Default Values in XForms Input

Question

I have an XForm that has certain fields that may often be left blank (optional street address). Is there is technique to set a default value for that field, preferably a space (I am running into weird formatting issues with CSS). The html form way of value="" doesn't work, neither does setting a default value in the XML schema.

EXAMPLE:

<xforms:input ref="clientaddress/streetaddress2" model="model_inventory" >
        <xforms:label>Street Address (Line 2)</xforms:label>

Leaving this field blank results in <streetaddress2/> in the resulting xml document

I want

<streetaddress> </streetaddress>

Answer 1

Are you saying that you would like to set the value of all the fields in your instance that are blank to having a space? Assuming you have a static instance, you can add the following to your model:

<xforms:setvalue ev:event="xforms-model-construct-done" 
    xxforms:iterate="//*[empty(*) and string() = '']" ref="."> </xforms:setvalue>

Note that this uses the xxforms:iterate extension of Orbeon Forms (documented here). If you are using another XForms implementation, you might want to check the documentation of that implementation to see if they provide a similar extension.

(This being said, I am curious as to why you need to have a space in the "empty" fields. Could that be a sign of a problem somewhere else?)

Answer 2

The problem I have been having is not related the actual validity of the xml, but with Firefox's interpretation of the resulting XML. Firefox seems to see a tag like as not being closed. Consequently certain elements display as being nested, something very noticeable with the CSS design.

Answer 3

The easiest way to set default value in XForms is the instance:

<xforms:instance>
  <data>
    <clientaddress>
      <streetaddress> </streetaddress>
    </clientaddress>
  </data>
</xforms:instance>

You said, that you tried to set default value in schema, but I'm not sure that it works as you expected. Schema can be used for validation, but I don't know if any XForms engine uses schema's default values.