The state of Orbeon Forms, Part 8

This is a summary of the Orbeon Forms developments for December 2009 - February 2010:

1. Release


• Numbering. Since there are about 300 changes since 3.7.1, the upcoming Orbeon Forms release will be numbered 3.8 instead of 3.7.2.
• Schedule. We are trying our best to release 3.8 really soon! The release notes have been updated already but we have some outstanding issues to address before we release.
2. Form Builder / Form Runner


• Improved look and feel. There is now a clear difference between what belongs to the builder vs. the edited form.
• Summary page. The summary page has a nicer search area and list of forms using the datatable component.
3. Orbeon Forms enhancements


• Asynchronous submissions. Much improved asynchronous submissions are in! 
• Keyboard shortcuts. You can now listen to keyboard shortcuts in XForms to run actions.
• Tab view. The tab view XBL component now supports dynamically hiding tabs, as well as disabling them.
• New selection control. We implemented a two-list select in a dialog.
• Repeat over values. Orbeon Forms now supports xforms:repeat over values.
• Focus. We now implement properly the XForms 1.1 behavior for setfocus/xforms-focus.
• Index changed event. We implemented an extension event to detect a repeat index change.
• Itemset function. New extension XPath function to obtain an itemset in XML or JSON: xxforms:itemset().
4. Documentation, how-tos, and examples


• How-tos. There is a growing number of how-tos on the wiki!


• Create dynamic controls
• Create contextual menus
• Handle changing itemsets
• Improved events documentation. We consolidated, expanded and wiki-fied the documentation on events.
• Improved repeat documentation. We consolidated the documentation on xforms:repeat.
• Improved XPath functions documentation. We finished migrating the documentation on XPath functions to the wiki.
• Improved formats documentation. All the fancy formats accepted in input by the date and time fields are now documented on the wiki.
5. Other


• XForms Working Group. The XForms Working Group at W3C had a virtual face day, and has a new proposed charter.
• Partnership with Spagic. Orbeon has partnered with Spagic.

Feedback is as always welcome! Enjoy!

The state of Orbeon Forms, Part 7

Here is a summary of the Orbeon Forms developments for October/November 2009:

1. Next release


• Orbeon Forms 3.7.2 is almost ready. Nightly builds are quite stable and we are almost ready to release!
  
2. Web site and demos
   


• Form Builder screencast. We have just produced a screencast showing off Form Builder's basic features in 10 minutes. It doesn't show everything Form Builder and Form Runner can do yet, but it's a start. Feedback is welcome!
• New hosting. The Orbeon web site and online demos are now hosted on a much better server, and we have made a bunch of improvements to the web site. Please let us know if you have any issues!
  
• Better demos landing page. The online demos landing page has been updated to better present the major Orbeon Forms forms and samples.
• Better XForms Controls demo. The XForms Controls demo has been improved and comes in two versions: a custom-built XForms Controls demo, and a Form Runner/Form Builder form.
• New Contact form. We have added a simple Contact form demo. The screencast shows how to build and deploy this form in about 10 minutes.
3. Orbeon Forms components
   


• New reCAPTCHA XBL component. This a reusable CAPTCHA component based on the reCAPTCHA API. It was implemented in record time thanks to our support for XBL components.
• Improved autocomplete control. The autocomplete control has been enhanced to make a distinction between item label and value.
• Reusable Error Summary component. Our Error Summary feature is now a fully reusable component.
• New Alert Dialog component. The alert dialog allows you to build simple dialogs for those cases where you need to inform users of something that happened, or ask a question which can be answered by a yes or a no.
4. Other Orbeon Forms bug-fixes and enhancements
   


• New function to evaluate AVTs. The xxforms:evaluate-avt() function allow you to dynamically evaluate a string containing an AVT.
• URL rewriting issue in separate deployment now fixed. This was a long-standing issue thanks to the help of Helsinki University of Technology.
• Fix to instance() function. This was also a long-standing issue whereby the instance() function can be called without arguments.
• Secure Copy support. The oxf:file XPL processor now supports copying files with scp.
5. XForm specification


• XForms 1.1 is a W3C Recommendation. On October 20, and after years of hard work, XForms 1.1 has become a full recommendation! Check the testimonials of member companies. Check also Kurt Cagle's "The Key XForms Enhancements in Version 1.1".
  
• XForms Working Group face to face meeting. In early November, we had a face to face meeting in California. We made good progress on XForms 1.2/2.0 features such as custom XPath functions, improved UI events, and even discussed the topic of components.
6. Documentation, how-tos, and examples


• Security. Security of your XForms-based app is important to you? See what we are doing about security in Orbeon Forms.
• Installation. Installation instructions for Orbeon Forms are now on the Wiki and we have instructions for WebLogic 10/11g.
  
• Standards and extensions. We put up some doc on the wiki about our stance regarding XForms extensions. Hint: we love standards ;)
  
• Wiki home page. We refreshed the Orbeon Forms Wiki home page.
• How-to guides
  


• Implement a hierarchical view in XForms with a single xforms:repeat. See also the result.
• Wondering how to internationalize your XForms application? Then see this documentation on the Orbeon Forms wiki.
• How to use a dialog to edit information shown in a table.
• How to insert a new item into a repeat.
• How to capture rich HTML text.
  
• How to do a post back to the window that opened a pop-up (if you really have to use pop-ups!)
• How to delegate validation to an external service in XForms.


7. Misc


• eXist's Wolfgang  Meier on FLOSS Weekly. Check this podcast interview of Wolfgang, the main developer of the eXist XML database that we ship with Orbeon Forms.
  

Enjoy!

The state of Orbeon Forms, Part 6

Here is a summary of the Orbeon Forms developments for August/September 2009:

1. News

• XForms 1.1 went to W3C Proposed Recommendation. Further, XForms 1.1 is currently transitioning to full Recommendation. It took years to get there, but it was worth it: XForms 1.1 is a major improvement over XForms 1.0. We can now look forward to XForms 1.2 and XForms 2.0!

2. Form Builder and Form Runner

• Form Runner search. We improved search in the Form Runner summary page. By default we show a simple search field. You can then open a form-specific structured search.

• Form Builder metadata. Form Builder now shows a more user friendly and better looking dialog when you create a new form.

• Form Builder usability. You can now save a form right after you create it. All mandatory field have a default value.

3. XForms engine improvements

• Refresh events. We massively improved XForms refresh events (currently on the development branch). The wiki contains a description of these changes.

• Id resolution algorithm. Proper id resolution within repeats per XForms 1.1 is in!

• XBL id and XPath resolution. We have implemented (currently on the development branch) much improved handling of identifiers and XPath context within XBL components.

• XForms variables improvements and documentation. We added the nested xxforms:sequence element and improved the documentation on XForms variables.

• Date picker navigation. The date picker for input bound to nodes of types xs:date/xs:dateTime now provides previous/next year navigation.

• Improved controls HTML layout. We made good progress on improved HTML layout for XForms controls.

• Finer-grained logging. We made changes to allow for finer-grained XForms logging. See the documentation on the wiki.

4. Orbeon Forms tips

• Page Flow navigation example. See the updated xforms-wizard-pfc for an example of how to pass XML from one page to the next (no session, no mess).

• Event dispatch. How to dispatch events to all iterations of repeated controls.

• Lists depending on checkboxes. How to implement a list depending on checkbox items. See also the screenshot.

• Toggle with a dropdown. How to implement toggling between cases using a dropdown list.

• CSS inline blocks. We have a write-up on the Wiki on how to get CSS's inline-block to work as you would expect. (Not Orbeon Forms specific.)

5. Cool links from Balisage

• XForms and Genericode at NARA. See the blog post and the proceedings from Balisage.

• You Pull, I’ll Push: on the Polarity of Pipelines. If you are technical, this is a must-read paper about XML pipelines by Mike Kay.

That’s it for today. Enjoy!

The state of Orbeon Forms, Part 5

Here is a summary of the Orbeon Forms developments for June/July 2009:

1. Form Builder and Form Runner

• Documentation. The Form Builder user documentation is now available in English and in French.

• Proxying with PHP. We just addressed an issue with PHP-based proxies (e.g. TYPO3), where checkboxes wouldn't work in noscript mode.

2. XForms engine improvements

• Large page JavaScript initialization (performance). We implemented two optimizations (here and here) on the client-side.

• Type annotations. XForms type annotations are now optionally available to XPath 2.0 expressions.

• Calendar view. You now have properties to control the calendar two-month and navigator views independently.

• FusionCharts component. We have a new XBL component you can uase to easily embed FusionCharts in your forms.

• Accordion menu events. The accordion menu now supports new events so you can dynamically open and close accordion "drawers".

• Funny value update bug. We fixed a bug where updates to form fields were ignored. This was a corner case but it still feels good!

3. Submissions

• Targetref attribute. We implemented XForms the 1.1 xforms:submission targetref attribute for instance subtree replacement.

• Instance cache (performance). Orbeon Forms now support cacheable read-write external XForms instances (it already supported read-only ones). It also supports caching with POST and PUT.

• HTTP state. Orbeon Forms has now better control on how server-side HTTP connections (e.g. xforms:submission) handle state.

• Asynchronous submissions. We now have improved support for XForms 1.1 asynchronous submissions.

4. IT

• GitHub. The Orbeon Forms source has just migrated to github! Please do not use the old CVS repository anymore.

• TeamCity. Our nightly build system now uses TeamCity. It pushes the nightly builds to the same place as before.

5. Misc

• XPL engine memory improvements. The pipeline engine now frees temporary memory earlier than before with tees and p:for-each.

• Themes. We now have easy per-application themes! Just put the theme stylesheet under an app's folder and it will be picked up.

• Building with Java 6. Unit tests now pass with Java 6. There were some issues related to the ordering of items in maps.

• eXist upgrade. We upgraded to eXist 1.2.6.

• IE6/7 tip. How to deal with IE6/7 bug where overflow:hidden is ineffective when containing a position:relative.

• XForms 1.1 status. W3C Forms Working Group just requested advancement of XForms 1.1 to W3C Proposed Recommendation.

• XForms future features. Preliminary list of extensions we would like to see standardized in a future version of XForms.

That's it for today. Enjoy!

The state of Orbeon Forms, Part 4

Here is a summary of the Orbeon Forms developments for April/May 2009:

1. Orbeon Forms release

• 3.7.1 is out. That's right, we have released Orbeon Forms 3.7.1!

• New Orbeon Forms flyer. Check the PDF here.

2. Form Builder and Form Runner

• Improved Form Builder layout. Form Builder now uses a top/left/bottom/center layout and has better WYSIWYG support.

• Form Builder toolbox. Controls are now grouped better and their configuration in groups is more flexible.

• Form Runner summary page improvements. The summary page includes checkboxes for document selection. You simply click on a document to open it.

• Form Runner TYPO3 extension. The TYPO3 extension for Form Runner is now available on typo3.org.

• Documentation. We are actively working on the Form Builder User Guide!

3. XForms engine improvements

• HTML area control. It now does server-side HTML cleanup which improves security and avoids tag soup HTML.

• Date control. The date parsing algorithm to convert a two-digits year into a full year is improved. There is now a property to setup the date picker to show two months at a time. Finally, <xforms:input> bound to an xs:date or xs:dateTime now supports entering dates in the European format.

• Sorting. exforms:sort() now properly supports XForms XPath functions and variables within the sorting expression.

• "In-place input" XBL component. This new XBL component can be used like a regular input simply by writing <fr:inplace-input> instead of <xforms:input>. See how the component is written.

• XBL support. We added xbl:handler, xbl:implementation, fixed bugs, and improved the documentation.

4. XForms tips from our scratchpad

• Master-detail. Simple example of master-detail view working with latest builds.

• Password strength checker. Simple example of a password strength checker. It looks like this.

5. Testing

• Client-side tests. See all the client-side unit tests run in this screencast. It uses the great YUI Test framework.

• More and better tests. We have more client- and server-side unit tests, and all client-side unit tests are running on IE6 as well!

That's it for today. Enjoy!

Announcing Orbeon Forms 3.7.1

We are glad to announce that Orbeon Forms 3.7.1 is now available for download.

Orbeon Forms 3.7.1 includes over 400 improvements since version 3.6, notably:

• New Form Builder preview. Orbeon Form Builder is the visual form designer which allows you to build and deploy forms in minutes right from your web browser.
• Form Runner. Form Runner is the Orbeon Forms runtime environment, which manages form definitions and form data, handles search, validation, and takes care of the plumbing necessary to capture, save, import and export form data.
• Noscript mode. The "noscript mode" provides enhanced accessibility for certain screen readers and allows you to target browser that have JavaScript disabled.
• Enhanced user interface controls. Improvements include reusable components based on XBL 2, improved date and time controls, and much more.
• Enhanced XForms 1.1 support. Standards matter to us and we continue to improve our support for the XForms 1.1 specification.
• Bug-fixes, performance, and stability improvements. As always, we are working hard on making Orbeon Forms a robust platform!

For more details on these changes and more, please see the full list of changes.

Also visit our online examples, which include the preview of Orbeon Forms Builder.

Please report problems with this build to the mailing-list.

Come see us at JavaOne 2009

Orbeon will be at JavaOne this week on the OW2 booth.

We will be demoing Orbeon Form Builder and Form Runner so don't miss us!