Opening the book…
Motivation
You want to compare XForms browser products and understand each systems strengths and weaknesses.
Method
We first identify key attributes of each product and justify why an attribute is relevant in a high-level comparison. We then present a table of the products with one column for each attribute.
Key Attributes of XForms Product
Product Name and Current Version
License
What type of license is being used? Common options are Commercial (with link), Apache 2.0, LGPL, GPL or other. The column should always provide a URL to the exact license.
Cost Per 10 or 100 or 1,000 or 10,000 Users
What is the typical estimated costs for this product for between 10 and 10,000 users. Assume 10 medium-complexity forms used per person per day.
Client/Server/Both
Does the product convert the XForms code into browser-specific structures (HTML/JavaScript) on the client or the server?
Browsers Supported
What browsers are supported? Common items are All, C, F, I, O, S for Chrome, FireFox, IE, Opera and Safari.
XForms 1.1 Compatibility Tests
The W3C does provide a test suite for compatibility with the 1.1 specification. These test are rerun on a periodic basis.
Currently only a subset of products are being tested. The current test results are here
Version of XForms Supported
Options would be 1.0, 1.1
Key Limitations of Current Release
Status of XForms Compatibility Test
Did this product undergo a third party test of all of the features of XForms? If so, what percentage of the test pass. Provide a link to the test results.
Comparison Table
Client Side Applications
| Product (Version) | License | Cost | Implementation | Architecture | Browsers | Test Results | Strength | Weakness | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EMC/Documentum | Commercial | See Documentum | Google Web Toolkit | Client | All | EMC Results | ||||
| Chiba (3.0.0b2) | liberal BSD and Apache 2 | free | Client DOJO with DWR | 96% Chiba Results | ||||||
| Ubiquity | Apache 2.0 | free | JavaScript | All | Test Results | Not mature | ||||
| Firefox Plugin | Open source | Free | Browser Plugin | Client | Firefox 3.5 and earlier only | [1] | Very compliant with standard | Firefox only, Limited Table Support, Limited Support, No Mac Version | Innovative Product, Ideal for quick prototyping, Fast form loads for forms that do not have long selection lists | |
| Formfaces | Commercial | JScript and HTML - No plugin required | Client | Very slow load times for medium forms, No large user base | No updates to product since 2007 | |||||
| XSLTForms | LGPL | Free | XSLT Tranformation | Client or Server | All | Transform works on either server or client, Bundled with eXist and MarkLogic | Not yet mature | See XRX Wikibook | ||
| Picoforms | Commercial | See Picoforms | IE Plugin | Client | Internet Explorer Only | Ideal for internal forms for IE only sites | Support not clear, Required Admin rights to install Limited Community Support |
Server-Side Applications
(No XForms elements are sent to the client)
| Product (Version) | License | Cost | Implementation | Architecture | Browsers | Test Results | Strength | Weakness | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| XSLTForms | LGPL | Free | XSLT Tranformation | Client or Server | All | Bundled with eXist and MarkLogic | Not yet mature | ||
| Orbeon Forms | Open source | Free | Server-side transforms | Server | All | Very Mature, Many Extensions, Excellent Support, Active Community | Many examples require Orbeon Pipeline Language | ||
| BetterFORM | BSD, Apache 2 | Free | Server-side transforms all written in Java | Server | All | Test Results | Very Mature, bundled with eXist, support for subforms, commercial support, active community, comes with graphical installer | successor of Chiba Project | |
| IBM Lotus Forms | Commercial | See IBM | Server-side transform | Server | All | Full Implementation, Very Mature, IBM Supported | Price. Proprietary markup. |
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