Presentation held during SFScon15 - Free Software Conference, 13.11.2015 @ TIS innovation park, Bolzano -- There is a set of forms in the civic network of South Tyrol that allows citizen or companies to interact with the public administration. The eGov Competence Center has started a project to migrate many of this forms to an open standard and open software. The project is now in production phase. As a technical lead I will show an overview of the technical architecture, the orbeon software, the wysiwyg form editor and how they were integrated in the civic network. I will also show how the form submission is connected to the private area of the citizen and to the offices information systems. The communication between citizen and the government is now quicker than before and can soon become a “zero-paper” workflow!

1. Open forms for e-Gov
by Davide Montesin <d@vide.bz>
(C) 2013-2015 Davide Montesin <d@vide.bz> - License: CC BY NC ND Open forms for e-Gov - TIS innovation park South Tyrol 1 / 18

2. Project
Migration of a part of the forms of civic network to web + xml + process
(C) 2013-2015 Davide Montesin <d@vide.bz> - License: CC BY NC ND Open forms for e-Gov - TIS innovation park South Tyrol 2 / 18

3. Team
(C) 2013-2015 Davide Montesin <d@vide.bz> - License: CC BY NC ND Open forms for e-Gov - TIS innovation park South Tyrol 3 / 18

4. Goals
Easy for citizen
pure web (a web browser is enough, no plugin)
"wizard style" forms
integration in the civic network
Easy for offices
visual design/creation of forms
integration with protocol/backoffices
(C) 2013-2015 Davide Montesin <d@vide.bz> - License: CC BY NC ND Open forms for e-Gov - TIS innovation park South Tyrol 4 / 18

5. Open
Open standard
XML format: W3C XForms standard
Use of open software
forms engine: Orbeon
open source code has made easier the interoperability with local
systems
we have sent back to the community feedbacks and some
improvement we made
(C) 2013-2015 Davide Montesin <d@vide.bz> - License: CC BY NC ND Open forms for e-Gov - TIS innovation park South Tyrol 5 / 18

6. Forms features 1: pre-compiled fields
personal data are automatically copied into forms
(C) 2013-2015 Davide Montesin <d@vide.bz> - License: CC BY NC ND Open forms for e-Gov - TIS innovation park South Tyrol 6 / 18

7. Forms features 2: validation and help
Form validates type, syntax and requireness
Is possible to define custom hints and error messages
Form changes dynamically showing only applicable fields
(C) 2013-2015 Davide Montesin <d@vide.bz> - License: CC BY NC ND Open forms for e-Gov - TIS innovation park South Tyrol 7 / 18

8. Forms features 3: advanced validations
it is possible to define (simple) calculation or conditions between
controls
it is possible to populate list of values from external web services
(C) 2013-2015 Davide Montesin <d@vide.bz> - License: CC BY NC ND Open forms for e-Gov - TIS innovation park South Tyrol 8 / 18

9. Forms features 4: protocol
The form is protocolled in real time
(C) 2013-2015 Davide Montesin <d@vide.bz> - License: CC BY NC ND Open forms for e-Gov - TIS innovation park South Tyrol 9 / 18

10. Forms Builder!
(C) 2013-2015 Davide Montesin <d@vide.bz> - License: CC BY NC ND Open forms for e-Gov - TIS innovation park South Tyrol 10 / 18

11. Builder: palette and visual form
controls can be drag&drop into the page
each section of the page can be splitted indipendently in 1, 2 or
more columns
(C) 2013-2015 Davide Montesin <d@vide.bz> - License: CC BY NC ND Open forms for e-Gov - TIS innovation park South Tyrol 11 / 18

12. Builder: field properties
requireness (can be dynamic), type, contraints
custom help and error messages
formulas
(C) 2013-2015 Davide Montesin <d@vide.bz> - License: CC BY NC ND Open forms for e-Gov - TIS innovation park South Tyrol 12 / 18

13. Builder: reusable sections
it is possible to create custom reusable section
globally
office
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14. Architecture
Each form data is saved as a standard xml
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15. High level architecture (italian language)
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16. Status
The project entered the production phase at Jan 2015
Online
13.2 Ufficio Beni archeologici / Amt für Bodendenkmäler
32.4 Ufficio Caccia e pesca / Amt für Jagd und Fischerei
38. Mobilità / Mobilität
Ufficio Affari di gabinetto / Amt für Kabinettsangelegenheiten
Work in progess
About 25 new forms in the following areas
tourism, association, education, ...
municipalities
(C) 2013-2015 Davide Montesin <d@vide.bz> - License: CC BY NC ND Open forms for e-Gov - TIS innovation park South Tyrol 16 / 18

17. The future
connect further related forms together
save as draft
involve more offices and municipalities
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18. SFScon 2015: Open forms for e-Gov
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