xsd -> form

[Dean Karres <karres@itg.uiuc.edu>]

Hi,

I have cobbled together one xsd that is in use by my group.  I do not
claim to be any sort of expert.  I am looking for a clue and recent
web searches are not helping much.

My problem is that we have the xsd mentioned above that we are using
to validate xml files that we generate internally and that might come
to us from third parties.  This is working for us.

We have a few versions of the xsd and some of the older xml
files expect the older versions of the xsd.  This is also fine.
We occasionally change the xsd as the need arises.

The question has been raised: can we create a CGI form based on the
xsd?  As the xsd changed the form would change as well.  The answer
is yes but the value of the answer has to do with how much pain is
involved with doing the conversion.

I've made an initial attempt and rolling my own xsd->form generator
but the possibilities are nearly endless due to the xsd having various
references and user defined "types".  I have *just* started looking at
XSLT as an alternative but I don't have a full understanding of it yet.

Are there xsd/xml -> form generation tools out there [that I'm not
finding]?

Is XSLT the best way to go for this?

Is there a better way?  For example it would suite me just as well
to start with a form and derive the xsd from that.  Are there tools
or frameworks for that?

Dean...K...