# XForms/Comparison of XForms Products
## Motivation

You want to compare XForms browser products and understand each systems strengths and weaknesses.

## Method

We first identify key attributes of each product and justify why an attribute is relevant in a high-level comparison. We then present a table of the products with one column for each attribute.

### Key Attributes of XForms Product
#### License

What type of license is being used? Common options are Commercial (with link), Apache 2.0, LGPL, GPL or other. The column should always provide a URL to the exact license.

#### Cost Per 10 or 100 or 1,000 or 10,000 Users

What is the typical estimated costs for this product for between 10 and 10,000 users. Assume 10 medium-complexity forms used per person per day.

#### Client/Server/Both

Does the product convert the XForms code into browser-specific structures (HTML/JavaScript) on the client or the server?

#### Browsers Supported

What browsers are supported? Common items are All, C, F, I, O, S for Chrome, FireFox, IE, Opera and Safari.

#### XForms 1.1 Compatibility Tests

The W3C does provide a test suite for compatibility with the 1.1 specification. These test are rerun on a periodic basis.
Currently only a subset of products are being tested. The current test results are here

#### Version of XForms Supported

Options would be 1.0, 1.1

#### Status of XForms Compatibility Test

Did this product undergo a third party test of all of the features of XForms? If so, what percentage of the test pass. Provide a link to the test results.

## Comparison Table
### Client Side Applications

| Product (Version) | License | Cost | Implementation | Architecture | Browsers | Test Results | Strength | Weakness | Notes |
| EMC/Documentum | Commercial | See Documentum | Google Web Toolkit | Client | All | EMC Results | | |
| Chiba (3.0.0b2) | liberal BSD and Apache 2 | free | Client DOJO with DWR | | | 96% Chiba Results | | | |
| Ubiquity | Apache 2.0 | free | JavaScript | | All | Test Results | | Not mature | |
| Firefox Plugin | Open source | Free | Browser Plugin | Client | Firefox 3.5 and earlier only | | Very compliant with standard | Firefox only, Limited Table Support, Limited Support, No Mac Version | Innovative Product, Ideal for quick prototyping, Fast form loads for forms that do not have long selection lists |
| Formfaces | Commercial | | JScript and HTML - No plugin required | Client | | | | Very slow load times for medium forms, No large user base | No updates to product since 2007 |
| XSLTForms | LGPL | Free | XSLT Tranformation | Client or Server | All | | Transform works on either server or client, Bundled with eXist and MarkLogic | Not yet mature | See XRX Wikibook |
| Picoforms | Commercial | See Picoforms | IE Plugin | Client | Internet Explorer Only | | Ideal for internal forms for IE only sites | Support not clear, Required Admin rights to install Limited Community Support | |

### Server-Side Applications

(No XForms elements are sent to the client)
| Product (Version) | License | Cost | Implementation | Architecture | Browsers | Test Results | Strength | Weakness | Notes |
| XSLTForms | LGPL | Free | XSLT Tranformation | Client or Server | All | | Bundled with eXist and MarkLogic | Not yet mature |
| Orbeon Forms | Open source | Free | Server-side transforms | Server | All | | Very Mature, Many Extensions, Excellent Support, Active Community | Many examples require Orbeon Pipeline Language | |
| BetterFORM | BSD, Apache 2 | Free | Server-side transforms all written in Java | Server | All | Test Results | Very Mature, bundled with eXist, support for subforms, commercial support, active community, comes with graphical installer | | successor of Chiba Project |
| IBM Lotus Forms | Commercial | See IBM | Server-side transform | Server | All | | Full Implementation, Very Mature, IBM Supported | Price. Proprietary markup. | |