Re: [Xsltforms-support] Setting node value in javascript

[Mark S. <m_s...@ma...>]

Michael,

Thanks for the suggestion, and I take your point. 

What I really need is a custom control. My JS function just takes a value chosen by a user when they select a feature on a map (openLayers vector layer), and pops the value into an XML instance. So, logically what I have is a select1 rendered as a map with selectable features. The features are already represented as XML (gml),  rendered by openLayers as points on my map. 

So, yes, you are right, I am trying to do something with Javascript that I should be doing with just XForms!

Best wishes

Mark

On 15 Jul 2012, at 19:46, C. M. Sperberg-McQueen wrote:

> 
> On Jul 15, 2012, at 5:50 AM, Mark Seaborne wrote:
> 
>> Hi,
>> 
>> I have noticed that if I change the form so that the js function is called from an XForms control using xf:load AND I add a bind to the model, then the XForms UI updates to reflect the value change caused by the js function.
>> 
>> However, when the function is triggered elsewhere in the page, the UI is not updated, even with the bind statement in the model.
>> 
> 
> I have not yet studied any of the examples you sent, but stepping 
> back a bit, at a very high level it looks as if you are doing (or: trying 
> to do) things in Javascript that you could in theory do in XForms;
> making that work will always require that you know a lot about the
> internals of the XForms implementation.
> 
> I wonder if you would make more headway doing less in JS and
> more in XForms -- define your function as a Javascript function that
> operates solely on its arguments and calculates a result, and 
> register your function as an XPath function along the lines shown
> in http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/XSLTForms/XSLTForms_only_Extensions#User-Defined_Functions 
> -- then set the value of the node you want to update using the
> XForms setvalue action, and use XForms events to tie updates to
> the value to whatever triggering events are taking place elsewhere.
> 
> Concretely, I don't think "Javascript function f has been invoked" 
> or "... has completed execution" are events that appear in the XForms
> model.  Various user actions, changes to values on specified nodes,
> and so on are events XForms knows about and I bet you'll have more
> luck getting XSLTForms to do what you want if you pose your problem
> in terms of those elements.
> 
> Of course, if you've already got a lot of non-XForms Javascript in
> the app, this approach may seem impracticable. 
> 
> Just my two cents ...
> 
> Michael Sperberg-McQueen
> 
> -- 
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> * C. M. Sperberg-McQueen, Black Mesa Technologies LLC
> * http://www.blackmesatech.com 
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