XForms User Interfaces for Small Arcane Nontrivial Datasets

Published

August 11, 2014

Author(s)

Joshua Lubell

Abstract

Small Arcane Nontrivial Datasets (SANDs) are frequently complex enough to warrant custom software for access and editing, yet too small or specialized to justify a fullblown server-based database application. Such data is typically presented in tabular form within documents or as editable spreadsheets. To test the alternative of using XForms as a user interface for SANDs, an application was built for browsing a conformance test suite for Product and Manufacturing Information, a formal specification of a product's functional and behavioral requirements as they apply to production. XForms proved a much better match than tabulations for the underlying data model. To further test the concept, XForms was evaluated for use with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication 800-53 security control catalog, which is a comprehensive catalog of security controls for managing cyber-risk, many parts of which are already available in extensible markup language (XML) form. The modelview-controller (MVC) software pattern of XForms seems well-suited for creating specialized applications for tailoring and navigating this catalog.

Proceedings Title

Balisage Series on Markup Technologies

Conference Dates

August 5-8, 2014

Conference Location

Washington, DC

Conference Title

Balisage: The Markup Conference

Pub Type

Conferences

Download Paper

Local Download

Keywords

XForms, Product and Manufacturing Information, security control, Special Publication 800-53, Small Arcane Nontrivial Dataset, test suite, reference data

Citation

Lubell, J. (2014), XForms User Interfaces for Small Arcane Nontrivial Datasets, Balisage Series on Markup Technologies, Washington, DC, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=916010 (Accessed April 19, 2024)