formsPlayer 1.5.x

We'd like to invite developers to start using and testing the latest build of formsPlayer 1.5.4.

Version 1.5 is not quite complete, but is already much faster than 1.4, thanks to significant improvements in repeat handling, major changes to switch and case, faster loading of data into select and select1 controls when a form starts, and a move from MSXML 4 to MSXML 6 (which also improves memory usage).

We've also continued to implement more of XForms 1.1, so that authors have greater control over data submission, can use output to render images, and much more. A full test-suite is being prepared to both test and demonstrate the full range of available features, so you'll soon get a good idea of exactly what's available. And to make it easier to build tests for your own XForms applications we've also made some important improvements to our Selenium support.

Finally, there are a number of bug fixes, the most important being resolutions to a couple of crashes. They've been difficult to reproduce because they occurred in code that handles the asynchronous processing, but we think we have them nailed now. If you come across others that we haven't seen, we would really appreciate feedback.

We're still working hard on formsPlayer 1.5, and to help the process we've been reorganising how we do some of our internal development. The most significant change has been to complete the migration of our source control system to Subversion. We've been using Subversion for a while now for sample code, but it's only recently that we've been able to move across all of the many modules and projects that make up formsPlayer. Now that we have, we're in a much better position to manage the creation of distinct branches, which in turn makes it easier to create different versions at different times, for different categories of users. Below we explain the different types of versions that we'll be creating.

As a result of major changes to the XForms repeat control in formsPlayer 1.5, we have been able to get around some of the previous limitations to styling the XForms select and select1 controls. Authors can now control everything from the background and foreground colours of items in a selection list, through the layout of xf:choices, to choosing different images for selected and unselected items.

A full description of the CSS style rules to use is available here.

We've been working very hard on the latest version of formsPlayer, and we're getting close to completion. formsPlayer 1.5 is faster, has more control over styling, will implement all of XForms 1.1, and has new interfaces for save and resume, and XSL:FO. If you haven't taken a look so far, now might be the time to see what formsPlayer 1.5 has to offer, and start planning the transition from older versions.