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Collecting business critical information: changing the paradigm. (XForms).

Article Excerpt
Changing the paradigm

Since their inception in 1993, HTML forms have come to be the underpinnings of user interaction on the World Wide Web. The convenience afforded by the ability to provide consistent end-user access to information and application services via a universal Web browser created a platform-independent environment for electronic commerce across the Internet. However, building on the essential simplicity of HTML forms has resulted in an extremely complex Web programming model.

Today, Web application developers are forced to work at different levels of abstraction to deliver a satisfactory end-user experience. Given the need to perform electronic transactions with a variety of different devices and user-interface modalities, the problems become even more complex. As we deploy Web access to software at all levels of complexity, ranging from business back ends to simple electronic transactions, we can better address these issues by revisiting the design of HTML forms that are the essential underpinnings of the transactional Web.

XForms 1.0 is a revision to the existing HTML forms technology developed by the W3C and builds on the advantages of XML to create a versatile forms module that can stand the Web in good stead for the next decade. XForms provides an interoperable forms solution based on XML that can significantly ease the way structured information is collected and shared across the Internet. In conjunction with XML-based Web services, XForms goes the final step in connecting end users to their business data.

Leveraging XML for Collecting Information

Business workflows are about collecting and categorizing information that starts off in semistructured documents, for example, a travel...

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