XForms

Abstract: A wireless telephone, personal digital assistant (PDA), smart remote control, or other Internet-enabled processing device includes a scalable electronic forms processing engine which supports a designated subset of the W3C recommended XForms standard. The designated subset may be selected for a given device based on the computational and memory capabilities of the device. Advantageously, the invention allows 'thin' devices to process electronic forms without requiring implementation of the complete W3C recommended XForms standard.

Abstract: XForms is an XML application that represents the next generation of forms for the Web. By splitting traditional XHTML forms into three parts—XForms model, instance data, and user interface—it separates presentation from content, allows reuse, gives strong typing—reducing the number of round-trips to the server, as well as offering device independence and a reduced need for scripting. XForms is not a free-standing document type, but is intended to be integrated into other markup languages, such as XHTML or SVG.

Abstract: This paper examines four XML languages for abstract user interface representation: UIML, XIML, XForms and AIAP. It discusses whether the high level architectures of these languages support the requirements of universal usability by allowing use of personal interfaces. Specific technical requirements include separation of data from presentation, explicit declarative representation of interface elements, their state, dependencies, and semantics, flexibility in inclusion of alternative resources and support for remote control and different interaction styles. Of the languages examined, XForms and AIAP provide the best match to the requirements. While XForms requires an appropriate delivery context to provide full access, the AIAP standard will include specification of the context in which the language is to be used.

Abstract: The invention discloses a method, system, server and computer program product of automatically reducing the amount of form related data, e.g. extensible markup language data, sent to a receiving terminal. In the method, a user interface description is analyzed to determine, which parts of the form related data are relevant for the receiving terminal. Based on the analysis, unnecessary parts of the form related data are pruned and the pruned form related data is sent to the receiving terminal. In one embodiment of the invention, XForms is analyzed to determine, which parts of an extensible markup language data are relevant for the receiving terminal.