Creating Skinnable Xml Forms - Adobe 38043740 - ColdFusion Standard - Mac Development Manual

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Creating Skinnable XML Forms

You can create XML skinnable forms, which are forms that generate XForms-compliant XML and are normally
formatted using an XSLT (extensible stylesheet language transformations) skin.
You can use XML skinnable forms with the skins that Adobe ColdFusion provides without having any knowledge of
either XML or XSLT. For information on using XML with ColdFusion, see
About XML skinnable forms
A ColdFusion form with a
format="XML"
skinnable form, it generates the form as XML. By default, it applies an XML Stylesheet Language Transform (XSLT)
skin to the XML and generates a formatted HTML page for display on the user's browser. Optionally, you can specify
an XSLT file, or you can process the raw XML in your ColdFusion page.
By using XML skinnable forms, you can control the type and appearance of the forms that ColdFusion generates and
displays. ColdFusion provides a set of standard skins, including a default skin that it uses if you do not specify another
skin (or tell it not to apply a skin). You can also create your own XSLT skin and have ColdFusion use it to give your
forms a specific style or appearance.
ColdFusion forms and XForms
ColdFusion skinnable forms conform to and extend the W3C XForms specification. This specification provides an
XML syntax for defining interactive forms using a syntax that is independent of form appearance. ColdFusion forms
tags include attributes that provide information that does not correspond directly to the XForms model, such as
appearance information, validation rules, and standard HTML attributes. ColdFusion skinnable forms retain this
information in XForms extensions so that an XSL transformation can use the values to determine appearance or do
other processing.
For more information on XML structure of ColdFusion skinnable forms, see
The role of the XSLT skin
An XSLT skin and associated cascading style sheet (CSS) determine how an XML skinnable form is processed and
displayed, as follows:
• The XSLT skin tells ColdFusion how to process the XML, and typically converts it to HTML for display. The skin
specifies the CSS style sheet to use to format the output.
• The CSS style sheet specifies style definitions that determine the appearance of the generated output.
XSLT skins give you extensive freedom in the generated output. They let you create a custom appearance for your
forms, or even different appearances for different purposes. For example, you could use the same form in an intranet
and on the Internet, and change only the skin to give a different appearance (or even select different subsets of the form
for display). You can also create skins that process your form for devices, such as wireless mobile devices.
attribute is an XML skinnable form. When ColdFusion processes an XML
Last updated 1/20/2012
"Using XML and WDDX" on page 1058.
"ColdFusion XML format" on page 788.
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