Re: [Xsltforms-support] XSLTForms transform function

[C. M. Sperberg-M. <cm...@bl...>]

On Oct 11, 2011, at 3:14 PM, Alain Couthures wrote:

> Hello Morgan,
> 
>> 1. My general question is: can you point me to any examples that make use of the XSLTForms transform function?
>>  
>> The only one I have been able to find is the one provided by Alain at:
>>  
>> http://www.agencexml.com/svgopen/graphs.xml

> Sorry, I have no other example yet. I'm writing a form which enables to load an XSLT stylesheet from a local file into an instance, then to apply it to another instance and, finally, to save the result locally.

Any news on this facility? It sounds like just what I had in mind for
a form I'm working on this afternoon.

> 
> The W3C Forms Working Group has not yet agreed on how the transform function should be in XForms 2.0.

If that's still true, then here are some desiderata from a potential user
(off the top of my head and not terribly well thought through):

I think that in an ideal world the form author could:

1 load a stylesheet into an instance (good!  we can do that now, so we're
already part way home!)

  <xf:instance src="foo.xsl"/>

2 apply a specified stylesheet to specified input and direct the output to a given
location; in practice some limitations may be unavoidable, but ideally I'd like

2a to specify the stylesheet either with a static URI, or with a dynamic URI,
or by referring to an instance in the model

2b to specify the input to the stylesheet by URI or by pointing into the model

2c to load the result either into a string variable or into an instance (either
augmenting or replacing the instance)

It's not currently clear to me how much of this is already possible using the
existing transform() function.  I guess I can accomplish some of what I'm 
looking for by using submit to bounce the data to the server and have it
perform the transformation, but I do not know a way to have the server
evaluate a stylesheet in an instance without a wider security hole than I am
comfortable with.

Using Javascript to perform transforms in the browser (along 
the lines described for the Mozilla XForms plugin at
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/XForms/Sorting_using_XSLT) would
not be ideal, but it would be Better Than Nothing.

Further information (on the existing transform() function, on ways to achieve
what I want on the server, or on the current state of discussion of transformation
in the XForms WG) would be welcome.

Thank you very much!

-- 
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* C. M. Sperberg-McQueen, Black Mesa Technologies LLC
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