XForms (Legacy functionality)

XForms are deprecated. Use Episerver Forms instead.
While existing solutions continue to work, you should not build new solutions on this API. It will be phased out in the future.

This topic describes how to work with XForms in Episerver CMS. XForms contains logic to store and present forms and data posted from forms. Together with the forms editor in the Episerver CMS edit view, it lets editors create and modify forms and view form data. The XForms architecture enables customization, letting developers adapt the XForms functionality. 

• Basic concept
• XForms forms management structure
• EPiServer.XForms namespace
• EPiServer.XForms.WebControls namespace
• Sending form data
• Modifying forms and data
• Working with XForms in MVC

Basic concept

Editors use the Forms Editor to create forms in edit view. When saved, the content of the form is saved as XHTML and XForms markup.

When the form is presented, it loads as web controls and renders as HTML to the client, so there is no need to install additional software to support XForms to the client. When you take this approach, Episerver CMS does not support the client-side functionality that may be available when you use an XForms browser plug-in.

Folders for forms

Form folders let you organize a group of forms in a folder structure, which can be useful if the site contains many forms. You also can set a default folder for forms for either the entire website or parts of the website, making it easier for editors to manage forms by adding a DefaultFormFolder dynamic property and then setting the property value to the folder of your choice for the part(s) of the website you want to affect.

When you create a new form page and select a form, the default folder is the starting point for the form selection. When you create new forms, the default folder is suggested. This property is supported, but is not included in the sample site and is therefore not included in the language files.

XForms forms management structure

1. A form is created in the Form Editor in Episerver CMS.
2. Through EPiServer.XForms, the form is converted to XHTML and XForms.

   Steps 1 and 2 can be repeated until the form has the desired look and functionality.

3. The form is sent through EPiServer.XForms to the client as HTML. You can alter the form before it is presented to the client by attaching to events.
4. Data is posted and validated. If the input does not pass validation, error messages are sent to the client. (You also can have additional validation on the client before sending the form to the server by setting the EnableClientScript property to true on the XFormControl web control.)
5. Through EPiServer.XForms, form data is passed into the Episerver CMS data warehouse. You can send the posted data as an email or to a custom URL.
6. If the data was saved to the database, you can load and show the posted data on the website.

EPiServer.XForms namespace

XForm class

The XForm class is a representation of the content and the structure of the form. The content of the form is saved as XML. The XML contains the instance node, which contains the data for the form such as field validation and default values for fields. It also stores information about the structure of the form; this is stored as XHTML with controls from the XForms namespace. This class is responsible for creating a default XFormData object from its instance node.

The following code shows an example of the content of an XForm. When you export a form with the Episerver CMS forms editor, the form content is represented in this format.

<root xmlns:xforms=a href="http://www.w3.org/2002/xforms">http://www.w3.org/2002/xforms</a>
      xmlns:xsi=<a href="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance</a>>
    <model>
           <instance>
                </Author />
                  </instance>
    </model>
      <table id="id_matrix" border="0">
              <tr>
                  <td valign="top" width="100" height="10">
                                   <span id="id_fields1">Author</span></td>
                  <td valign="top" width="200" height="10">
                      <xforms:input ref="Author" value="" id="id_fields2" size="40" /></td>
              </tr>
      </table>
</root> 

Note: Even though this example shows a form that is structured using HTML tables, there are no limitations for the structure of the form to use other elements, such as the <div> element. In Episerver CMS, the built-in form editor creates a form using HTML tables.

XFormData class

The XFormData class contains information on the content of a posted form. Normally a new XFormData class instance is created when a form is posted, but it is also possible to define an old post when loading a form to be able to re-edit data. This is also the class representing existing data when loading form data for a form.

DataTypes class

The DataTypes class contains information about the data types available for form fields. These are contained in a public Types property, which is basically a hash table that contains keys and values, where keys are the unique key for the data type and the value is a regular expression.

When you post form data, input is validated against the regular expression for the data type of the input control. If no data type is specified for the control, the data is validated against the public InvalidDefaultInputRegex string property. A default validation prevents malicious data from being posted from a form.

EPiServer.XForms.WebControls namespace

XFormControl class

XFormControl is a web control displays an XForms form and makes sure that the input is validated. The class exposes a public method, SubmitForm, to be able to submit form data. The form itself does not trigger the actual posting. This is handled by any existing submit web controls in the form, which is also why it is possible to have several buttons on the same form that may trigger different actions. Of course, it is also possible to call this method from the code.

What happens when the form is loaded?

1. The BeforeLoadingForm event is triggered. It is possible to alter the XForm definition here by changing the FormDefinition property of the LoadFormEventArgs that are sent to the event handler. (For instance, you could replace the table structure with a div structure by applying regular expressions to the form content).
2. The XML from the FormDefinition.Document property is parsed by Page.ParseControl. The parsed controls are added as child controls. Basically these would be Literal controls for the HTML and form web controls derived from XFormControlBase.
3. For fields that have validation, validation control(s) are added and connected to the corresponding web control.
4. ControlsCreated is a triggered public event. You can alter the appearence and function of the form at this time.
5. Rendering of the form takes place. Xform controls are rendered as XHTML.

What happens when data is submitted?

1. A submit control triggers the SubmitForm event. If defined on the submit control, the submit sets values for email and/or custom URL to the forms data property for the XFormControl that it is contained in. The SubmitForm method is called with the channel options set on the submit control. See Sending Form Data for information about available channels.
2. Validation takes place to ensure that rules about anonymous users and multiple postings from the same user are followed. If there are validation errors against these rules, StaticValidators are added to the Page.Validators collection to ensure that validation errors are thrown. A StaticValidator is a validator that always gives a validation error.
3. BeforeReadingPostedData is a triggered public event and Page.Validate() is called for the current validation group. If the CancelSubmit property is set to true, a StaticValidator is added for all strings in the ErrorMessages array. Any validation errors to the XForm controls also results in validation errors and cancels the form posting with a list of validation errors.
4. BeforeSubmitPostedData is a triggered public event and any event handlers that sets CancelSubmit to true cancel the form posting.
5. The form data is sent to the specified channel. If the user is anonymous, a cookie is set to indicate that the form is posted.
6. AfterSubmitPostedData is a triggered public event.

XForms web controls

PropertyFor: @Html.PropertyFor(x => x.CurrentContent.MyForm, new{ XFormParameters = new EPiServer.XForms.Util.XFormParameters() { PostAction = "Posted", SuccessAction = "Success", FailedAction = "Failed" } })

public class XFormPageController : PageController<XFormPage>
{
    private XFormPageUnknownActionHandler _xformHandler;

    public XFormPageController(XFormPageUnknownActionHandler xformHandler)
    {
        _xformHandler = xformHandler;
    }

    public ActionResult Index(PageData currentPage)
    {
        return View(currentPage);
    }

    #region Success and failed actions

    [AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
    public ActionResult Success(PageData currentPage, XFormPostedData xFormPostedData)
    {
        return View("Success", currentPage);
    }

    [AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
    public ActionResult Failed(PageData currentPage, XFormPostedData xFormPostedData)
    {
        return View("Failed", currentPage);
    }

    #endregion

    [AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
    public ActionResult DoSubmit(XFormPostedData xFormpostedData)
    {
        return _xformHandler.HandleAction(this);
    }
}

<%@ Control Language="C#" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewUserControl" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="EPiServer.XForms.Util" %>

<section id="form">
    <%--<% Html.EnableClientValidation(); %>--%>
    <%: Html.ValidationSummary() %>
    <% Html.RenderPropertyXForm("XForm", new XFormParameters() { SuccessAction = "Success", FailedAction = "Failed" }); %>
    <%--<%: Html.Property("XForm") %>  --%>
</section>

Last updated: Sep 21, 2015