A load of Orbeon Forms enhancements

Wow, it's been a month since our last post in this blog, and one of the reasons for this is that we have been very busy enhancing Orbeon Forms! Here is a quick list of the most notable additions:

• XPath variables. XPath variables can be used within controls, models and actions, with the xxforms:variable (or exforms:variable) element. Variables are extremely useful, for example to avoid repeating long XPath expressions, or to give an XPath expression unambiguous access to data computed in enclosing xforms:group or xforms:repeat elements. If you are familiar with XSLT variables, you will feel right at home. And once you start using them, you won't be able to go back!

• XML Schema validation improvements. Inline XML Schema support is now implemented. This allows you to embed XML Schema directly within the xforms:model element. This is particularly useful when you create a new schema which is just used within an XForms document, or to define a series of simple types used for validation. We have also added support for the xsi:type attribute in XForms instances. This is a convenient shortcut which allows you to avoid using binds just to specify types.

• Attribute Value Templates (AVTs) on XHTML elements. In Orbeon Forms, AVTs were already supported on some XForms elements, but you can now use AVTs on XHTML elements as well. This allows you to use XForms to influence aspects of XHTML such as class, style or colspan attributes, and all this without script.

• Action context enhancements. We added the exforms:iterate attribute, XForms 1.1 context() function, and a generalized context attribute on XForms elements (which may appear in XForms 1.2).

• Events enhancements. We now have full support for ev:observer and ev:target attributes on action handlers. We also added support for lists of event names, observers, and targets (an extension which we hope will be available in XML Events 2, currently in Working Draft at W3C). Finally, you can now pass context information to custom events with the extension xxforms:contex child element of actions such as xforms:dispatch or xforms:event.

• Image handling. xforms:output supports displaying images when used with xs:anyURI or xs:base64Binary datatypes and an image mediatype, as per XForms 1.1. It has never been easier to upload and display images from XForms!

• XPath extension functions. We added XPath functions to access headers and request parameters directly from XForms (xxforms:get-request-parameter() and xxforms:get-request-header()), as well as extension functions to create elements and attributes by name (xxforms:element() and xxforms:attribute()).

• Submissions. Submissions allow PUT and POST of binary content directly from XForms. This makes it very easy to upload a binary file using xforms:upload and then send it out to a service through xforms:submission.

For more information, check the temporary list of changes for the upcoming Orbeon Forms 3.7! We already have over one hundred enhancements implemented since version 3.6.