Forms/document-editing application

[Rick Wayne <fe...@wisc.edu>]

Hello again all,

I went looking for an answer to this one in the archives but didn't find
it; closest was the thread "Create new form model for later binding"
from earlier this month.

I have what is essentially a document-management application. The user
selects a document from a list of templates, is presented with a form,
fills info into the form, and saves it away. Later, when they want to
view or edit the thing, they get the same document back. (For example,
if we decide to change the wording on one of the prompts, or delete an
item, the user's old documents should not change a whit.)

Normally one would differentiate the "form" (the skeleton of the
document) from the "data" (what goes into the blanks); in this instance,
we're interested in giving the user the illusion of having a paper form,
immutable except when they go and edit it; its eventual fate will be to
be printed out and filed away on paper.

So I'm noodling with the idea of having the whole thing get
instantiated, edited, saved, re-presented, edited...all in a piece,
prompts and user-entered data and all. I know that I can use XMLDB to
store the documents; what I'm not so sure about is whether Cocoon CForms
can handle things the way I want.

Any suggestions?

TIA,
-- 
rw

Zoë: Captain'll come up with a plan.
Kaylee: Well, that's good... right?
Zoë: Possibly you're not recalling some of his previous plans.