Re: Input forms for UBL :: was "'Opensource' XForms for UBL"

[Chin Chee-Kai <cheekai@SoftML.Net>]

I've got a development track along the lines of Excel-based data input forms
for UBL.  It's not much yet, so far consisting of only a sample Excel input 
form
for Invoice & a data integrator which takes data out of the form and formats
it according to UBL 1.0 Invoice.  I've also been a bit slow working on this due
to other project requirements.  But since, Stephen, you're talking about forms
for UBL, I thought I could bring this up.

The whole idea is to allow users already familiar with Excel to quickly use UBL
by using such templates, or else designing their own company-oriented 
Invoices,
Orders, etc and telling the data integrator what data paths to construct for
customised UBL (or other) schemas.  The data path syntax is a modified and
greatly simplified form of XPath for quick learning and programmability.

In other words, you don't need to rely on any one but your own organisation
or yourself (for smaller companies) to do the form designs and transformation.

Attached are the sample Invoice Excel form and its UBL-XML-transformed
result. (Excel's extension appended with ".xxx" to avoid auto-removal;  please
remove the extension before use).

So, Stephen, if the project is on "Input forms for UBL", I suppose it may be
possible to put some of the work there.  But I respect that you may just want
to focus on XForms only and have a more specific working scope, in which
case this Excel-based note is just for your information.





Best Regards,
Chin Chee-Kai
SoftML
Tel: +65-6820-2979
Fax: +65-6820-2979
Email: cheekai@SoftML.Net
http://SoftML.Net/


At 07:40 AM 2006-12-21 -0700, stephen.green@systml.co.uk wrote:
>Folks,
>
>I've had it in mind to start an opensource project (maybe sourceforge)
>to create XForms forms for UBL. I've a form which could be a starting
>point. It would be the first time I've tried such a project so it could be
>a while before anything gets going but if anyone is interested and
>patient enough to keep an eye out for future announcements... or
>has ideas about it in general I'd be grateful to hear any feedback. I
>guess it could go a long way or just fizzle out but either way might
>produce something to help others trying to do something similar and
>provide for validation (or otherwise) of some of the proposals for
>UBL deployment (such as codelists and business rules, say). Of course
>it seems unusual to have a project like this for XForms but why not.
>I've seen such projects around to develope XSLT stylesheets. Plus a
>stylesheet to dynamically create the XForms from UBL artefacts could be
>part of it too.
>
>Any thoughts?
>
>All the best and seasons greetings
>
>Stephen Green

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