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FormCalc Specification
This document, as part of a family of specifications referred to as the
XML Forms Architecture,
describes an
XML based language,
XFA-Template,
for modeling electronic form templates. XFA provides for the specific
needs of electronic forms and the applications that use them. XFA addresses the needs of organizations to
securely capture, present, move, process, output and print information associated with electronic forms.
This document specifically describes a simple calculation language optimized for creating e-form centric
logic and calculations.
Grammar and Syntax
This section describes the building blocks that compose FormCalc expressions and how those building
blocks can be assembled into such expressions.
Language Overview
FormCalc
is a simple calculation language whose roots lie in electronic form software from Adobe, and
common spreadsheet software. It is an expression-based language. It is also a type less language, where
values of type string or type number can be promoted to strings, numbers or booleans to suit the context.
FormCalc
is tailored to the skills of the non-programmer who is comfortable with spreadsheet-class
application software. This user can, with the addition of a few expressions, validate user input and/or
unburden the form user from the spreadsheet-like calculations.
To that aim, the language provides a large set of built-in functions to perform arithmetic, and financial
tasks. Locale-sensitive date and time functions are provided, as are string manipulation functions.
To better illustrate the capabilities of the
FormCalc
language, we present a simple purchase order
application, and focus on those spreadsheet like calculations and validations typically required of such
forms.
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