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Ten Favorite XForms Engines
by Micah Dubinko | Pages: 1, 2

Novell XForms Technology Preview

As part of the Novell exteNd suite (formerly SilverStream software), XForms is playing a major role in their software to interact with web services, relational databases, and other data sources. Their first released XForms engine is a Java application that runs as a browser, one of the three main engines recorded in the XForms Implementation Report used to advance XForms to Proposed Recommendation (see the Related Links section below for more).

Screen shot.
The Novell engine rendering a the scriptless equivalent of a pocket calculator.

Orbeon Open XML Framework

Orbeon describes OXF as a "transformation framework", part of a system to create J2EE applications with minimal additional Java coding required. It uses XForms along with XSLT, XQuery, SQL, and web services interfaces as building blocks that together can compose an entire application.

Screen shot.
Screen shot of a sample OXF document, showing the form controls next to the resulting XML.

Oracle engine

Unlike classic HTML forms, XForms are designed to be supported on a wide variety of devices that might not be able to support a full JavaScript engine, including mobile phones. Oracle has produced an (unreleased) application that renders XForms documents within the confines of a small monochrome display. The following screen show shows the application running in a desktop phone emulator and is reproduced here with permission.

Screen shot.
Screen shot of a phone emulator displaying an XForms trigger control

Ripcord Technology nForms

nForms is a browser-delivered technology that enables XForms processing on the client (currently IE6-only). The site includes a number of illustrative examples that show the system in operation.

Screen shot.
Screen shot of a sample nForms document, showing a simple form next to the resulting XML.

University of Helsinki X-Smiles

X-Smiles, a complete browser written in Java, originated in 1998 as a university project. It has since taken on a life of its own, including support for XForms, XSLT, XSL formatting objects, SMIL, and SVG. The project supports a wide variety of Java versions, including small device and PDA configurations. X-Smiles is one of the three engines referenced in the XForms Implementation Report.

Screen shot.
Screen shot of X-Smiles rendering a document used to create UBL documents.

x-port FormsPlayer

FormsPlayer has its roots in a travel-based application x-port was developing for a client. In due course, the developers realized that what they needed was already provided by the then in-progress XForms specification, so they shifted their efforts to producing a general-purpose XForms plugin for IE6. FormsPlayer has an active mailing list where frequent updates are announced, rapidly converging on the final XForms specification. FormsPlayer is the third engine referred to by the XForms Implementation Report.

Screen shot.
FormsPlayer rendering a form that links together two Web Services.

Honorable Mention: Microsoft InfoPath

Microsoft InfoPath, part of the Office 2003 System, offers similar functionality to many of the applications listed here. Microsoft's application sports a fantastic user interface for end users, despite an insistence on providing layout through nested tables. The internal format InfoPath uses, however, is an XSLT-generated modified version of XHTML, not XForms.

A future article will provide a more in-depth comparison between InfoPath and XForms engines.

Related Links

Comment on this articleDo you have any experience with implementing XForms? What are your favorite tools?
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Comment on this Article

Titles Only Titles Only Newest First
  • xslt2xforms, XForms processor
    2004-10-13 07:15:37 scramatte [Reply]

    Hello,


    I'm proud to announce you xslt2Xforms a cross browser Xforms processor


    http://xforms.zeninteractif.com


    Best regards


    Bye.


  • Sterling Commerce web extensions implements XForms
    2003-10-06 06:50:48 Jim Magill [Reply]

    I'm currently building applications in Gentran Integrator, from Sterling Commerce. Their web-extensions add-on supports xforms through interpretation of a form into javascript/html which most browsers can then use. It works, but must be in early stages of development as there are a few niggles and untidyness in implementation. I'd be interested in hearing from anyone else who's working with the product, as Sterling have yet to create a training course to support it [web extensions]. (Currently I'm using Mr Dubinko's excellant book to help me).

  • Conversion
    2003-09-15 08:36:04 Robin Berjon [Reply]

    Excellent article, thanks!


    Have you considered InfoPath to XForms conversions? It'd be nice to be able to integrate both cleanly.

    • Conversion
      2003-09-16 00:21:36 Micah Dubinko [Reply]

      I know of one such effort. I saw it on the mailing list for FormsPlayer, but I don't know much more that that. -m

  • May want to check out xmlform.org
    2003-09-14 18:25:33 Ivelin Ivanov [Reply]

    XMLForm is a relatively mature implementation of a subset of XForms which is geared towards efficient server side applications that are browser agnostic.




  • XForms Doomed?
    2003-09-13 07:03:52 Clinton Gallagher [Reply]

    Many of the implementations require browser plug-ins. Microsoft just lost a $500+ million judgement to the holder of a patent that alledges ownership of such functionality, i.e. executable control embedded in the browser (Microsoft's ActiveX). In this context I don't see the difference between an ActiverX control, Flash or IBM's implementation. They are all embedded executables are they not? If legitimate, could the patent not also spell doom for XForms implemented as a control?

    • A bit overstated..
      2003-09-14 02:44:38 Micah Dubinko [Reply]

      Read more about the decision and possible forthcoming changes to IE at http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5074799.html


      Anyway, I'm not a lawyer, but my view of the "workarounds" is that they seem pretty trivial (as little as an alert box, apparently) to re-enable plug-in functionality. I wouldn't want to have to change thousands of existing pages, but for XForms documents, which will be new content anyway, no big deal. Certainly not "doom".


      Still, it's basically speculation until some new browser code is available from Microsoft.


      What's more, many XForms engines are server-based, and don't require any new client-side technology--plugins or otherwise.


      -m

      • A bit overstated..NOT
        2003-10-01 14:04:04 g herb [Reply]

        Read the article the popup is in front the invocation of activex or plugins.
        There is nothing that says the popup would turn activex or plugins back on.
        This is why they are going to try to convert pages into one large dynamic page.


        Both solutions will kill IE. One solution that won't is that Microsoft will license the technology. This may cost too much or be unacceptable to Microsoft (they might win on appeal?)