How to view the source of an Orbeon form saved in eXist-db?

Question

From the Orbeon XForms tutorial tutorial, I understand that Orbeon saves data in eXist-db (built into Orbeon). The sample application saves the data of a book in xml format in eXist-db. According to the tutorial, to view the data in browser, I first have to disable the orbeon-exist-filter in web.xml, and can then open http://<host_name>/orbeon/exist/rest/db/orbeon/my-bookcast/books.xml.

I also understand that when I have made a form using Orbeon Form Builder (without any code using only mouse drag and drop) the form is also saved in eXist-db. I am wondering:

1. How can I see the form (source code of the form) saved in eXist-db? I think there is an URI/URL (like the example tutorial) for accessing this. If So, what is the URI/URL and in orbeon where the URI/URL has been saved?
2. How can I view the data entered into the forms?
3. Is it possible to have Orbeon point to an external instance of eXist-db rather than the built-in one?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

As a general thing, it really helps if you use a tool to monitor HTTP requests when working with eXist and Orbeon. See Monitoring HTTP Requests. I personally use both HttpScoop and Charles on OS X. With such tools you will see exactly how Orbeon Forms reads and writes from the persistence layer and eXist.

1. For a published form definition:

   http://{$host}/orbeon/fr/service/persistence/crud/{$app}/{$form}/form/form.xhtml

   For a form definition just saved (but not published) by Form Builder:

   http://{$host}/orbeon/fr/service/exist/crud/orbeon/builder/data/{$document}/data.xml

2. You mean without using the Form Runner Summary page? Something like:

   http://{$host}/orbeon/fr/service/exist/crud/{$app}/{$form}/data/{$document}/data.xml

3. Yes. See Configuring a Form Runner eXist database.

To access the persistence API from the browser, you will also want:

<property as="xs:string"
  processor-name="oxf:page-flow"
  name="service-public-methods"
  value="#all"/>

But don't leave that in production!