Abstract. Web archive 2008

“XForms” is W3C’s name for a specification of Web forms that can be used with a wide variety of platforms including desktop computers, hand helds, information appliances, and even paper. XForms started life as a subgroup of the HTML Working Group, but has now been spun off as an independent Activity.

Documents

Check out the latest documents:

XForms 1.1

• XForms 1.1 Requirements (W3C Working Group Note)
• XForms 1.1 Last Call Working Draft

Spring Into HTML and CSS

by Molly E. Holzschlag (Author)

XForms 1.0

• XForms 1.0 (Second Edition) Recommendation
• Original XForms 1.0 Recommendation (Now superceded)
• XForms 1.0 Basic Profile, now a W3C Candidate Recommendation
• Testimonials for W3C’s XForms 1.0 Recommendation
• XForms 1.0 Second Edition Test Suite
• Implementation report
• XForms 1.0 Requirements (04 April 2001).

Supporting Documents

• XForms 1.0 Frequently Asked Questions
• Tutorial - XForms for HTML Authors: Part 1 and XForms for HTML Authors: Part 2
• XForms Quick Reference
• XHTML to XForms Converter (in XSLT)
• XForms Test Suite

Let us know what you think by joining the Forms community technical discussion mailing list.

What Are XForms?

Traditional HTML Web forms don’t separate the purpose from the presentation of a form. XForms, in contrast, are comprised of separate sections that describe what the form does, and how the form looks. This allows for flexible presentation options, including classic XHTML forms, to be attached to an XML form definition.

The following illustrates how a single device-independent XML form definition, called the XForms Model, has the capability to work with a variety of standard or proprietary user interfaces:

XForms Implementations

These implementations have been reported to us; W3C has not tested them to see to what extent they properly implement XForms. You should do your own evaluation of their suitability.

The XForms 1.0 Public Test Suite is available on the W3C site. If you are aware of an implementation not listed here, please let us know.

Mozilla XForms project

Mozilla XForms project is implementing XForms 1.0 in Mozilla (see announcement).

FormsPlayer

formsPlayer, an XForms processor plug-in for Internet Explorer 6 allows the full range of XForms features to be added to XHTML pages.

PicoForms

PicoForms XForms browser is a small-footprint extensible browser engine supporting XHTML, CSS and XForms written in Java thus allowing it to run on most Java-enabled devices.

Orbeon Forms

Orbeon Forms (formerly Orbeon PresentationServer) is an open source forms solution that handles the complexity of forms typical of the enterprise or government. It is delivered to standard web browsers thanks to XForms and Ajax technology, with no need for client-side software or plugins. Orbeon Forms allows you to build fully interactive forms with features that include as-you-type validation, optional and repeated sections, always up-to-date error summaries, PDF output, full internationalization, and controls like auto-completion, tabs, dialogs, trees and menus.

FormFaces

FormFaces is a pure JavaScript solution. This means that XForms+HTML can be sent directly to the browser where JavaScript transcodes the XForms controls to HTML form controls and processes the bindings directly within the browser - requiring ZERO server-side processing (common solution across disparate frameworks such as Java and .Net) and ZERO plug-ins (cross-browser compliance, including Opera).

X-Smiles

A Java-based XML browser from Helsinki University of Technology. It provides support for the XForms 1.0 Recommendation and uses XForms together with XHTML, SMIL, SVG or XSL-FO on the user interface side. It also supports XSLT, ECMAScript and more.

Sun OpenOffice/StarOffice

XForms is being integrated into OpenOffice/StarOffice.

IBM Workplace Forms

The IBM Workplace Forms product line supports development and deployment of XForms-based pure XML forms. Trial versions are available, including an Eclipse-based visual design environment as well as a rich-client viewer (a desktop application and web browser plugin). The product suite includes a server component that delivers the form viewing and rich user experience with no client-side install. Forms can be developed in 26 languages.

IBM XML Forms Generator

The XML Forms Generator Eclipse plug-in generates functional forms with XForms mark-up embedded within an XHTML document, using an XML data instance (optionally backed by XML Schema and/or Schematron) or a WSDL document as the source. A free download.

IBM Visual XForms Designer

The Visual XForms Designer Eclipse plug-in is a visual design environment for creating XForms documents. A free download.

ActiveGrid

Includes an XForms implementation and editor as part of its software.

AJAXForms

Transforms XForms documents into HTML+Javascript. Open source.

Cordys

Cordys includes a server-side implementation of XForms and an XForms editor as part of their product line.

eXforms

XForms provides a great deal of functionality, but sometimes an extension will solve an immediate problem that falls outside the scope of the current Recommendation. exforms.org provides a set of specification for extending an XForms processor in a uniform way.

DataMovil

DataMovil is a platform for the development of PDA (Windows Mobile) applications. It is based on XForms 1.0. It is composed of a client, a server and an edition tool. The client implements around 80% of the standard and a presentation engine completely separated from the XForms part of the documents, providing for the first time of a clean data-logic-presentation separation. The editor allows for graphically developing and previewing applications. The server controls application versions, user authentication and other functions.

Oracle

A preview release of Oracle’s XForms processor PlugIn for Internet Explorer 6 on Win2000/WinXP. A User’s Guide, Datasheet and several samples are provided with the preview release install.

LiquidOffice

Cardiff has released support for both XML form definition and XML data interchange within the LiquidOffice eForm Management System.

XFormation

An XForms editor, incorporating formsPlayer 1.0, that provides the ability to rapidly design, develop, manage and debug XForms. Can automatically generate an XForm from an XML Schema.

Mozquito DENG

DENG is a Modular XML Browser, capable of rendering subsets of XForms, SVG, XHTML, arbitrary XML with CSS (e.g. RSS), XFrames and any other custom XML namespace.

Advantys

WorkflowGen solution now supports XForms technology from W3C. It is now possible to mix PDF forms and XForms forms in a single workflow.

Chiba project

SourceForge provides an implementation of the W3C XForms standard, thereby delivering generic, xml-based form-processing for the web.

NMatrix

a project to implement a matrix of standards implementations, ranging from DOM3, XmlEvents, XForms, etc.

AchieveForms

AchieveForms from Business Web Software is a server-based XForms designer with a web browser interface that can output forms as XForms and can process completed forms from an XForms browser to email recipients, databases, and forward XML files of completed form data.