MAY Gaps

Ch7 exception signaling for invalid XPath/function paths

Current runtime does not reliably surface required exception signal (xforms-binding-exception / xforms-compute-exception) for several W3C Chapter 7 negative-path tests. Affected promoted behavioral tests:

• 7.5.a — compute exception
• 7.5.b — binding exception
• 7.8.2.c — property() invalid NCNAME
• 7.8.3.c — digest() invalid NCNAME
• 7.8.3.d — digest() invalid QName
• 7.8.3.e — digest() invalid encoding
• 7.8.4.c — hmac() invalid NCNAME
• 7.8.4.d — hmac() invalid QName
• 7.8.4.e — hmac() invalid encoding
• 7.12.a — invalid functions attr Observed behavior:
• No modal dialog for expected exception event.
• No stable fatal-error text containing expected exception token. Needed fix later:
• Ensure evaluator/dispatch layer emits correct xforms-*-exception event for these failures.
• Ensure fallback fatal text path preserves explicit exception token when event cannot dispatch.
• Keep behavior aligned with W3C criteria (message OR fatal due to same exception).

Ch7 7.8.2.c invalid property output stability

property('invalid') path currently fails before stable "Invalid Property : <empty>" output can be asserted. Affected promoted behavioral test:

• 7.8.2.c — property() invalid NCNAME renders empty Invalid Property output Needed fix later:
• Preserve render of output label/value container even when xforms-binding-exception fires.
• Keep value empty while still surfacing expected exception signal.

Ch8 smoke promotions blocked by missing event/message dispatch

Several Chapter 8 controls render, but required modal/event signals are not emitted consistently enough for deterministic behavioral assertions. Affected smoke tests:

• 8.1.2.a — input incremental
• 8.1.4.a — textarea incremental
• 8.1.10.d — select out of range
• 8.1.11.d — select1 out of range
• 8.2.4.a — alert refs instance
• 8.2.4.b — alert inline text
• 8.2.4.c — alert binding precedence
• 8.3.3.a — value binding restrictions Observed behavior:
• Prior promotion attempts timed out waiting for expected dialogs/messages.
• 8.1.10.d and 8.1.11.d can update output to Selected Flavor : mango, but xforms-out-of-range messaging is not surfaced. Needed fix later:
• Ensure the event pipeline dispatches xforms-value-changed and xforms-out-of-range reliably and executes xforms:message actions.
• Wire xf:alert to a test-observable message path, including bind/ref precedence handling.
• Emit stable xforms-binding-exception signaling for invalid xf:value binding cases.

Ch8 secret control support blocks promotion

Affected smoke tests:

• 8.1.3.a — secret incremental
• 8.1.3.b — secret binding restrictions Observed behavior:
• Secret control rendering/input semantics are not stable enough to assert incremental behavior. Needed fix later:
• Implement xf:secret rendering as an interactable password control with correct binding wiring.
• Support incremental=\"true\" dispatch semantics for xf:secret.
• Enforce secret-control datatype restrictions with xforms-binding-exception (or explicit fatal token fallback).

Ch8 upload smoke coverage needs deterministic upload semantics

Affected smoke tests:

• 8.1.6.b — upload incremental
• 8.1.6.c — upload filename/mediatype
• 8.1.6.d — upload binding restrictions
• 8.1.6.e — upload element Note:
• 8.1.6.a is non-normative and remains render-only. Needed fix later:
• Propagate selected file name/content-type into bound instance nodes and related outputs deterministically.
• Dispatch xforms-value-changed for incremental upload interactions.
• Enforce upload datatype restrictions with binding-exception signaling.

Ch8 exception/fatal-token signaling still needs hardening

Affected smoke tests:

• 8.1.1.a — form control binding restriction
• 8.1.1.c — relevant becoming non-relevant
• 8.1.4.b — textarea binding restrictions
• 8.1.5.c — output UI common
• 8.1.6.d — upload binding restrictions
• 8.1.7.f — range binding restrictions
• 8.1.7.g — range binding basic Current blocker:
• These rely on stable exception/message signaling (xforms-binding-exception or equivalent modal/fatal token), which is not yet deterministic enough for strict behavioral assertions. Needed fix later:
• Centralize exception propagation so both modal-message and fatal-text fallback paths preserve explicit exception tokens.
• Ensure control action handlers receive expected exception events consistently.

Ch8 submit smoke test lacks a deterministic assertion surface

Affected smoke test:

• 8.1.9.a — submit Current blocker:
• No stable, test-observable outcome is surfaced in this harness for submission completion/error. Needed fix later:
• Expose submission lifecycle events (xforms-submit, xforms-submit-done, xforms-submit-error) through a deterministic UI/test hook.

Ch8 help/hint dispatch remains a known engine gap

Affected smoke-gap tests (currently render-only fixme):

• 8.2.2.a — help message (inline)
• 8.2.2.b — help message (src)
• 8.2.2.c — help message (instance)
• 8.2.3.a — hint message (inline)
• 8.2.3.b — hint message (src)
• 8.2.3.c — hint message (instance) Needed fix later:
• Implement xforms-help / xforms-hint dispatch behavior so messages are emitted via a test-observable path.

XHTML+XForms direct input handling is inconsistent

Affected coverage:

• tests/supplemental/xhtml-source-node.spec.ts (direct .xhtml sourceNode renders XForms controls)
• Related harness path currently relies on pre-normalization: test-app/w3c-runner.html Observed behavior:
• Direct XHTML sourceNode forms do not render expected XForms controls (e.g. #xhtml-direct-root never appears).
• Engine accepts XHTML roots, but in xformsjs-main the XHTML global document path is redirected to ixsl:page(), so provided XHTML input is not used as canonical source.
• W3C runner currently works around this by rewriting XHTML into a synthetic xf:xform before calling the transform. Current blocker:
• Input handling is split across engine/runtime and harness-specific rewrite logic, so behavior differs between direct XHTML callers and runner-mediated flows. Needed fix later:
• Add engine-level canonical normalization so both xf:xform and XHTML+XForms inputs converge to one internal processing path.
• Remove/replace XHTML xforms-doc-global → ixsl:page() substitution in source selection precedence so explicit input documents are honored.
• Keep relative URI/base-URI semantics stable for instance/submission resolution while normalizing input.
• After parity is proven, retire runner-only XHTML rewrite as default behavior.