Creating XForms with StarOffice v8 and OpenOffice.org v2

XForms are a new type of electronic form that was developed by the World Wide Web Consortium. The XForm model is defined in Extensible Markup Language (XML) and uses separate sections to describe what a form does, what a form looks like, the protocol for submitting the form data and the form instance data itself.

The ability to create XForms with the latest versions of StarOffice/OpenOffice.org provides an opportunity to develop more extensive functionality than conventional forms and Bristol City Council have worked with Sun Microsystems to develop some sample XForms based on actual business processes so as to explore how easy this would be and demonstrate the potential for future integration.

This report describes the work done and the sample XForms created.
Download "XML Forms report" (PDF 1MB)

Sample XForms
Download "Sickness Self-certification" (ODT XForm 15KB)
Download "Sickness Authorisation" (ODT XForm 13KB)
Download "UBL1 Invoice input form" (ODT XForm 17KB)
Download "UBL1 Invoice readonly form" (ODT XForm 17KB)

A more general discussion on use of XForms in office applications was included in a talk given by a Software Engineer from Sun Microsystems at the XML2004 conference, click here to view a summary paper