Thread: [Xsltforms-support] select1 behaviour

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Hello,

I have a couple of questions regarding the behaviour of select1 xforms 
controls. I'd appreciate it if someone could fill me in on what they 
should and should not be able to do.

The following is a test case:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?xml-stylesheet href="forms/xsltforms/xsltforms.xsl" type="text/xsl"?>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
    xmlns:xf="http://www.w3.org/2002/xforms"
    xmlns:ev="http://www.w3.org/2001/xml-events"
    xmlns:aatams="http://www.imos.org.au/aatams"
    xmlns:wfs="http://www.opengis.net/wfs"
    xmlns:ogc="http://www.opengis.net/ogc"
    xmlns:ows="http://www.opengis.net/ows"
    xmlns:gml="http://www.opengis.net/gml" >
    <head>
        <xf:model id="m1">
            <xf:instance id="template">
                   <wfs:Insert>
                       <wfs:FeatureCollection>
                            <gml:featureMember>
                                <aatams:device>
                                    <aatams:name/>
                                    <aatams:device_type_ref>
                                        <aatams:device_type 
gml:id="aatams.device_type.2">

<aatams:name>TRANSMITTER</aatams:name>
                                        </aatams:device_type>
                                    </aatams:device_type_ref>
                              </aatams:device>
                          </gml:featureMember>
                      </wfs:FeatureCollection>
                   </wfs:Insert>
            </xf:instance>
            <xf:instance id="types" >
                 <wfs:FeatureCollection>
                     <gml:featureMember>
                         <aatams:device_type gml:id="aatams.device_type.1">
                             <aatams:name>RECEIVER</aatams:name>       
                         </aatams:device_type>
                     </gml:featureMember>
                     <gml:featureMember>
                         <aatams:device_type gml:id="aatams.device_type.2">
                             <aatams:name>TRANSMITTER</aatams:name>
                         </aatams:device_type>
                     </gml:featureMember>
                 </wfs:FeatureCollection>
            </xf:instance>
        </xf:model>
    </head>
    <body>
        <xf:group ref="instance('template')//aatams:device">
            <xf:input ref="aatams:name" >
                <xf:label>Device Name:</xf:label>
            </xf:input>
            <br/>
            <xf:select1 ref="aatams:device_type_ref/aatams:device_type">
                <xf:label>Device Type: </xf:label>
                <xf:itemset 
nodeset="instance('types')/gml:featureMember/aatams:device_type">
                    <xf:value ref="." />
                    <xf:label ref="aatams:name" />
                </xf:itemset>
            </xf:select1>
        </xf:group>
        <br/>
        <xf:output 
ref="instance('template')//aatams:device/aatams:device_type_ref/aatams:device_type/aatams:name" 
 >
                <xf:label>Device Type Name:</xf:label>
        </xf:output>
        <div id="console" style="display:block;top:100px;" />
    </body>
</html>

My aim is to replace the aatams:device_type node in the 'template' 
instance with another aatams:device_type (node and children ) selected 
by the user in the xf:select1 control. However this test case doesn't 
work, the xf:output does not change its value. The xf:select1 control by 
the Xforms standard has a "single-node-binding", it seems that by this 
the standard actually means a single text node or an attribute if the 
above test does not work.

This is an important question as being not being able to replace a 
complex node in an instance complicates matter considerably.  At the 
moment I am forced to build an instance at the time of submission using 
the  ids of all the complex elements that the user has selected and 
which have been saved into another instance via bindings. This is not 
the correct way to be doing this I'm sure as it now prevents me from 
doing other things, like using templates, saving partly completed forms 
and retrieving them later, and creating new complex sub-elements.

Particularly when you consider another issue as follows:

If the nodes in nodeset that is used in the xf:select1 are more complex 
than the above example (which is nearly all the time for me) then it 
would be very desirable to be able to include a more complex 'compound' 
value in the xf:label of the xf:itemset. Here is an example.

I have a list of receiver deployments. I want the user to be able to 
select a deployment from a list. The only way the user can tell which 
deployment is the correct one is to know 'where', 'what' and 'when', so 
the label needs to be a concatenation of three elements from each 
itemset node; where the deployment occurred (a 'station' name), what was 
deployed ( a receiver 'code-name') and the date of deployment. To get 
these three values strung together I currently have to have a view in my 
database that does the concatenation and use this extra 'feature' 
published as xml by my webservice to build my nodeset and then based on 
the xf:value value of the node selected by the user  in the select1 
itemlist, find the correct aatams:receiver_deployment 'single-node' and 
stick it into the template.

So to clarify my ideal nodeset would be something like

                <xf:itemset 
nodeset="instance('deployments')/gml:featureMember/aatams:receiver_deployment">
                    <xf:value ref="." />
                    <xf:label 
ref="concatenate(aatams:installation/aatams:station/aatams:name,'-',aatams:receiver/aatams:code_name,'-',aatams:deployment_date 
)">
                </xf:itemset>

It would also be good to be able to sort the nodeset as well, in the 
same manner as XSLT perhaps.

So hopefully from these two examples I have shown that what should be 
very simple has become quite complicated and definitely not what Xforms 
is supposed to be about!

Thanks for your interest.

-- 
Regards

Stephen Cameron

Data Programmer
Integrated Marine Observing System  (IMOS)
eMarine Information Infrastructure Project
University of Tasmania, Private Bag 21, Hobart, TAS 7001, Australia

Tel: +61 3 6226 8507
Fax: +61 3 6226 2997
Email: ste...@ut...
URL: http://www.imos.org.au/eM                .html

Thread: [Xsltforms-support] select1 behaviour

xsltforms-support