What are you using for form handling?

[Barzilai Spinak <ba...@internet.com.uy>]

 "On how to hit a moving target"  by Barcho

Hi, I'd like to know what people are really using for form handling.

Abstract:
We were in the middle of a project using XMLForms and it was killed, so 
we started porting to JXForms which was
still-born (see below). Woody is in a fetal state and a port to Woody is 
not so trivial as XMLForms --> JXForms.
What should real people with real projects do?


We had an (apparently) working framework which was XMLForms and a couple 
of months ago it was deprecated in favor
of JXForms. All this happened with minor discussion (at least on the dev 
list for which I've been reading all messages).
All this would be very fine if JXForms actually worked.  Lately there 
have been a few messages by me and others
concerning problems with  JXforms: (for example)

http://nagoya.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=23452
http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=xml-cocoon-dev&m=106309010927746&w=2
http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=xml-cocoon-dev&m=105794535504709&w=2


It all started with the lack of an equivalent to xf:selectBoolean but 
now I've realized that -- at least -- chekcbox handling
is *broken* when all the related checkboxes in a form are unchecked.
Go ahead and try it!!  Go to the /cocoon/samples/jxforms/wizard/  and 
try to uncheck ALL "hobbies", or ALL  "professional roles"
Now go back with the "Prev" button and you'll see them still checked. 
 This is not a problem with the wizard sample, but rather
a problem in JXForms not handling  "expected" but "not submitted" 
 parameters like XMLForms used to do.
So far I have found a "we-dont-talk-about-that-in-here" attitude with 
respect to the whole subject.

And then we have Woody which seems to be theloved child at the moment. 
But how usable is it?  I haven't looked at it.
I may give it a chance if someone tells me "XMLForms is dead, long live 
JXForms is dead, long live Woody!!"


We should have *at least one*  forms framework that works.

BarZ




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Re: What are you using for form handling?

[Sylvain Wallez <sy...@anyware-tech.com>]

Barzilai Spinak wrote:

> "On how to hit a moving target"  by Barcho
>
> Hi, I'd like to know what people are really using for form handling.
>
> Abstract:
> We were in the middle of a project using XMLForms and it was killed, 
> so we started porting to JXForms which was still-born (see below). 
> Woody is in a fetal state and a port to Woody is not so trivial as 
> XMLForms --> JXForms.
> What should real people with real projects do? 


I use Woody on a real project. But this should be considered as a 
particular case, as I add new features to Woody as part of this project, 
which helps it maturing quickly.

<snip/>

> And then we have Woody which seems to be the loved child at the 
> moment. But how usable is it?  I haven't looked at it. I may give it a 
> chance if someone tells me "XMLForms is dead, long live JXForms is 
> dead, long live Woody!!" 


I tell you that XMLForm is dead, JXForms is nearly dead (it's basically 
the same as XMLForm except that the transformer has been rewritten), and 
long live Woody!! Now you can go ahead and look at the samples ;-)

Read more about the reasons for this at 
http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=xml-cocoon-dev&m=105881304808076&w=2

> We should have *at least one*  forms framework that works. 


This is and will be Woody.

It is already more featured than XMLForm/JXForms, except that it 
currently doesn't support wizards, and that some changes are likely to 
occur in its API. Not radical changes, but changes that require some 
minor work in existing code. You should be clearly warned of this before 
making a choice, but it's definitely the Cocoon from framework that will 
last.

Sylvain

-- 
Sylvain Wallez                                  Anyware Technologies
http://www.apache.org/~sylvain           http://www.anyware-tech.com
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