UWI.Com has announced Extensible Forms Description Language (XFDL), an open, XML-based protocol for creating, viewing and filling out complex business forms on the internet. XFDL extends UWI.Com’s existing Universal Forms Description Language (UFDL) from plain HTML to its more robust successor language, XML. What’s more, its pedigree couldn’t be better. XFDL was co- authored by Tim Bray, a key editor of the original XML specification presented to the World Wide Web Consortium. So what does XFDL do? At present, auditable business forms can’t be fully presented in HTML. The questions become part of the form template while the answers are separated off as input data. XFDL changes all that by storing form template, internal logic and input data in a single file that can be digitally signed for non- repudiation. With that, it becomes possible to create an electronic audit trail. UWI.Com boasts that XFDL can also maintain high standards in input data by performing calculations and type checking at the time of entry. The company plans to release a beta version in InternetForms Viewer, slated for availability in September 1998. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, though. UWI.Com wants XFDL to become the lingua franca for automated web-based data exchange. Eventually the language could replace about 80% of today’s paper processing of business forms.
