Top 10 XForms Engines
by Micah Dubinko
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Pages: 1, 2
A Pair of Novell Engines
Novell continues to be a key player in the XForms space. As before, their Java-based engine makes the list.
Novell's Java XForms Engine, implementing a pocket calculator.
What's more, Novell now has released a separate engine, one that runs as a plugin for the popular IE browser. A key feature of this implementation is that it requires no special markup like processing instructions in order for the document to be recognized as having XForms content and processed accordingly. No other IE plugin engine that I know of does this.
Novell's IE-plugin Engine, along with generated XML
OpenOffice and StarOffice
OpenOffice has long had some kind of forms functionality, though fairly well hidden. The most recent beta releases use XForms technology, including storing XForms markup in the OpenDocument format. The Writer application from OpenOffice, and by extension StarOffice, functions as both an XForms design environment and an XForms engine.
Sun StarOffice demonstrating comprehensive XForms support.
OpenOffice is available for free download as open source on Windows, OS X, and Linux, though the Mac version has tended to lag behind. StarOffice is commercially available from Sun Microsystems.
Oracle Engine
Unlike classic HTML forms, XForms are designed to be supported on a wide variety of devices that might not include a full JavaScript engine, including mobile phones. Oracle has produced an application that renders XForms documents within the confines of a smaller mobile displays. The previous edition of this article had a screenshot of a mobile phone emulator processing a form. Since then, Oracle has released a major new version as an IE extension, shown below.
The Oracle engine demonstrating datatype-based validation.
The Oracle Application Server 10g Wireless Client is a gratis download.
Orbeon Presentation Server (OIS)
Part of the Orbeon Integration Suite, Orbeon is described as a "transformation framework," part of a system to create web 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.
Partial screenshot of a sample OXF document, showing a UBL purchase order.
The Orbeon suite was formerly a commercially licensed project but is now available under a LGPL open source license.
Zen Interactif xslt2xforms
A number of implementers have independently realized that existing browsers are already more than capable of rendering XForms content. The only missing piece is a framework to tie things together. As the name 'xslt2xforms' might suggest, this engine focuses on an XSLT front-end and then uses script as the glue to hold everything together.
xslt2xforms rendering a smooth slider control.
According to the website, xslt2xforms is still in beta. The version as of this writing is 0.7.6 and is fully cross-browser across Firefox, Mozilla, and IE. The code is open source under the GPL.
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 originally referenced in the XForms Implementation Report.
X-Smiles rendering a document used to create UBL documents.
X-Smiles is open source under a liberal license, similar to the BSD license.
Honorable Mention: Ripcord Technology nForms
nForms didn't make the list this year, as the codebase is no longer being actively maintained. It is perhaps ironic that I share some personal responsibility for this situation. nForms is another browser-delivered technology, quite similar to xslt2xforms. When its author, the remarkable Ben Nolan, found he couldn't work on it any longer, I was able to convince him to to open source the code. So far, the GPL'd JavaScript and XSLT still sits on my hard drive and needs some attention before it can even produce a demo for a screen shot. If anyone is interested in working with this code, please speak up in the feedback section below.
Related Links
What are XForms? on XML.com
An interactive XForms tutorial using the DENG Flash engine
The author's XForms Essentials page
The open source online XForms Validator tool
- nForms
2005-11-03 11:57:26 RangerOne - nForms code posted
2005-03-29 17:12:20 Micah Dubinko - nforms project
2005-02-27 06:55:07 jinside - Can you email or post the NForms Code
2005-02-17 00:44:10 rpineda - The Link for the Novell IE plug-in is wrong
2005-02-15 05:30:50 davidlandwehr - xslt2Xforms is not GPL
2005-02-14 08:36:51 maurizio.dececco@wanadoo.fr - how about a summary?
2005-02-11 11:33:51 Lars Huttar
