“Using the experimental Mozilla XForms extension, you can process XForms in your browser today. While not yet deployed widely enough for use on the public Internet, XForms may be suitable for some intranet applications. This article demonstrates basic XForms processing as currently supported by Firefox and the Mozilla XForms plug-in.”
I’ve been learning Flex lately, in order to build web-based db apps – you know, the “rich internet application” niche. It’s very good, but slightly clunky, especially the grid control.
So I’ve started investigating XForms more closely – it may be easier than flex (and both are much easier than Ajax). Xforms doesn’t have the “pretty colors and fades” of flex/flash, but those aren’t really necessary with intranet apps.
It’s good IBM is putting out a number of XForms tutorials. It seems that the Flex industry is starting to get more and more job postings, and i bet xforms is going to follow in a couple of years.
On a side note, flex and xforms must really worry Microsoft. Whereas MS tied you to Windows because all your db apps were made in Access and VB, now you get the same RICH GUI (not lame html/ajax) as VB using a cross-platform widget set. This will make it so much easier to switch OS’s – even Haiku is getting Firefox and Flash to run on their system.
“””
So I’ve started investigating XForms more closely – it may be easier than flex (and both are much easier than Ajax).
“””
You might want to try a framework that makes AJAX trivially simple.
Ruby On Rails (if you don’t mind Ruby ugliness), TurboGears (Python), or Pylons (Python).
Not sure how Django does on AJAX.
XForms seems pretty good compared to heavy server-side things like Java Server Faces; it’d be nice to see this implemented in other browsers, too, so people can actually start using it.
– chrish
Yes, XForms is nice, but companies are not going to use it if they have to install it as a plugin. If it was there by default Firefox would be a much stronger competitor to IE in the intranet market.
Yes, XForms is nice, but companies are not going to use it if they have to install it as a plugin.
2000: “Yes, Java is nice, but companies are not going to use it if they have to install it as a plugin.”
2002: “Yes, Flash is nice, but companies are not going to use it if they have to install it as a plugin.”
I apologize for ridiculing your point, but I suspect the bigger issue is deploying browser-specific engines from different vendors and continually testing compatibility. For the short term, it is a highly viable method for testing this technology before it does become integrated in browsers like Firefox (and Opera decides to stop complaining about it).