XRX/Selection List Management

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[edit] Motivation

You want every selection list in your form to be customized to the context of the situation. Selection lists need to be dynamically generated by a series of context aware services on the web server.

[edit] Method

XForms are powerful because they can load all the codes in a form from a single instance in the model.

This instance can have something like Sometimes you would like to customize what selection lists are displayed to a user based on their role or other property in their session such as what department or group they are associated with.

[edit] Method

This can be done by using session variables stored on the server. You can alternatively store the user in a cookie on the client and then use this information to look up the correct information.

Assume you have an XML file that associates a user with their roles:

<Users>
   <User>
      <LoginID>jdoe</LoginID>
      <Roles>
          <Role>project-manager</Role>
          <Role>glossary-code-table-admin</Role>
      </Roles>
   </User>
   <User>
      ...
</Users>

These roles can be in a session variable (see session) or have a function that looks up the role from the LoginID.

When the forms load, a script can be executed that loads all the code tables into an instance in the model:

<xf:model>
   <xf:instanace src="all-codes.xq?LoginID=jdoe"/>
</xf:model>