RE: SGML and Forms

[Jonathan Marsh <jmarsh@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

		-----Original Message-----
		From:	Martin Bryan [mailto:mtbryan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
		Sent:	Friday, March 06, 1998 12:14 AM

		There are three things we need to do that cannot be done
with the exisring
		IE4 implementation:

		1) Locally validate entered values using sharable program
modules (e.g. is
		the entered value a valid date). For this ECMAScript would
be ideal. but
		there is no way of passing the value back to an ECMAScript
module
		(define-script) in the XSL script, it can only be processed
using JavaScript
		embedded in the form generated by the response. This is
silly. If I already
		have a module for doing this in my input reader I should be
able to use the
		same module to validate data entered into the form.
a)	I don't know why you are trying to use XSL for validation.  I would
expect either your data source (XML from a database?) to only generate valid
values, or your input mechanism (DHTML) to do validation.  XSL seems like a
generally poor place for trying to do this.
b)	A separate issue is sharing code.  XSL could easily be extended by
encapsulating the shared ECMAScript in a separate file:
		<define-script src="fancyScript.txt"/>
		<SCRIPT src="fancyScript.txt"/>
	This looks like a minor addition that would have some value, but not
a huge show-stopper in the XSL language or even in the MSXSL Preview
release.  Am I missing something or is this just a nit?
c)	XSL could eventually be implemented as a dynamic update technology -
as the source XML changes (in this case the change would be caused from
script triggered by the user input) XSL could create a minimal update of the
display (HTML).  I think this is where you would like us to be, but we just
aren't there yet.

		2) Check values against a local database/JDBC file and use
the result to
		generate outputtable data. For example, if I enter an ISBN
number in a field
		I want the associated author and title fields to be
completed automatically
		and the cursor to move to the associated quantity field. On
submission all
		of these fields would be treated as if they were manually
entered data. At
		present there seem to be problems with embedding FOR
instructions within the
		HTML output generated using XSL - for some reason this
crashes IE4. In
		addition there is no clean way of saying "load this
retrieved data into this
		field in the form".
I would be happy to look at your output to see what is going on, whether
MSXSL is crashing or IE4.  If you use the command-line utility and feed the
output into IE4, and it works, then the problem is within MSXSL.

		3) The output needs to be stored at client side, as an XML
message, before
		transmission, and then to be sent in this form to the
recipient as part of a
		later, encrypted/secure transmission. Sending electronic
commerce messages
		as plaintext CGI is just not acceptable. Sending it to a
server without
		recording what was sent at the client is also not acceptable
behaviour.
While I don't understand exactly what you are trying to do, this sounds like
you are complaining about MSXSL's lack of integration with the rest of the
system - MSXML, DHTML, JavaScript, server-side stuff.  I heartily agree.  We
have plans to make MSXSL easier to integrate into a web-application.  Thus
each component can be targeted narrowly and optimized toward solving
particular problems.


Jonathan Marsh
phone   425.703.4591
 <mailto:jmarsh@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> jmarsh@xxxxxxxxxxxxx



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