of the

> can optimize the code for any controls?
>
> Hope you can help me out in solving the issues.
>
> Thanks in advance
> Jency
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
> Alessandro Vernet
> Sent: Monday, February 05, 2007 1:04 PM
> To: [hidden email]
> Subject: Re: [ops-users] XFDL Integration
>
> Hi Jency,
>
> On 1/31/07, Jency Chackummoottil
> <[hidden email]> wrote:
> > One difficulty I faced during the transformation of XFDL to XHTML
> using
> > XSLT is that in XFDL, we can set the datatype for an input field,

> > these constraints in the <format> tag in XFDL to the corresponding
> > xforms:bind attributes in XForms.
>
> Now I see the <format> element which I overlooked the first time I
> went through your XFDL example. So we can have things like:
>
> <format>
>    <datatype>string</datatype>
>    <constraints>
>       <length>
>          <min>0</min>
>          <max>20</max>
>       </length>
>    </constraints>
> </format>
>
> > Another problem I faced is related to the alert icon. I have set

> > constraints on certain fields and using XSLT, I placed all the
> controls
> > in correct position. But if a constraint failed, the alert icon is
> shown
> > at the top left corner.
>
> Are you saying that you would like the alert icon to be displayed next
> to the field but that it gets displayed at the top left corner? If
> this is the case, I don't know why this would happen. I would have to
> try this out.
>
> > Also, not all the controls are positioned with absolute coordinates.
> For
> > eg, the controls placed inside a xforms:repeat are not positioned
> using
> > absolute coordinates.
>
> Yes, that is an interesting case. And I don't fully understand yet how
> the repeat works in XFDL just by looking at the example. But before we
> tackle this down, we can start with the 2 other issues you mentioned.
>
> I have some ideas on how to convert the <format> into binds, but the
> devil lies in the details of the implementation. So rather than trying
> to describe it, I would like to give it a try. Do you have some code
> already to do this conversion in XSLT? Would you be willing to
> contribute it and share it with the community so we can build on it?
> And who knows, if this experiment is successful, this could even ship
> out of the box with Orbeon Forms.
>
> Alex
> --
> Orbeon Forms - Web Forms for the Enterprise, Done the Right Way
> http://www.orbeon.com/
>
>
>
> --
> You receive this message as a subscriber of the

>
> Hi,
> There was an error in the XPL that I sent last day; in handling the
> repeats. Please find the attached XPL that handles repeats correctly.
> But the issue is not completely solved. Suppose there are controls
> beneath the repeat controls. The controls inside the repeat grow
> dynamically, but the controls beneath the repeat stay in their position
> (since they are positioned using absolute positioning) [Attached please
> an XFDL file which uses repeat controls. Run this xfdl against the xpl
> and click the Insert New button]. As the repeat controls grow, the
> controls beneath them too must move down.
>
> Any help would be much appreciated.
>
> Thanks in advance
> Jency
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jency Chackummoottil
> [mailto:[hidden email]]
> Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2007 12:52 PM
> To: [hidden email]
> Subject: RE: [ops-users] XFDL Integration
>
>
> Hi,
>
> I have made slight modifications in the xpl to reflect the following
> changes:
> 1) For controls such as button, textarea, select, and select1, the style
> attribute is applied directly to the controls. [Applying style such as
> background color, width, font etc to div does not make any effect on
> these controls]
> 2) Repeats are handled. [Not accurate; needs modification]
>
> Attached please find the xfdl which contains Repeat controls and the xpl
> which handles the Repeat controls. The form should appear as if in the
> attached screen shot. But with the attached xpl, the repeat controls are
> not positioned correctly. I'm not sure whether the method used here is
> correct. Please help me to rectify this problem.
>
> Also, the issue with <format> tag is not yet solved.
>
> Hope you could help me out in solving these issues.
>
> Thanks in advance
> Jency
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jency Chackummoottil
> [mailto:[hidden email]]
> Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 6:07 PM
> To: [hidden email]
> Subject: RE: [ops-users] XFDL Integration
>
>
> Thanks a lot Alex. The code has now become generic so that it is
> applicable for any controls.
>
> Now, the issue is with the <format> tag.
> <format>
>   <datatype>string</datatype>
>         <constraints>
>           <length>
>           <min>0</min>
>           <max>20</max>
>        </length>
>     </constraints>
>  </format>
> We need to convert all the constraints in the <format> tag in XFDL to
> the corresponding xforms:bind attributes in XForms.
>
> Another issue is that the width and height of an input control cannot be
> set using <xhtml:div style="position:absolute; top: 53; left: 131;
> width: 154; height: ;>.
>
> Hope you can help me in solving these issues.
>
> Thanks in advance
> Jency
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
> Alessandro Vernet
> Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 1:28 PM
> To: [hidden email]
> Subject: Re: [ops-users] XFDL Integration
>
> Hi Jency,
>
> I took your pipeline and updated it; the updated pipeline attached. A
> few comments:
>
> - Not that it matters much, but since the XSL file was very simple, I
> just got rid of it. So you can call this pipeline from your
> page-flow.xml with view="xfdl-to-xhtml.xpl" (no model).
> - It is now "generic" in the sense that it supports any level of
> nesting (see how templates are being used)
> - Alerts for controls display next to the control (not at the top left
> of the page)
> - It copies some of the styles defined in XFDL over to XHTML (in
> particular the background color, font face and size)
>
> Things not yet taken care of:
>
> - There is a second language selection drop-down at the bottom of the
> page. That second drop-down is copied over from the XFDL file. Is it
> supposed to be there?
> - Repeats are not handled.
>
> You can see what it looks like in the attached screenshot. I hope this
> helps, and let us know how things are going with your conversion from
> XFDL to XHTML.
>
> Alex
>
> On 2/5/07, Jency Chackummoottil <[hidden email]>
> wrote:
> > Alex,
> >
> > I'm attaching my source code to transform XFDL to XHTML+ XForms along
> > with this. Apply this XSL to the attached XFDL. You can see that the
> > constraints in the <format> tag are not applied. We need to convert
> all
> > these constraints in the <format> tag in XFDL to the corresponding
> > xforms:bind attributes in XForms. Also, see the alert icon coming in
> the
> > top left corner. Also, the width for input controls is not set.
> >
> > Another problem with this code is that it is not generic. As branching
> > increases, (eg, xforms:group has got more number of branches than
> > xforms:output), the looping too goes deeper. I don't think this is a
> > good way to write XSL. For eg, there can be any number of xforms:group
> > control under another xforms:group. Is there any generic way, so that
> we
> > can optimize the code for any controls?
> >
> > Hope you can help me out in solving the issues.
> >
> > Thanks in advance
> > Jency
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
> > Alessandro Vernet
> > Sent: Monday, February 05, 2007 1:04 PM
> > To: [hidden email]
> > Subject: Re: [ops-users] XFDL Integration
> >
> > Hi Jency,
> >
> > On 1/31/07, Jency Chackummoottil
> > <[hidden email]> wrote:
> > > One difficulty I faced during the transformation of XFDL to XHTML
> > using
> > > XSLT is that in XFDL, we can set the datatype for an input field,
> its
> > > min length, max length etc using a non-xform tag (<format>). Please
> > > refer the attached XFDL document. But in xforms, we add this in
> > > xforms:model using xforms:bind. So, using XSLT, we need to convert
> all
> > > these constraints in the <format> tag in XFDL to the corresponding
> > > xforms:bind attributes in XForms.
> >
> > Now I see the <format> element which I overlooked the first time I
> > went through your XFDL example. So we can have things like:
> >
> > <format>
> >    <datatype>string</datatype>
> >    <constraints>
> >       <length>
> >          <min>0</min>
> >          <max>20</max>
> >       </length>
> >    </constraints>
> > </format>
> >
> > > Another problem I faced is related to the alert icon. I have set
> some
> > > constraints on certain fields and using XSLT, I placed all the
> > controls
> > > in correct position. But if a constraint failed, the alert icon is
> > shown
> > > at the top left corner.
> >
> > Are you saying that you would like the alert icon to be displayed next
> > to the field but that it gets displayed at the top left corner? If
> > this is the case, I don't know why this would happen. I would have to
> > try this out.
> >
> > > Also, not all the controls are positioned with absolute coordinates.
> > For
> > > eg, the controls placed inside a xforms:repeat are not positioned
> > using
> > > absolute coordinates.
> >
> > Yes, that is an interesting case. And I don't fully understand yet how
> > the repeat works in XFDL just by looking at the example. But before we
> > tackle this down, we can start with the 2 other issues you mentioned.
> >
> > I have some ideas on how to convert the <format> into binds, but the
> > devil lies in the details of the implementation. So rather than trying
> > to describe it, I would like to give it a try. Do you have some code
> > already to do this conversion in XSLT? Would you be willing to
> > contribute it and share it with the community so we can build on it?
> > And who knows, if this experiment is successful, this could even ship
> > out of the box with Orbeon Forms.
> >
> > Alex
> > --
> > Orbeon Forms - Web Forms for the Enterprise, Done the Right Way
> > http://www.orbeon.com/
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > 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
> > ObjectWeb mailing lists service home page:
> http://www.objectweb.org/wws
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> Orbeon Forms - Web Forms for the Enterprise, Done the Right Way
> http://www.orbeon.com/
>
>
>
> --
> 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
> ObjectWeb mailing lists service home page: http://www.objectweb.org/wws
>
>
>

> Hi Jency,
>
> The first time you do an insert, the position of the "Save Form"
> button is fine (see insert-1st.png attached). But the second time,
> since that button is positioned with absolute coordinates, it gets
> displayed over the form fields (see insert-2nd.png attached). How does
> the Workplace Forms client handle this? Could you do the equivalent
> screenshots in Workplace Forms?
>
> Alex
>
> On 2/14/07, Jency Chackummoottil <[hidden email]> wrote:
> >
> > Hi,
> > There was an error in the XPL that I sent last day; in handling the
> > repeats. Please find the attached XPL that handles repeats correctly.
> > But the issue is not completely solved. Suppose there are controls
> > beneath the repeat controls. The controls inside the repeat grow
> > dynamically, but the controls beneath the repeat stay in their position
> > (since they are positioned using absolute positioning) [Attached please
> > an XFDL file which uses repeat controls. Run this xfdl against the xpl
> > and click the Insert New button]. As the repeat controls grow, the
> > controls beneath them too must move down.
> >
> > Any help would be much appreciated.
> >
> > Thanks in advance
> > Jency
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Jency Chackummoottil
> > [mailto:[hidden email]]
> > Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2007 12:52 PM
> > To: [hidden email]
> > Subject: RE: [ops-users] XFDL Integration
> >
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > I have made slight modifications in the xpl to reflect the following
> > changes:
> > 1) For controls such as button, textarea, select, and select1, the style
> > attribute is applied directly to the controls. [Applying style such as
> > background color, width, font etc to div does not make any effect on
> > these controls]
> > 2) Repeats are handled. [Not accurate; needs modification]
> >
> > Attached please find the xfdl which contains Repeat controls and the xpl
> > which handles the Repeat controls. The form should appear as if in the
> > attached screen shot. But with the attached xpl, the repeat controls are
> > not positioned correctly. I'm not sure whether the method used here is
> > correct. Please help me to rectify this problem.
> >
> > Also, the issue with <format> tag is not yet solved.
> >
> > Hope you could help me out in solving these issues.
> >
> > Thanks in advance
> > Jency
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Jency Chackummoottil
> > [mailto:[hidden email]]
> > Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 6:07 PM
> > To: [hidden email]
> > Subject: RE: [ops-users] XFDL Integration
> >
> >
> > Thanks a lot Alex. The code has now become generic so that it is
> > applicable for any controls.
> >
> > Now, the issue is with the <format> tag.
> > <format>
> >   <datatype>string</datatype>
> >         <constraints>
> >           <length>
> >           <min>0</min>
> >           <max>20</max>
> >        </length>
> >     </constraints>
> >  </format>
> > We need to convert all the constraints in the <format> tag in XFDL to
> > the corresponding xforms:bind attributes in XForms.
> >
> > Another issue is that the width and height of an input control cannot be
> > set using <xhtml:div style="position:absolute; top: 53; left: 131;
> > width: 154; height: ;>.
> >
> > Hope you can help me in solving these issues.
> >
> > Thanks in advance
> > Jency
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
> > Alessandro Vernet
> > Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 1:28 PM
> > To: [hidden email]
> > Subject: Re: [ops-users] XFDL Integration
> >
> > Hi Jency,
> >
> > I took your pipeline and updated it; the updated pipeline attached. A
> > few comments:
> >
> > - Not that it matters much, but since the XSL file was very simple, I
> > just got rid of it. So you can call this pipeline from your
> > page-flow.xml with view="xfdl-to-xhtml.xpl" (no model).
> > - It is now "generic" in the sense that it supports any level of
> > nesting (see how templates are being used)
> > - Alerts for controls display next to the control (not at the top left
> > of the page)
> > - It copies some of the styles defined in XFDL over to XHTML (in
> > particular the background color, font face and size)
> >
> > Things not yet taken care of:
> >
> > - There is a second language selection drop-down at the bottom of the
> > page. That second drop-down is copied over from the XFDL file. Is it
> > supposed to be there?
> > - Repeats are not handled.
> >
> > You can see what it looks like in the attached screenshot. I hope this
> > helps, and let us know how things are going with your conversion from
> > XFDL to XHTML.
> >
> > Alex
> >
> > On 2/5/07, Jency Chackummoottil <[hidden email]>
> > wrote:
> > > Alex,
> > >
> > > I'm attaching my source code to transform XFDL to XHTML+ XForms along
> > > with this. Apply this XSL to the attached XFDL. You can see that the
> > > constraints in the <format> tag are not applied. We need to convert
> > all
> > > these constraints in the <format> tag in XFDL to the corresponding
> > > xforms:bind attributes in XForms. Also, see the alert icon coming in
> > the
> > > top left corner. Also, the width for input controls is not set.
> > >
> > > Another problem with this code is that it is not generic. As branching
> > > increases, (eg, xforms:group has got more number of branches than
> > > xforms:output), the looping too goes deeper. I don't think this is a
> > > good way to write XSL. For eg, there can be any number of xforms:group
> > > control under another xforms:group. Is there any generic way, so that
> > we
> > > can optimize the code for any controls?
> > >
> > > Hope you can help me out in solving the issues.
> > >
> > > Thanks in advance
> > > Jency
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
> > > Alessandro Vernet
> > > Sent: Monday, February 05, 2007 1:04 PM
> > > To: [hidden email]
> > > Subject: Re: [ops-users] XFDL Integration
> > >
> > > Hi Jency,
> > >
> > > On 1/31/07, Jency Chackummoottil
> > > <[hidden email]> wrote:
> > > > One difficulty I faced during the transformation of XFDL to XHTML
> > > using
> > > > XSLT is that in XFDL, we can set the datatype for an input field,
> > its
> > > > min length, max length etc using a non-xform tag (<format>). Please
> > > > refer the attached XFDL document. But in xforms, we add this in
> > > > xforms:model using xforms:bind. So, using XSLT, we need to convert
> > all
> > > > these constraints in the <format> tag in XFDL to the corresponding
> > > > xforms:bind attributes in XForms.
> > >
> > > Now I see the <format> element which I overlooked the first time I
> > > went through your XFDL example. So we can have things like:
> > >
> > > <format>
> > >    <datatype>string</datatype>
> > >    <constraints>
> > >       <length>
> > >          <min>0</min>
> > >          <max>20</max>
> > >       </length>
> > >    </constraints>
> > > </format>
> > >
> > > > Another problem I faced is related to the alert icon. I have set
> > some
> > > > constraints on certain fields and using XSLT, I placed all the
> > > controls
> > > > in correct position. But if a constraint failed, the alert icon is
> > > shown
> > > > at the top left corner.
> > >
> > > Are you saying that you would like the alert icon to be displayed next
> > > to the field but that it gets displayed at the top left corner? If
> > > this is the case, I don't know why this would happen. I would have to
> > > try this out.
> > >
> > > > Also, not all the controls are positioned with absolute coordinates.
> > > For
> > > > eg, the controls placed inside a xforms:repeat are not positioned
> > > using
> > > > absolute coordinates.
> > >
> > > Yes, that is an interesting case. And I don't fully understand yet how
> > > the repeat works in XFDL just by looking at the example. But before we
> > > tackle this down, we can start with the 2 other issues you mentioned.
> > >
> > > I have some ideas on how to convert the <format> into binds, but the
> > > devil lies in the details of the implementation. So rather than trying
> > > to describe it, I would like to give it a try. Do you have some code
> > > already to do this conversion in XSLT? Would you be willing to
> > > contribute it and share it with the community so we can build on it?
> > > And who knows, if this experiment is successful, this could even ship
> > > out of the box with Orbeon Forms.
> > >
> > > Alex
> > > --
> > > Orbeon Forms - Web Forms for the Enterprise, Done the Right Way
> > > http://www.orbeon.com/
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > 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
> > > ObjectWeb mailing lists service home page:
> > http://www.objectweb.org/wws
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Orbeon Forms - Web Forms for the Enterprise, Done the Right Way
> > http://www.orbeon.com/
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > 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
> > ObjectWeb mailing lists service home page: http://www.objectweb.org/wws
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> Orbeon Forms - Web 2.0 Forms for the Enterprise
> http://www.orbeon.com/
>

>
>
>
>
>
>
> Hi Alex,
>
>
>
> In Workplace forms, we can handle this using relative positioning. In the
> XFDL I sent you earlier, the control beneath the repeat table is positioned
> using absolute positioning. Attached please find the XFDL with relative
> positioning.
>
>
>
>               <button sid="BUTTON3">
>
>                   <xforms:trigger>
>
>                      <xforms:label>Save Form</xforms:label>
>
>                      <xforms:action
> ev:event="DOMActivate"></xforms:action>
>
>                   </xforms:trigger>
>
>                   <itemlocation>
>
>                      <x>140</x>
>
>                      <y>333</y>
>
>                      <below compute="itemprevious"></below>
>
>                      <offsetx>132</offsetx>
>
>                      <offsety>12</offsety>
>
>                   </itemlocation>
>
>                   <fontinfo>
>
>                      <fontname>Arial</fontname>
>
>                      <size>8</size>
>
>                      <effect>bold</effect>
>
>                   </fontinfo>
>
>                   <help>HELP1</help>
>
>   </button>
>
> The itemlocation tag (positioned using relative positioning) has to be
> converted to the corresponding html.
>
>
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> Jency
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
>  From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Alessandro
> Vernet
>  Sent: Saturday, February 17, 2007 4:12 AM
>  To: [hidden email]
>  Subject: Re: [ops-users] XFDL Integration
>
>
>
>
> And here are the screenshots mentioned in my email earlier.
>
>
>
> Alex
>
>
>
> On 2/16/07, Alessandro Vernet <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> > Hi Jency,
>
> >
>
> > The first time you do an insert, the position of the "Save Form"
>
> > button is fine (see insert-1st.png attached). But the second time,
>
> > since that button is positioned with absolute coordinates, it gets
>
> > displayed over the form fields (see insert-2nd.png attached). How does
>
> > the Workplace Forms client handle this? Could you do the equivalent
>
> > screenshots in Workplace Forms?
>
> >
>
> > Alex
>
> >
>
> > On 2/14/07, Jency Chackummoottil
> <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> > >
>
> > > Hi,
>
> > > There was an error in the XPL that I sent last day; in handling the
>
> > > repeats. Please find the attached XPL that handles repeats correctly.
>
> > > But the issue is not completely solved. Suppose there are controls
>
> > > beneath the repeat controls. The controls inside the repeat grow
>
> > > dynamically, but the controls beneath the repeat stay in their position
>
> > > (since they are positioned using absolute positioning) [Attached please
>
> > > an XFDL file which uses repeat controls. Run this xfdl against the xpl
>
> > > and click the Insert New button]. As the repeat controls grow, the
>
> > > controls beneath them too must move down.
>
> > >
>
> > > Any help would be much appreciated.
>
> > >
>
> > > Thanks in advance
>
> > > Jency
>
> > >
>
> > >
>
> > > -----Original Message-----
>
> > > From: Jency Chackummoottil
>
> > > [mailto:[hidden email]]
>
> > > Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2007 12:52 PM
>
> > > To: [hidden email]
>
> > > Subject: RE: [ops-users] XFDL Integration
>
> > >
>
> > >
>
> > > Hi,
>
> > >
>
> > > I have made slight modifications in the xpl to reflect the following
>
> > > changes:
>
> > > 1) For controls such as button, textarea, select, and select1, the style
>
> > > attribute is applied directly to the controls. [Applying style such as
>
> > > background color, width, font etc to div does not make any effect on
>
> > > these controls]
>
> > > 2) Repeats are handled. [Not accurate; needs modification]
>
> > >
>
> > > Attached please find the xfdl which contains Repeat controls and the xpl
>
> > > which handles the Repeat controls. The form should appear as if in the
>
> > > attached screen shot. But with the attached xpl, the repeat controls are
>
> > > not positioned correctly. I'm not sure whether the method used here is
>
> > > correct. Please help me to rectify this problem.
>
> > >
>
> > > Also, the issue with <format> tag is not yet solved.
>
> > >
>
> > > Hope you could help me out in solving these issues.
>
> > >
>
> > > Thanks in advance
>
> > > Jency
>
> > >
>
> > >
>
> > > -----Original Message-----
>
> > > From: Jency Chackummoottil
>
> > > [mailto:[hidden email]]
>
> > > Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 6:07 PM
>
> > > To: [hidden email]
>
> > > Subject: RE: [ops-users] XFDL Integration
>
> > >
>
> > >
>
> > > Thanks a lot Alex. The code has now become generic so that it is
>
> > > applicable for any controls.
>
> > >
>
> > > Now, the issue is with the <format> tag.
>
> > > <format>
>
> > >   <datatype>string</datatype>
>
> > >         <constraints>
>
> > >           <length>
>
> > >           <min>0</min>
>
> > >           <max>20</max>
>
> > >        </length>
>
> > >     </constraints>
>
> > >  </format>
>
> > > We need to convert all the constraints in the <format> tag in XFDL to
>
> > > the corresponding xforms:bind attributes in XForms.
>
> > >
>
> > > Another issue is that the width and height of an input control cannot be
>
> > > set using <xhtml:div style="position:absolute; top: 53; left: 131;
>
> > > width: 154; height: ;>.
>
> > >
>
> > > Hope you can help me in solving these issues.
>
> > >
>
> > > Thanks in advance
>
> > > Jency
>
> > >
>
> > > -----Original Message-----
>
> > > From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
>
> > > Alessandro Vernet
>
> > > Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 1:28 PM
>
> > > To: [hidden email]
>
> > > Subject: Re: [ops-users] XFDL Integration
>
> > >
>
> > > Hi Jency,
>
> > >
>
> > > I took your pipeline and updated it; the updated pipeline attached. A
>
> > > few comments:
>
> > >
>
> > > - Not that it matters much, but since the XSL file was very simple, I
>
> > > just got rid of it. So you can call this pipeline from your
>
> > > page-flow.xml with view="xfdl-to-xhtml.xpl" (no model).
>
> > > - It is now "generic" in the sense that it supports any level of
>
> > > nesting (see how templates are being used)
>
> > > - Alerts for controls display next to the control (not at the top left
>
> > > of the page)
>
> > > - It copies some of the styles defined in XFDL over to XHTML (in
>
> > > particular the background color, font face and size)
>
> > >
>
> > > Things not yet taken care of:
>
> > >
>
> > > - There is a second language selection drop-down at the bottom of the
>
> > > page. That second drop-down is copied over from the XFDL file. Is it
>
> > > supposed to be there?
>
> > > - Repeats are not handled.
>
> > >
>
> > > You can see what it looks like in the attached screenshot. I hope this
>
> > > helps, and let us know how things are going with your conversion from
>
> > > XFDL to XHTML.
>
> > >
>
> > > Alex
>
> > >
>
> > > On 2/5/07, Jency Chackummoottil
> <[hidden email]>
>
> > > wrote:
>
> > > > Alex,
>
> > > >
>
> > > > I'm attaching my source code to transform XFDL to XHTML+ XForms along
>
> > > > with this. Apply this XSL to the attached XFDL. You can see that the
>
> > > > constraints in the <format> tag are not applied. We need to convert
>
> > > all
>
> > > > these constraints in the <format> tag in XFDL to the corresponding
>
> > > > xforms:bind attributes in XForms. Also, see the alert icon coming in
>
> > > the
>
> > > > top left corner. Also, the width for input controls is not set.
>
> > > >
>
> > > > Another problem with this code is that it is not generic. As branching
>
> > > > increases, (eg, xforms:group has got more number of branches than
>
> > > > xforms:output), the looping too goes deeper. I don't think this is a
>
> > > > good way to write XSL. For eg, there can be any number of xforms:group
>
> > > > control under another xforms:group. Is there any generic way, so that
>
> > > we
>
> > > > can optimize the code for any controls?
>
> > > >
>
> > > > Hope you can help me out in solving the issues.
>
> > > >
>
> > > > Thanks in advance
>
> > > > Jency
>
> > > >
>
> > > > -----Original Message-----
>
> > > > From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
>
> > > > Alessandro Vernet
>
> > > > Sent: Monday, February 05, 2007 1:04 PM
>
> > > > To: [hidden email]
>
> > > > Subject: Re: [ops-users] XFDL Integration
>
> > > >
>
> > > > Hi Jency,
>
> > > >
>
> > > > On 1/31/07, Jency Chackummoottil
>
> > > > <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> > > > > One difficulty I faced during the transformation of XFDL to XHTML
>
> > > > using
>
> > > > > XSLT is that in XFDL, we can set the datatype for an input field,
>
> > > its
>
> > > > > min length, max length etc using a non-xform tag (<format>). Please
>
> > > > > refer the attached XFDL document. But in xforms, we add this in
>
> > > > > xforms:model using xforms:bind. So, using XSLT, we need to convert
>
> > > all
>
> > > > > these constraints in the <format> tag in XFDL to the corresponding
>
> > > > > xforms:bind attributes in XForms.
>
> > > >
>
> > > > Now I see the <format> element which I overlooked the first time I
>
> > > > went through your XFDL example. So we can have things like:
>
> > > >
>
> > > > <format>
>
> > > >    <datatype>string</datatype>
>
> > > >    <constraints>
>
> > > >       <length>
>
> > > >          <min>0</min>
>
> > > >          <max>20</max>
>
> > > >       </length>
>
> > > >    </constraints>
>
> > > > </format>
>
> > > >
>
> > > > > Another problem I faced is related to the alert icon. I have set
>
> > > some
>
> > > > > constraints on certain fields and using XSLT, I placed all the
>
> > > > controls
>
> > > > > in correct position. But if a constraint failed, the alert icon is
>
> > > > shown
>
> > > > > at the top left corner.
>
> > > >
>
> > > > Are you saying that you would like the alert icon to be displayed next
>
> > > > to the field but that it gets displayed at the top left corner? If
>
> > > > this is the case, I don't know why this would happen. I would have to
>
> > > > try this out.
>
> > > >
>
> > > > > Also, not all the controls are positioned with absolute coordinates.
>
> > > > For
>
> > > > > eg, the controls placed inside a xforms:repeat are not positioned
>
> > > > using
>
> > > > > absolute coordinates.
>
> > > >
>
> > > > Yes, that is an interesting case. And I don't fully understand yet how
>
> > > > the repeat works in XFDL just by looking at the example. But before we
>
> > > > tackle this down, we can start with the 2 other issues you mentioned.
>
> > > >
>
> > > > I have some ideas on how to convert the <format> into binds, but the
>
> > > > devil lies in the details of the implementation. So rather than trying
>
> > > > to describe it, I would like to give it a try. Do you have some code
>
> > > > already to do this conversion in XSLT? Would you be willing to
>
> > > > contribute it and share it with the community so we can build on it?
>
> > > > And who knows, if this experiment is successful, this could even ship
>
> > > > out of the box with Orbeon Forms.
>
> > > >
>
> > > > Alex
>
> > > > --
>
> > > > Orbeon Forms - Web Forms for the Enterprise, Done the Right Way
>
> > > > http://www.orbeon.com/
>
> > > >
>
> > > >
>
> > > >
>
> > > > --
>
> > > > You receive this message as a subscriber of the
>
> > > [hidden email] mailing list.
>
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