Saturday, July 22, 2006
XForms for Firefox (1.5) version 0.6 released last week
Fortunately, Firefox has pretty good support for web standards.
So it follows Firefox would have a project going to support the most powerful - yet simplest - GUI form standard from the W3.
On the surface, the old CGI forms that have been a mainstay of HTML/HTTP powered web browsers for a dozen years are just fine. It would seem they do all you need.
But they really do not. Hence, the proliferation of more complicated, sometimes irksome technologies like:
* AJAX
* DHTML
* Flash
* Java applets
* JavaScript (or its cousin, JScript)
* VBScript
* XUL/XBL
Suddenly,
XForms was a brilliant idea someone had back in the late 1990s, when XML was quite young.
The idea was this: why not take the same MVC (model view controller) program design pattern that was so successful for creating word processors, spreadsheets, and graphics programs - and bring it to the world of data entry forms for the web?
That is exactly what XForms is. And since XML is a standard data format - with a lot of popularity as a data interchange format which enjoys lots of tool support - they chose XML as the format for exchanging the data between the client and the server.
The standard has been approved for years now.
All that remains is to put it into the browsers. And that is just what the Mozilla group is doing, with some financial and manpower support from IBM.
The XForms for Firefox author is Doron Rosenberg. He has also written a Gmail Notifier.
Mozilla XForms :: Mozilla Add-ons :: Add Features to Mozilla Software:
It seems like XForms is steadily closing on its goal of a final release soon. For the past year, every several months they have come out with a new point release.
XForms lets web page designers look forward to creating really nice-looking, smoothly operating forms without all the craziness that JavaScript/JScript/VBScript introduce.
No more dilemmas of what scripting language to use, whether to use Java applets or Flash or Shockwave. Fewer headaches for IT managers, more devices supported automagically for mobile/computer users.
Since XForms fully supports CSS, nobody leaves the HTML party empty-handed. In fact, XForms works fine with XHTML - as well as SVG. So, people are not losing a familiar web standard - they are simply gaining a better standard for information input forms.
Fortunately, Firefox is the first player in its arena to make that happen. And since it is free and works across the major operating systems, it really is the best one for the job.
So it follows Firefox would have a project going to support the most powerful - yet simplest - GUI form standard from the W3.
On the surface, the old CGI forms that have been a mainstay of HTML/HTTP powered web browsers for a dozen years are just fine. It would seem they do all you need.
But they really do not. Hence, the proliferation of more complicated, sometimes irksome technologies like:
* AJAX
* DHTML
* Flash
* Java applets
* JavaScript (or its cousin, JScript)
* VBScript
* XUL/XBL
Suddenly,
good oldHTML forms do not look so good anymore - just old!
XForms was a brilliant idea someone had back in the late 1990s, when XML was quite young.
The idea was this: why not take the same MVC (model view controller) program design pattern that was so successful for creating word processors, spreadsheets, and graphics programs - and bring it to the world of data entry forms for the web?
That is exactly what XForms is. And since XML is a standard data format - with a lot of popularity as a data interchange format which enjoys lots of tool support - they chose XML as the format for exchanging the data between the client and the server.
The standard has been approved for years now.
All that remains is to put it into the browsers. And that is just what the Mozilla group is doing, with some financial and manpower support from IBM.
The XForms for Firefox author is Doron Rosenberg. He has also written a Gmail Notifier.
Mozilla XForms :: Mozilla Add-ons :: Add Features to Mozilla Software:
Mozilla XForms 0.6, by Doron Rosenberg, released on Jul 14, 2006
It seems like XForms is steadily closing on its goal of a final release soon. For the past year, every several months they have come out with a new point release.
XForms lets web page designers look forward to creating really nice-looking, smoothly operating forms without all the craziness that JavaScript/JScript/VBScript introduce.
No more dilemmas of what scripting language to use, whether to use Java applets or Flash or Shockwave. Fewer headaches for IT managers, more devices supported automagically for mobile/computer users.
Since XForms fully supports CSS, nobody leaves the HTML party empty-handed. In fact, XForms works fine with XHTML - as well as SVG. So, people are not losing a familiar web standard - they are simply gaining a better standard for information input forms.
Fortunately, Firefox is the first player in its arena to make that happen. And since it is free and works across the major operating systems, it really is the best one for the job.
Hopefully, someday I will get this page to validate!
