XFORMS Approved by W3C

cshoes writes "As of November 12th, the W3C has approved xforms. Xforms are a major step up from standard html forms, as they can be created in the developers medium of choice (xhtml, xml, svg...). This flexibility allows the forms not only to be displayed on web sites, but also handhelds, phones, and screenreaders. The W3C's page on xforms is here. Overall, very good news for developers everywhere."

more information...

[chiddiscokid]

here [slashdot.org]

site looks familiar ;-)

Re:more information...

[aridhol]

This isn't completely a re-post. The other article is the candidate release. Next, Slashdot will start posting for betas and alphas of software and standards.

Re:more information...

[Directrix1]

Guess what, it is still a candidate recommendation. It has not been finalized and thus this this article is a completely redundant repost.

SO when do we get client support on most clients

[tigersha]

When, for instance, will Mozilla or IE support this? Useless (except for intranet apps) if its not widespread.

Re:SO when do we get client support on most client

[Fweeky]

Probably around the same time they support XHTML 2, since it kinda depends on it for any type of form.

Maybe when IE/NS/Opera hit version 8, given browsers still need to catch up with CSS 2 (or rather, 2.1) and XHTML 1.*.

BTW, there need to be two interoperable implementations of the spec before it's accepted as a recommendation -- I wonder what they are :)

Re:SO when do we get client support on most client

[leighklotz]

> When, for instance, will Mozilla or IE support this?

See the list of implementations [w3.org]. Here are some highlights, in answer to your question:

• XForms in Mozilla has been assigned to an implementor; you can track its status in bugzilla, as has been reported here a few times.
• As for IE, when W3C issued the recommendation to begin implementing, there was already a plug-in for IE [formsplayer.com] and a server-side XForms to Flash transcoder, which means that XForms works on anything that supports Flash [mozquito.com].

That should tide us over until support for mobile phones, pdas, appliances, net-connected office equipment, workflow systems, and other browsers pick up support.

If you are implementing XForms yourself, please do send implementation feedback.

Browser support?

[alexpage]

XForms are a Very Good Thing, but only if browsers support them... a search at mozilla.org [mozilla.org] reveals only a Status Update from January 2001 [mozilla.org] suggesting a review of the (then) state of the XForms spec, and BugZilla [mozilla.org] only mentions one feature request for XForms [mozilla.org] which is only three days old...

Still, I'm really looking forward to this one - death to the tired key=value GET and POST lists!

Re:Browser support?

[RussGarrett]

What? Only one bug report for the implementation of XForms? Good God no duplicates!

If you'd looked a bit harder you'd have seen that that bug is over a year old. Indeed the last comment on it is from the coder who is going to impliment it, in a month or so.

About time!

[ozten]

I think this is a very important addition to Internet Programming. IMHO forms and client side programming are currently HTML's weakest point and standardizing this areas growth is very wise.

I think we are heading towards a richer standards friendly front end for our web browsers.

One year from now I will probably be building web apps in JavaServer Faces [sun.com] + SVG [w3.org], that are just as responsive and fast as using all the evil proprietary IE goodies.

XForms is not "accepted"

[smallpaul]

XForms is a candidate recommendation. It must still go through the proposed and final recommendation phases before it is "accepted" by the W3C.