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Use

Form-based publishing is a CM application that offers a simple way of creating and publishing similarly structured XML documents with HTML forms. You can use form-based publishing, for example, for publishing press releases, company news, and other documents that have a common structure, or for collecting data with forms.

The documents are stored in the repository as XML documents, but are edited and viewed in the browser using HTML forms. The necessary transformations between XML and HTML are performed by the publishing pipeline service based on XSL stylesheets that define which transformations to perform and how to render the document content in HTML.

The advantages of this solution are:

  • The separation of layout and content
  • Different presentation of the same content using different XSL stylesheets
  • The option of making browser/client-specific modifications

Two example applications for form-based publishing, SAP Demo News and FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions), are delivered with the XML Forms Builder application.

Integration

You can use the XML form builder to create forms, stylesheets, and form-specific configuration files. For more information, see XML Forms Builder .

Prerequisites

The publishing pipeline is configured and activated.

Features

The configuration for form-based publishing contains the following parameters:

Parameters of Form-Based Publishing

Parameters Required Description

Preferences Location

Yes

Path to the configuration files for form-based publishing.

Default setting: /etc/xmlforms

XML Forms Builder Help

No

URL for calling the documentation for the XML Forms Builder using the menu path Help → XML Forms Builder Help.

Call up the documentation on the XML Forms Builder in the required language at help.sap.com.  Copy the URL and enter it here.

XML Forms Default Path

No

Path in Knowledge Management that is used as the default path in selection dialog boxes of the XML Forms Builder and in forms.

If you want to use a different path to this in a project, you can specify it in the project options.

Allow HTML Output

No

Specifies whether HTML can be used in input fields in forms.

This is useful because HTML-formatted input can be manipulated by including URLs or JavaScript that enable illegal access to user data.

If you deactivate this parameter, HTML code is no longer evaluated when displaying a form. This is valid for all projects that you create with the XML Forms Builder, including existing projects.

If this parameter is active, you can deactivate the output of HTML for individual projects in the project options. You can also deactivate HTML for each individual input field.
Activities

To call ups the configuration of form-based publishing, choose Content Management → Form-Based Publishing → Form-Based Publishing.