XRX/Selection List Management

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.

Method

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

This for instance, if 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.

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 you can 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>

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