Xforms - the truth is out there

Internet industry body the World Wide Web Consortium(W3C) has released its first ideas on a new protocol - called Xforms - which it says will enable the next generation of ecommerce.

W3C lists Microsoft, IBM and Xerox among the backers for the project, and says it will enable the growth of ecommerce to a whole variety of web devices, not just PCs.

The working draft - the first of three - covers a protocol for forms used on web sites that allow surfers to write in their details and buy on line. Current forms are html based and date back to 1993. The new Xforms will have much greater versatility and take on board the advantages of XML, a web language allowing vastly increased manipulation of data.

The new protocol will work by separating out the data, and the way different data fields interact, from the way the information is presented on a Web site. This will allow ecommerce sites to be able to adapt easily to being published in different formats, such as on mobile phone displays and Internet appliances.

W3C wants the industry to consider its proposals and hopes it will be adopted as an Internet standard in due course.