Datasheet

Chapter 1

Name Description

XML XML is the format that underlies an InfoPath form.

XSLT XSLT is a specification for transforming XML files. It is the format of the View

files that are produced when a form is designed. The transform creates an

XHTML document that is displayed in the user interface.

XML Schema XML schemas provide the underlying structure of the XML form and are the

primary means of data validation. XML Schema is used to define the structure

of the form definition. See Appendix A.

XHTML XHTML is the XML-conformant version of HTML. In InfoPath it is used to dis-

play formatted text in rich text controls.

XPath XPath expressions are used to bind controls to forms. XPath is also used in data

validation, conditional formatting, and expression controls.

DOM The Document Object Model is primarily used in scripts to access the contents

of the form document, but it can be used with any XML document in the

InfoPath environment.

XML Signature XML signatures are used to digitally sign InfoPath forms created by. Forms can

contain multiple signatures.

Some Constraints

Although InfoPath supports a wide range of XML features, there are some limitations or other con-

straints in this release that you should note. InfoPath 2003 does not support the following:

❑ XML Schema constructs

xs:any, xs:anyAttribute

❑ abstract and substitutionGroup attributes on elements and types

❑ XSL Formatting Objects (XSL-FO) for the presentation of XML data

❑ Import or inclusion of arbitrary XSL files

❑ XML-Data Reduced (XDR) or Document Type Definition (DTD) for defining schemas

❑ Digital signing of parts of a form

❑ XML processor versions earlier than Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML) 5.0

About Form Development

We’ve already noted a bit of a bias on the part of Microsoft toward code to extend the functionality of

forms. This shouldn’t be surprising, because Microsoft and therefore many developers of Microsoft

applications have come to XML quite recently and have come from a code-based programming back-

ground. The structures found in XSLT, for example, can often seem obscure and foreign. As XML

becomes a more prominent component in Office applications, we may come to see that declarative

programming approaches are increasingly common.

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