Mittwoch April 13, 2005

Just switch! - XML Form Documents in StarOffice 8
From some recent feedback I got the impression that many people are interested in the XForms technology. Therefore, I decided to do some kind of little tutorial about the XForms support in StarOffice 8 here in my blog.

Today I will start with a very simple form that I will try to enhance and extend in some of my future blog entries. In order to use a real life scenario for my demo, I decided to implement an expense report form. Hopefully at some point I even will be able to add a little backend system that processes the form data.

A new XML form document can be created via "File - New - XML Form Document":



In order to have all important tools easily accesible, one first should check if the right toolbars are activated. Under "View - Toolsbars" the first two "Form" related toolbars should be selected:



In the "Form Design" toolbar the "Data Navigator" should be selected, since we will need it later:



First, we type some text and create two text boxes with the "Text Box" tool:



Next, we select a text box and open the "Control ..." menu via right-click:



Now we set the name and the tab order for the first text box:



Then we pick the automatically created default XML data model "Model 1" and type in an arbitrary name for the binding expression:



Next, we perform the same steps for the second text box ...



... including the model and the binding:



Now we will use the Data Navigator that I mentioned earlier. Under the "Bindings" tab our defined bindings should be visible and the default model should be listed in the combo box on the left side of the "Models" button. If the default model "Model 1" is not listed, just deactivate and activate the Data Navigator one time (this is/was a bug). In the Data Navigator pick a binding, do a right-click and select edit:



In this dialog we can define that our fields are mandatory/required:



Now, we toggle between the design and run mode to test the form.



The red frame and the error message indicate that the fields are mandatory and have to be filled out:



Since we want to be able to do something with the data from the form, we need to add a "Submission". Thus, we toggle back to the design mode, go to the Data Navigator again and click on the "Add Submission" button:



Next we fill out the "Add Submission" dialog as shown below. In this simple case we just save the data to a file:



Once the submission has been created one can just select the submission item in the Data Navigator and do a "drag and drop" onto the document. This automatically creates a submission button:



Now, we can switch to the run/test mode again and press the button to save the form data to a file. The output looks as follows:



In the future I will show how to customize the error messages and to define dependencies between fields.
( Apr 13 2005, 03:25:04 PM CEST ) Permalink Kommentare [7]

"The Larry and Linus Show: personalities vs principles?"
Interesting thoughts ...
( Apr 13 2005, 12:42:22 PM CEST ) Permalink

About open standards, reverse engineering and monopolies
Yesterday I came across this interesting article ("Linus Torvalds in bizarre attack on open source"). I think, reverse engineering is not necessary in areas where open standards are used. With open standards in place, every participant in the market place can compete on an equal level. The best implementation of an open standard will still win in the end. In a proprietary world where for example one monopoly controls everything, reverse engineering is necessary, so that other players actually get a chance to participate.

Compared to my ballroom dancing sport that would mean that a new couple or team could only compete if someone taught them how to dance. If a few teams kept the rules and the steps secret, the new couple could not participate unless it learns how to dance from just watching the others.

However, once the new couple knows how to dance and can participate it would be lame/unfair to just copy the routine of the best couple. I think once a fair competition is established, every competitor has to find its own unique niche or strategy.

Yes, OpenOffice.org had to do some reverse engineering, but it's also doing some unique things like the default XML file format, the integrated PDF export, the Flash export, the XForms support, the Java programmability, multi-platform support, etc.
( Apr 13 2005, 09:40:12 AM CEST ) Permalink

Book about Tango
In general I'm not recommending learning to dance from a book, exactly the opposite is true. However, there is a book that I like. It's called "Tango Argentino" and is written by Paul Bottomer. If you are generally familiar with the concept of ballroom dancing and Argentine tango, you should be able to learn some nice steps from the book.
( Apr 13 2005, 09:19:20 AM CEST ) Permalink

Jonathan comments on his recent GPL statements (his blog entry from Sunday)
I thought it would be useful to post Jonathan's quote about Sun's usage of the GPL here, since the news about his OSBC speech were posted to this blog as well.

"Does this mean we don't believe in the GPL? Absolutely Not. We're one of the most prolific contributors of code under a GPL license (remember, we delivered Project Looking Glass and OpenOffice under it). But a license governing the development of a productivity application used to create documents deserves fundamentally different scrutiny than a license for infrastructure to be integrated into nascent industries or economies. And understanding the difference is crucial to preserving choice and opportunity. Just as there's no one desktop for all the world to use, there is no one operating system - and critically, there's no one license for all open source software."
( Apr 13 2005, 08:26:24 AM CEST ) Permalink Kommentare [1]

"Sun Solaris fared best"
"Asked to rate the security of server operating environments against operating system related hacks and exploits, Windows Server fared worst by far. Some 58% rated Windows Server very insecure or insecure versus 13% for Linux. Sun Solaris fared best, with only 6% rating the operating system very insecure or insecure."
The full article can be found here.
( Apr 13 2005, 07:37:49 AM CEST ) Permalink

"Firefox 1.1 Scheduled For Beta End Of May"
"Besides general bug fixes, version 1.1 is to include tools for Mac users migrating from other browsers (including Apple's Safari), enhancements to Firefox's installing and managing of extensions, and improved patching procedures. In other news, the number of Firefox downloads has passed the 44 million mark."
The full article can be found here.
( Apr 13 2005, 07:33:36 AM CEST ) Permalink

"Essential Firefox extensions you should download today - part 1"
"The Mozilla Foundation's Firefox browser is without a doubt an open source software success story. One of its strengths is the active development community that works to expand and improve the browser's functionality through the development of Firefox extensions -- small applications that add functionality to Firefox. Here are a few of my favorite extensions, all tested with Firefox 1.0.1 on Windows XP and Mandrakelinux."
The full article can be found here.
( Apr 13 2005, 07:31:12 AM CEST ) Permalink