CODEWITHSUNDEEP
xmluser-interfacecross-platformxulxforms
Kieran Dang
Kieran Dang

Reputation: 447

XML for User Interface Definition

I'm looking for information to choose a XML for User Interface Definition to build UI in new project. The project's objective is running in both web and desktop environments and support cross-platform. Therefore I focus on XUL and XForms but I'm not familiar with the XForms. Please give me some advices, what are cons and pros and the future of them. Thank you.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 746

Answers (6)

Richard Kennard
Richard Kennard

Reputation: 1325

You may want to consider Metawidget. Choosing a good XML format is only part of the battle. You then need to turn that XML into a functioning UI. Metawidget takes care of that (for many platforms), as well as letting you plug in your own XML format as desired.

Here's an example of plugging in XML Schema as a format: http://blog.kennardconsulting.com/2013/03/xml-schema-wsdl-and-soap-ui-generator.html

Upvotes: 1

shvahabi
shvahabi

Reputation: 1308

Find a full comprehensive introduction with lot's of external links from here. Including:

  • XUL (by Mozilla)
  • XAML (by Microsoft)
  • XForms (by W3C)
  • etc.

Also as far as I remember, JavaFx has close ties to XML based UI definition. Also QML is a markup based UI definition language for Qt which is used by many projects such as Ubuntu. In Gnome realm you can use Glade (opensource software) to create an XML file from your drag-n-drop created UIs, which is then used by many libraries to reconstruct intended UI at runtime.

Upvotes: 0

pc1oad1etter
pc1oad1etter

Reputation: 8617

If you wish to retain the "web" portion of your project, and if by that you mean that it runs in any browser, XUL is not an option. You can use it as a Firefox extension, or you can build a stand-alone application (not running in a browser) with XUL, but it is not a technology for building a UI across browsers.

Upvotes: 0

sdwilsh
sdwilsh

Reputation: 4682

I would avoid XUL since it's Firefox-only and is going to be dropped for Firefox 4.0.

Upvotes: 0

Alain Couthures
Alain Couthures

Reputation: 1523

XForms is more and more popular now because there are cross-browser implementations such as XSLTForms and Ubiquity XForms which don't require to install anything.

Upvotes: 0

Zack Marrapese
Zack Marrapese

Reputation: 12090

I would go with MXML (Adobe Flex). It could be both a flash (browser) and air application (desktop).

Upvotes: 0

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