Fight over 'forms' clouds future of Net applications

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and they can let computers keep track of what fields collect what types of information.

The W3C started releasing XForms drafts in 2000 and didn't put out a final recommendation until three years later. Analysts at the time blamed that delay on market apathy.

Today apathy is no longer the problem, as developers and vendors survey a sweeping array of technology platforms competing to build the next generation of Web-based applications. The W3C now finds XForms competing with those wide-ranging technologies.

In October, the W3C launched a working group to address Web applications with what it calls compound document formats, which include XForms. The WHAT-WG is also hammering out a draft specification dedicated to extending HTML for use with Web applications.

Worried about Microsoft
Though EdgeIPK and other developers look askance at XForms for its uncertain fit into the Internet application puzzle, browser makers still want a standards-based forms technology to help the Web steer clear of proprietary application platforms. They're particularly concerned about Microsoft's sprawling vision for Windows "Longhorn" applications built in the XML-based XAML markup language using Longhorn's Avalon graphics system. Browsers like Mozilla Firefox, Opera and Apple's Safari will be useless to access these Internet-based Windows applications.

Pinning their hopes on Web Forms 2.0, these browser makers and standards advocates worry that full implementations of XForms will require a whole new generation of browsers.

"The XForms group tried to do the right thing, but as a result they dropped backwards compatibility," said Hakon Lie, Opera's chief technology officer, that company's representative on W3C's advisory committee, and a WHAT-WG founder. "And I think that's very unfortunate, because trying to replace a few hundred million browsers is a rather hard thing to do, and I don't think XForms is 10 times better."

The idea of native support for XForms in the Web's most common browser--Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which accounts for about 90 percent of the market--is a long shot at best. Microsoft's grander Longhorn ambitions aside, the company supplies the proprietary

[Not Bugged]

Server-side validation/operation too

"With current HTML Web forms, a Web author needs scripts to do things like validate the form or add up columns as fields are filled."

These scripts can also reside on the server-side, not requiring any client-side validation whatsoever.

Server-side techniques are safer, because you don't have client-side depedencies, such as Javascript.

RE: Server-side validation/operation too

That is exactly correct, but then you have to consider the performance hit from going back and forth from client to server to client for validation. It's great for small amounts of data, but large amounts of data may cause the application to be significantly slower with server-side validation, hence a weaker user experience. I can go either way, but as a developer I'm anxious for the W3C to work this out soon.

[Ubber geek]

client-side validation

http://www.analogstereo.com/mercedes_g_class_owners_manual.htm

Open Presentation Platforms

A smart open presentation platform will address most of the issues raised. Such a platform will give you the option of server or client side or both for validation.

OPP will remove the deployment considerations for Portal, Online, Offline and RIA.

OPP will be platform neutral, allowing deployment to MS or Java.

OPP will manage the entire cycle of "forms development"

OPP will automate many programming tasks and part of the lifecycle.

www.edgeIPK.com