Interpretation issue: Required vs. Type in Binds

Hi again,

        Many types, as used in the xf:type attribute of the xf:bind element do 
not allow empty strings in their data space.

At present this means that, if a data element with bind constraints that 
specify types such as decimal or date is not required, it is still not possible 
to leave the field completely blank without getting an error.

The XForms spec at < 
http://www.w3.org/TR/xforms/slice6.html#model-xformsconstraints > doesn't 
really get into this issue of whether the xf:required="false" attribute should 
cause an empty string to be acceptable in this field.  But, I will point out 
that without this, many of these types are useless when used with optional 
fields.

My initial expectation (and still my hope) is that xf:required="false" should 
suppress any type checking if the element is empty.  What do you think of this?

(You might think that any explicit xf:constraint might also need to be relaxed 
if the field is not required and blank, but this can always be explicitly 
allowed for in the constraint XPath.)

Sample attached.

Thanks,
Paul M

Paul Miniato
Standard Forms Project
< http://ecommerce.cucbc.com/ >

 <<requiredIssue.xml>>

requiredIssue.xml
Description: requiredIssue.xml