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XForms is:
The next generation of web forms
The successor to HTML forms
The ideal front-end for Web Services
XForms is not:
Comparable to .NET Windows Forms
An application building tool
An X library!
Forms evoke Victorian Romance, but are in fact really boring! 19th Century paper forms are the least efficient.
Cost is approximately $500 (in 2001 dollars) to process a paper form.
1)Labor intensive to print
2)Require paper and ink to print
3)Difficult and expensive to distribute
4)Tedious to fill out
5)Difficult and expensive to retrieve data
20th century Web forms are much more efficient for data collection.
Biggest bottleneck (and expense) is still with setup.
1)Still expensive and require specialized knowledge to design and set up
2)No paper required for printing
3)Effortless distribution
4)Less-painful to fill
5)Effortless data collection
XForms represents the peak of human achievement in forms. XML in/XML out means that form setup can now be based on predefined Web Services, leveraging existing XML infrastructure and standards.
Technical comparison of XSLT processing vs. XForms processing. Both involve a “data model”—separate from any markup or DOM, that gets processed. XSLT has separate source and result trees. XForms handles input and output from a single instance data tree.
The message specified can exist in instance data, in a remote document, or as inline text.
 
A graphical browser might render a modeless message as follows:
 
A graphical browser might render a modal message as follows:
 
To show how simple form authoring can be, examine Cardiff’s LiquidOffice Form Designer. Show:
Calculations (addition)
Validations (alpha field; required)
Checkboxes, Entry fields, selectOne, selectMany, signature (extension)
David, this slide will probably go at the end. Feel free to add any links.