The Ubiquity XForms processor allows developers to use XForms markup to create interactive web applications. Ubiquity XForms adds new APIs leveraging a number of popular AJAX libraries, making XForms processing available in standard web browsers, without the need for a download.
Since the last release (0.6.2), the team has worked to resolve some 220 issues and worked towards better XForms 1.1 conformance. Here are the implementation reports for Firefox 3 and Internet Explorer 7.
Here is a slightly abridged version of the 0.7.0 release notes:
Ubiquity XForms 0.7.0 Release Notes
Notable Changes
* Roll-up: Ubiquity XForms roll-ups can now be built, packaging the entire library in one JavaScript file.
* XForms 1.1 submission: Support for many more xf:submission features, including the xf:header element.
* Validation: Ubiquity XForms now supports validation against the XForms predefined datatypes.
* Function extension: JavaScript function extension mechanism to define JavaScript functions that can be called in form XPaths.
* New map controls: Adding maps to your forms as easy as placing a CSS class value on an xf:output or xf:range.
New features
* Conditional action handlers are now available via @if;
* Messages can be displayed using xf:message;
* More XPath functions have been implemented, such as context(), event() and id();
* The xf:repeat start index (@start) is now taken into account;
* The xf:toggle and xf:setindex action handlers have been added;
* The xf:method child of xf:submission is now supported;
* There is SOAP support on POST submissions;
* Support for some of the semantics of XForms in HTML has been added;
* @incremental is now working for xf:input, xf:secret, xf:textarea and xf:range;
* SHA-256 support has been added to the hmac() and digest() XPath functions;
* File writing is available, by using the file: scheme and the PUT method in submission;
* File reading is also available, by using the file: scheme and the GET method in submission;
* More control over how a user navigates a form is available via@navindex and @accesskey;
* xf:input's that bind to boolean data will now render as a check-box.
Test system improvements
* Hands-free execution of unit tests;
* W3C Test Suite now uses the Selenium Test Harness;
* There are more Selenium user extensions for XForms-specific testing;
* A Buildbot server has been setup for automated testing and results generation.
Other changes
* Improvements to form controls, such as xf:range, xf:select and xf:select1 controls;
* Improvements to xf:repeat;
* Improvements to action handlers, such as xf:insert, xf:delete and xf:load;
* Improvements to resource handling in submission, via xf:resource;
* Improvements to messaging, via xf:hint and xf:alert;
* Improvements to the processing model and the events generated;
* Improvements in MIP handling;
* Lazy-authoring improvements;
* Fixed dynamic relevance on xf:group;
* Various style improvements for form controls;
* SVN has been better organized, which means that the directory structure differs from release v0.6.2.
For more details, see the UsingTheLibrary and Release0.7 project wiki pages.
A number of samples are available, including ones that show integration with YUI widgets such as calendars and color pickers, the Google Maps API etc. Here is a screenshot of the map controls:
More detailed posts on individual features in this release coming soon.
