Hi Evert and Simon (and list),
The following is something that will affect the course of our project
and I'd like to get your advise on this:
Currently when we build our XForms editor, we do it in 2 steps (from a
MVC point of view):
1) Create the controls (input fields, etc) for each possible field,
based on a filled template document. They will determine the 'view': the
looks of the form on the screen.
2) Create the 'Model': load the metadatadocument (is a GN representation
of it) and all other instances (snippets (static now), labels and help)
and rules.
We have a challenge with step 1: our form will only show fields that are
present in the filled template document that we base our form on. Any
field that is not in there will not be visible in our end form.
This has advantages and disadvantages:
Advantage: the template document acts as a configuration document for
the form and the owner (Evert) has full control over what to show and
what not. Creating a different form for a different group of users only
requires a new document template to be made.
Disadvantage: every possible field that you want the form to be able to
show (deep into the GML bit even) you need to fill in the template form
(and then also: only once). That can be quite a lot of work.
Does such a fully filled template exist at all (for testing purposes
maybe)? If so, could you point us to where we can find it?
Is this approach acceptable for a first phase?
We can also go down a more difficult path and that is to make the XForm
more generic. This might be possible (not sure), but has the risk of
putting more 'smartness' in the XForm and therefore maybe slowing it
down. The customisation (by Evert) would then be at the level of the
XForms instead of the template document. This option will definitely
slow down the project but has advantages as well.
We'd like to hear your opinions on this ASAP.
Thanks, Roald
--
Roald de Wit
Software Engineer
roald.dewit@anonymised.com
Commercial Support for Open Source GIS Software
http://lisasoft.com/LISAsoft/SupportedProducts/