XForms Essentials

The Revenge of the Simple Syntax

The XForms “simple syntax” mentioned earlier served a worthy purpose: to make authors of existing HTML forms comfortable enough to consider making the jump to XForms. So, when the “simple syntax” went away, what replaced it? Literally nothing. Instead of trying to simplify form authoring by adding an additional layer of markup, the designers made XForms remain useful when removing a layer of markup. This extra layer is what needs to be written for the XForms Model, which can be safely omitted in forms of roughly the same complexity as an HTML form with no script. Unofficially, this became known as “lazy author” processing, in deference to the time-honored concept in software engineering of “constructive laziness,” or the ability to recognize and actively bypass unnecessary work.

Example 1-14 shows a form that accomplishes the same goals as the earlier HTML form: a poll.

Example 1-14. A poll form implemented in XForms,"lazy author” style

<select1 ref="mainsel" appearance="radio" selection="open">
  <label>Poll: to be or not to be?</label>
   <item>
    <label>To Be</label>
    <value>b</value>
  </item>
  <item>
    <label>Not To Be</label>
    <value>n</value>
  </item>
</select1>

Note that no specific choice is needed for an “Other, please specify” selection, since XForms supports the concept of “open selection” lists, where the user is allowed to freely enter additional list values.

Additionally, to make the form submittable, a small bit of markup is required in the head section ...