feature request for enhanced OOo input fields: some suggestions fordiscussion

[Oliver-Rainer Wittmann - Software Engineer - Sun Microsystems<Oliver-Rainer.Wittmann@Sun.COM>]

Dear TC members,

in the last TC call - see the corresponding meeting minutes - we agreed 
on the use-case for the feature request for enhanced OOo input fields - 
see http://www.oasis-open.org/archives/office/200710/msg00120.html

According to the action item given to me in the last TC call, I want to 
provide some suggestions for the discussion in order to find a solution 
how this feature request can be modeled in ODF. In the following I will 
call the object, which should represent this feature "enhanced OOo input 
field". It's only a name, which points to the use-case we agreed on. 
When we have found the solution, then it is the time to choose an 
appropriate name for it

suggestions:
(1) usage of <text:meta-field> - a suggestion from Florian and others, 
which has been already discussed on the TC mailing list:
usage of <text:meta-field> with the change, that the content of 
<text:meta-field> can contain be usual text-content (paragraphs, 
heading, tables, lists, etc.). The <text:meta-field> would represent an 
"enhanced OOo input field".
Please refer to the previous discussion on the mailing list for details 
on this suggestions.


(2) usage of new start and end tags:
   <text:p>Special interests:
     <text:NEW-TEXT-INPUT-START/>
     <text:span text:style-name="BoldTextStyle>hobbies:</text:span>
   </text:p>
   <text:list>
     <text:list-item>
       <text:p>german soccer league</text:p>
     </text:list-item>
     ...
   </text:list>
   <text:p><bold>programming languages:</bold></paragraph>
     <text:span text:style-name="BoldTextStyle>prog.lang:</text:span>
   </text:p>
   <table:table>
   ...
   </table:table>
   <text:p><bold>programming languages:</bold></paragraph>
     <text:span text:style-name="BoldTextStyle>others:</text:span>
   </text:p>
   ...
   <text:list>
     ...
     <text:list-item>
       <text:p>OpenDocument<text:NEW-TEXT-INPUT-END/></text:p>
     </text:list-item>
   </text:list>
Everything between <text:NEW-TEXT-INPUT-START> and 
<text:NEW-TEXT-INPUT-END> would represent an "enhanced OOo input field".


(3) usage of existing bookmark start and end tags (<text:bookmark-start> 
and <text:bookmark-end>) together with meta data connected to the 
bookmark, which tells the application, that it is a special bookmark 
representing an "enhanced OOo input field". To get a view of the 
corresponding markup replace <text:NEW-TEXT-INPUT-START> and 
<text:NEW-TEXT-INPUT-END> by bookmark start and end tags in the markup 
of the previous suggestion. Everything between the bookmark start and 
the bookmark end would represent an "enhanced OOo input field".


(4) usage of new element <text:NEW-ELEMENT> with the following features:
- occurs where usual text-content can occur such as paragraphs, 
headings, tables, lists, etc.
- its content is text-content
- optional content <text:NEW-ELEMENT-PREFIX>, which contains usual 
paragraph content. If the first content of <text:NEW-ELEMENT> is a 
paragraph, the content of <text:NEW-ELEMENT-PREFIX> is merged into this 
paragraph at the beginning.
- optional content <text:NEW-ELEMENT-SUFFIX>, which contains usual 
paragraph content. If the last content of <text:NEW-ELEMENT> is a 
paragraph, the content of <text:NEW-ELEMENT-SUFFUX> is merged into this 
paragraph at the end.
<text:NEW-ELEMENT>
   <text:NEW-ELEMENT-PREFIX>
     Special interests:
   </text:NEW-ELEMENT-PREFIX>
   <text:p>
     <text:span text:style-name="BoldTextStyle>hobbies:</text:span>
   </text:p>
   <text:list>
     <text:list-item>
       <text:p>german soccer league</text:p>
     </text:list-item>
     ...
   </text:list>
   <text:p><bold>programming languages:</bold></paragraph>
     <text:span text:style-name="BoldTextStyle>prog.lang:</text:span>
   </text:p>
   <table:table>
   ...
   </table:table>
   <text:p><bold>programming languages:</bold></paragraph>
     <text:span text:style-name="BoldTextStyle>others:</text:span>
   </text:p>
   ...
   <text:list>
     ...
     <text:list-item>
       <text:p>OpenDocument</text:p>
     </text:list-item>
   </text:list>
</text:NEW-ELEMENT>
<text:NEW-ELEMENT> would represent an "enhanced OOo input field,


Please take these suggestions as a starting point to find an approriate 
solution for the feature request. Please make further or improved 
suggestions.

Some of my thoughts about these suggestions are:
a) (1) allows nesting paragraphs (<text:p> elements) inside a paragraph. 
In my opinion this is not a good idea. The merging of the first 
paragraph of the "enhanced OOo input field" with the surrounding 
paragraph is currently not clear. The same holds for the last paragraph 
of the "enhanced OOo input field".
b) (2) and (3) are mostly the same with the difference, that (2) could 
be implemented with already existing features of ODF (bookmarks and meta 
data).
c) (2) and (3) represents the "enhanced OOo input field" outside the 
usual xml structure.
d) (2) and (3) would also allow, that an "enhanced OOo input field" 
could contain only a part of a table or list.
e) (4) tries to avoid a), c) and d)
Thus, currently my preference is on (4), but I have to admit that I do 
not know all the Pros and Cons.


Regards, Oliver.