The Repeat Control

A repeating structure usually involves defining a list of items to 'repeat over' (or iterate) and a template to be applied to each item in the list.

In many systems the template part would need to be defined with a separate file, and although there will be certain situations where this is a good approach, there are also plenty of situations where it's just that bit too much work for the simple job in hand.

The XForms repeat element allows us to specify both the list and template in one. The items that make up the list are expressed using an XPath expression, and the template is defined by placing mark-up inside repeat. (The mark-up can be anything, including further repeat elements.)