History

What is new in <oXygen/> XML Editor 9.2

Version 9.2 introduces a new Author edition specially tuned for content authors providing a well designed interface for XML editing by keeping only the relevant authoring features. The major additions in <oXygen/> 9.2 are related to the WYSIWYG-like editing support and in particular to the DITA support. The general visual editing improvements include displaying the resolved content in the editor and navigation through links. With the new DITA features that include a new DITA map editor, an action for inserting conref links, a tight integration with the latest version of the DITA Open Toolkit through <oXygen/>'s normal transformation scenarios mechanism, <oXygen/> becomes the leading DITA editor and the easiest to use. Other improvements include browsing of XML databases using WebDAV connections, better handling of CJK text, support for the Intel^® XML Software Suite and multiple component updates.

The DITA Maps are key components for authoring DITA content. Managing these files and the referenced topics is an important feature for a DITA aware editor.

The new DITA Maps Manager allows viewing and editing of DITA map files. It acts also similar with a project manager allowing you to easily open different topics/concepts for editing. The DITA maps manager is shown each time you open a .ditamap file in <oXygen/> and it will appear as a tab in the same stack as the Project view. A double click on a file reference listed in a DITA map opens that file in the editor. The toolbar, the contextual menu and drag and drop actions allow you to easily edit the map content.

The tool chain for generating output in a multitude of formats (XHTML, PDF, HTML, JavaHelp, Eclipse Help, DocBook, etc.) is ready to use out of the box as <oXygen/> includes the latest version of the DITA-OT.

Power users have also the possibility to fine tune the transformations by using the advanced options like specifying parameters for the ANT build files, filtering content using a DITAVAL file, providing a custom build file, etc.

You can generate high quality PDF output using the PDF2 transformation scenario. It uses the Idiom FO plugin that comes already installed in the DITA Open Toolkit bundled in <oXygen/>. The plugin transforms a DITA map to PDF using the XEP processor - if this is configured in <oXygen/> XML Editor - or the built-in Apache FOP processor.

You can easily insert a conref in a DITA document using the "Insert a DITA Content Reference" action. It allows you to choose the target ID by selecting it from the list of IDs defined in a topic.

The XML content referred with DITA conref is presented in place as a read only block that can be collapsed/expanded. In this way the XML editor shows a picture of the entire XML document with all the XML references resolved.

With the navigation links support it becomes easy to go from a DITA conref to the referred content, from a DocBook link to the target element or from an XInclude reference to the included content, etc. by just a single click.

<oXygen/> XML Editor fully supports the input methods for CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) text. The editor displays an on-the-spot popup window with the composed text when the inserted characters belong to the CJK codepages. The composed text is shown in the context of the document that it will eventually belong to, in a style that indicates that the text still needs to be converted or confirmed by the user.

The wrapping of CJK (Chinese Japanese Korean) text in the Author mode of <oXygen/> XML Editor takes into account some rules for wrapping at punctuation marks in East Asian languages. For example in CJK text a punctuation mark cannot be the first character of a line.

The Find All Elements action is available in all the XML editor modes: Text, Author and Grid. It represents an easy way to search for XML elements by their tag names, attribute names and values.

It is a lot easy to rename elements in <oXygen/>. When the start tag of an XML element is edited then the matching end tag is automatically changed thus keeping the XML document well formed and saving you a few keystrokes. This behavior is controlled from the user preferences.

XML Schemas contain annotations for providing additional information like documentation or application specific information. For instance a schema can contain documentation for its components in XHTML or can contain Schematron embedded rules. Now it is possible to specify a schema for these annotations and <oXygen/> will use that for providing content completion proposals, thus providing a better editing support.

The XPath 2.0 checks used in an ISO Schematron schema or a Schematron 1.5 schema can be executed optionally with Saxon 9 SA instead of Saxon 9 B in order to access the schema aware features of Saxon 9 SA.

The allow-foreign parameter set for Schematron processing allows XML elements which are outside the ISO Schematron namespace like xsl:function and xsl:import-schema to be used inside an ISO Schematron schema.

What is new in <oXygen/> XML Editor 9.1

Version 9.1 adds a number of improvements, the main additions being related with the WYSIWYG-like XML editor and with the WebDAV support. It contains also support for SOAP 1.2 and some updated components.

What was new in <oXygen/> XML Editor 9.0

The main feature of version 9.0 is a CSS-based visual XML editor allowing WYSIWYG-like editing of XML documents. With an innovative approach to XML authoring <oXygen/> allows you to work with XML frameworks (DocBook, DITA, TEI, XHTML, etc) easier than ever before. Version 9 adds a new concept called Document Type that allows you to provide ready-to-use support for a framework or an XML language and share it with other users. This version also brings improved error reporting for validation against Relax NG schemas and Schematron, additional side view helpers, some component updates and a number of other features.

As always, <oXygen/> does not try to reinvent the wheel and does not lock users into custom formats. The WYSIWYG like rendering is driven by CSS stylesheets conforming with the W3C CSS 2.1 specification. Some enhancements introduced by the W3C CSS 3 working draft like CSS XML namespaces and the attr function are also supported.

The tagless editor comes with ready to use support for largely used XML frameworks: DITA, DocBook 4 / DocBook 5, TEI P4 / TEI P5, XHTML. This support includes document templates for easily creating new XML instances, CSS for WYSIWYG like editing, interface actions for creating and editing lists, tables and marking up specific content, XML Catalogs for faster access to resources, schema files for validation, transformation scenarios to convert from XML to HTML and/or PDF.

The CALS Table Model is a standard for representing tables in SGML/XML. The editor supports the CALS table model for DocBook and DITA. The HTML table model is supported for XHTML and DocBook.

<oXygen/> combines the easy way of working in a visual WYSIWYG like XML editor with the full power of XML source editing. Also, the Outliner view, which is synchronized with the edited XML document, shows the entire markup structure.

Just press the Enter key and you will have the list of all XML elements that can be inserted at the caret position.

The Author mode allows drag and drop editing. You can select the XML content then drag and drop it in the desired location to move or copy that content.

Hiding the XML markup can have the disadvantage of losing the visual markers (the element tags) between text nodes. Fortunately, <oXygen/> has a solution for this: the location tooltip combined with the marks from the XML outliner and with the location bar allows you to know at each moment what is the current location in the document. Additionally, there are several levels of display for XML element tags ranging from no tags to full tags.

The WYSIWYG like editor was closely integrated in <oXygen/> as an editor tab called Author next to the Text and Grid editing modes. All <oXygen/>'s powerful editing actions are also available in the Author mode. These include: spell checking (on request and as you type), XML validation (continuous, on request), search and replace, XPath execution, etc. Also all side views that <oXygen/> provides are offering information when editing in Author mode.

You can specify the default schema to be used for validation and content completion for the documents that match a document type. This schema can be overwritten if the XML document itself specifies a schema inside. All the current schema languages are supported DTD, XML Schema, Relax NG, ISO Schematron, ISO NVDL.

You can specify a set of CSS files, including alternates and default CSS that will be used by <oXygen/> when editing in Author mode.

You can define custom actions for the Author mode that will appear in tool bar, menu or contextual menu. These actions in general add support for inserting XML markup structures, lists, list items, tables, table rows, table columns, etc. in the specific framework the document type describes. <oXygen/> provides a set of operations that can be used to implement most of the actions. If needed you can code your own operations in Java and use them to define your actions.

You can specify a folder where you have document templates (XML or not). These templates will be gathered automatically by <oXygen/> and will appear in the new file dialog allowing easy creation of the new documents of the defined document type.

You can specify XML Catalogs for the document type that resolve remote resources to local copies. This allows a faster access to those resources (schemas, stylesheets, etc.) and also allows to work offline without changing the XML documents to explicitly point to local resources.

You can specify a set of transformation scenarios to convert the XML documents to different formats like HTML and PDF.

Shows the XML elements defined by the schema that can be inserted at the current position in the document.

When editing in the Author visual editing mode you can add elements before or after the element where the caret is located.

Shows the defined XML entities. You can insert an entity by clicking on its label.

The overall structure of a CSS stylesheet edited in the CSS Editor is available in the Outline view similar with the Outline view of the XML Editor. You can sort the CSS rules alphabetically either by the entire selector or by the last component of the selector.

The overall structure of an XQuery module is presented: the module name, the import declarations, the variables, the XML namespaces and the user defined functions.

The diagnostics messages issued by a Schematron schema are displayed together with the other validation errors. Schematron report messages are treated as warnings.

You can preview the printing result before actually printing an XML document.

What was new in <oXygen/> XML Editor 8.2

The key word for <oXygen/> XML Editor version 8.2 is innovation. It brings the first XQuery debugger against a native XML database allowing users of the MarkLogic 3.2 database to debug their XQuery code based on the new MarkLogic Server 3.2 XQuery debugging API. <oXygen/> is the first tool announcing ISO Schematron support covering also ISO Schematron embedded in XML Schema or Relax NG, abstract patterns and included Schematron schemas. <oXygen/> version 8.2 is the first XML IDE that enables working with modules (XML external entities, included/imported stylesheets, XQuery modules, etc.). You can validate the current module in the context it is used from and also perform multiple validation operations in a single action using the new validation scenarios feature. To the main features list we can add also the capability to view very large files with sizes larger than a Gigabyte and multi-line find/replace support.

Queries executed on a MarkLogic 3.2 database can now be debugged in the XQuery Debugger perspective of <oXygen/>. The following views are displayed in this perspective: Breakpoints, XWatch, Context, Variables and Stack. The debugger is able to show debugging information inside modules.

<oXygen/> has a Schematron editor that detects automatically from the namespace that the edited Schematron schema is ISO Schematron. It offers content completion with documentation for the ISO Schematron elements, attributes and values and also features continuous validation.

When editing XML Schemas <oXygen/> offers inside xs:annotation/xs:appinfo ISO Schematron proposals though content completion thus allowing easier editing of Schematron embedded rules.

The validation support from <oXygen/> handles validation against ISO Schematron schemas. This includes validation on request, continuous validation and batch validation.

ISO Schematron rules can be embedded in other schemas. <oXygen/> offers validation against ISO Schematron rules embedded in Relax NG schemas or in XML Schemas.

<oXygen/> handles also ISO Schematron schemas that contain abstract patterns or references to other ISO Schematron files through sch:include. There is a limitation on schema validation that checks the document as it is, without expanding the includes.

Validation scenarios are a very powerful feature and they solve a number of important issues when working with XML and XML related technologies. They allow working with modules and performing multiple validations in one action.

By default the validation of a document is done by using a processor (XML parser, XSLT transformer, XQuery engine, etc.) to analyze the current file. The validation scenario allows to specify a set of files to validate and for each file what processor to use and whether or not to perform continuous validation. Thus if you work on a module you can set the validation on the master file, the file that refers that module. Also you can perform multiple validations with different processors or on different files.

The Find/Replace is enhanced with multi-line capabilities. Both the find and the replace expressions can cover multiple lines of the document. This together with the regular expressions and XPath filtering support allow powerful changes to be applied on the document content.

Usually an HTML document contains scripting and style information. The format and indent operation that applies to HTML text content is not suitable for formatting scripts and CSS styles. Therefore <oXygen/> detects these sections and automatically pretty-prints the embedded JavaScript and CSS sections using the JavaScript and CSS formatting options.

What was new in <oXygen/> XML Editor 8.1

Version 8.1 of <oXygen/> XML Editor improves the support for NVDL scripts and adds a series of enhancements, fixes and component updates.

When editing an XQuery file, <oXygen/> detects the documents used as inputs and presents a simplified outline for each one. The input view can analyse documents that are stored on the local file system.

You can use the Drag and Drop triggered popup menu to easily create XQuery FLWOR constructs or XPath expressions.

What was new in <oXygen/> XML Editor 8.0

Version 8.0 of the <oXygen/> XML Editor adds as main features a spreadsheet-like XML Grid Editor, management support for both XML and relational databases: Berkeley XML Database, eXist, IBM DB2 PureXML, MarkLogic, Microsoft SQLServer 2005, Oracle 10g R2, RainingData TigerLogic XDMS, SoftwareAG Tamino and XHive XML Database, options and transformation scenarios that can be stored into the project file and support for NVDL (Namespace-based Validation Dispatching Language) scripts.

You can save the current editor layout (what views and toolbars are visible and their position) and reuse it later, or even share it with your team.

<oXygen/> has several predefined layouts, ranging from the Basic Layout - containing only the project and the outliner to the Advanced Layout - containing all the views. There are also available XML Schema development and XSLT development layouts showing only the specialized views and toolbars.

Using the Database perspective you can browse tables or collections from databases, execute XQuery or SQL queries, inspect or modify data, specify XML Schemas for the XML fields and collections.

The database support includes many of the popular servers, operating either as native XML storage: Tamino, XHive, MarkLogic, TigerLogic, eXist, Berkeley or mixed, as relational and XML at the same time: DB2, SQLServer, Oracle.

The support for Berkeley XML DB includes: resource management, resource editing, XQuery. See configuration details.

The support for eXist XML Database includes: multiple server connections, resource management, resource editing, XQuery. See configuration details.

The support for MarkLogic includes: multiple server connections, XQuery execution and debugging. See configuration details.

The support for Microsoft SQLServer 2005 database includes: multiple server connections, resource management, XML Schema registration, XQuery and SQL execution, table data editing. See configuration details.

The support for Oracle 10g R2 database includes: multiple server connections, resource management, XML Schema registration, XQuery and SQL execution, table data editing. See configuration details.

The support for the RainingData TigerLogic XDMS includes: multiple server connections, XQuery execution. See configuration details.

The support for SoftwareAG Tamino includes: multiple server connections, resource management, Tamino Schema registration, XQuery execution, resource and schema editing. See configuration details.

The support for XHive XML Database includes: multiple server connections, resource management, resource editing. See configuration details.

You can specify both the transformation XML source and the stylesheet locations, it is not required anymore for the edited document to be one of the transformation XML source or stylesheet. This allows editing a module and invoking a transformation on the master files.

You can specify almost all of the <oXygen/> settings at project level. This makes possible to pass along with the project XML Catalogs settings, transformation scenarios, formatting options, validation options, editor layout, etc.

What was new in <oXygen/> XML Editor 7.2

Version 7.2 of the <oXygen/> XML Editor adds as main features a complete Subversion client, support for flattening XML Schemata, an XML Schema instance generator, integration with the X-Hive/DB, MarkLogic and TigerLogic XML databases, editing actions on the diagram, rename refactoring action and search references/declarations actions in XML Schema and Relax NG schemata editors.

<oXygen/> XML Schema instance generator can quickly generate a large set of XML document samples based on a given XML Schema.

You can specify the following parameters: namespace prefixes, generation of optional elements and attributes, default or random values for elements, number of repetitions, choice strategy for choice and substitution group definitions. The parameters can be global but also specific to a namespace or specific to an element this allowing fine tunning of the result instances.

The regular expressions builder helps you to construct and test regular expressions allowed in XML Schema restriction patterns.

There are provided a table with regular expression patterns organized in categories and a test area for checking the instances accepted by the expression. Content completion is available in the regular expressions editor.

Sometimes it is useful to aggregate the set of files that compose an XML Schema into a single file. The Flatten Schema refactoring action allows you to make this change. The action handles also xs:redefine elements by assigning an unique name to each redefined type or group.

This action allows renaming any schema component (element, type, group, named pattern, etc). The scope can be set to the current file, all the files in project or the set of files determined by include/import instructions staring with a specified file.

You can find either declarations or references of XML Schema components. The search scope can be the current file, the current project or a group of files.

<oXygen/> integrates the xqDoc tool for generating HTML documentation for XQuery files with just a couple of clicks. It accepts one or more XQuery files as input and the function namespaces are configurable.

The support for XHive XML Database includes: multiple server connections, resource management, resource editing. See configuration details.

The support for MarkLogic includes: multiple server connections, XQuery execution and debugging. See configuration details.

The support for the RainingData TigerLogic XDMS includes: multiple server connections, XQuery execution. See configuration details.

You can generate a brief documentation listing the services, bindings, port types and messages defined in the WSDL file.

What was new in <oXygen/> XML Editor 7.1

Version 7.1 of the <oXygen/> XML Editor adds support for Berkeley and eXist XML Databases, an XSL templates view for easy navigation through the edited XSL stylesheet and an XPath builder view for editing complex XPath expressions. Effort has been made to improve the loading time and to reduce the memory usage especially for large documents. Multiple modifications were made to improve the general usability of the editor.

The support for Berkeley XML DB includes: resource management, resource editing, XQuery. See configuration details.

The support for eXist XML Database includes: multiple server connections, resource management, resource editing, XQuery. See configuration details.

The list of templates defined in the edited XSL stylesheet is sorted and presented in the Templates View.

The sorting can be done either by name or by match. The named templates are rendered with a different icon for easy spotting.

The view represents an easy way of navigating through large XSL stylesheets. It accepts key input and searches the template having the match/name starting with the typed letters.

Editing complex XPath expressions in the XPath toolbar can be sometimes difficult due to the size limitation. This view allows editing of multi-line expressions. The executed expressions are stored in a history list and they can be reused as necessary.

What was new in <oXygen/> XML Editor 7.0

Version 7.0 of the <oXygen/> XML Editor added more than 50 important new features like continuous validation and on screen marking of the errors, XQuery debugging, XPath content completion and XSLT refactoring actions.

<oXygen/> can be configured to mark validation errors in the edited document as you modify it using the keyboard. If you enable the Validate as you type option after the configured delay from the last key typed the validation errors will be highlighted automatically in the editor panel.

The errors, including the ones generated by the continuous validation are marked in place by underlining the error location. The locations are also marked in an overview ruler that allows quick navigation between the error markers.

<oXygen/> has built-in support for: LIBXML, XSV, SaxonSA, MSXML4.0, MSXML .NET, SQC

Different CSS profiles are supported like CSS2, CSS3, etc. and different media types like Braille or screen for instance. You can also choose the verbosity level of the validation warnings.

The validation results are descriptive and in accordance with the W3C specifications. Together with the automatic validation spotting and fixing errors is now a simple task.

Editing XPath expressions for the "match", "select", or "test" attributes is not always straight forward. <oXygen/> makes this task easier by showing in Content Assistant proposal list the XPath functions and axes, all documented with sections from the W3C specifications.

If you have configured a scenario for the edited stylesheet, then the proposal list contains also the names of the elements from the input document that are currently accepted in the XPath expression.

The XPath expressions are evaluated from the current element so relative expressions can be evaluated in different contexts.

This view presents the tree structure of the XML document set as input for the current stylesheet in the associated transformation scenario.

You can create templates or other XSL snippets by dragging the nodes from the tree into the stylesheet. The generated XPath expressions are context aware.

This search is performed for any XSLT component that has references, like variables, functions, named templates, attribute sets, etc. The search scope can be the current file, the project, or all the imported/included files starting from the current file or from a specified file.

This search is performed for any XSLT component that has declarations, like variables, functions, named templates, attribute sets, etc. The search scope can be the current file, the project, all the imported/included files starting from the current file or from a specified file.

This provides a quick retrieval of all the declarations and references of a component in the current file.

This allows renaming XSLT components like variables, templates, functions, etc. The user is fully in control of the changes as the modified files are presented in a diff view that allows inspecting all the changes that will be done before actually performing them. The scope can be the current file, the project, all the imported/included files starting from the current file or from a specified file.

The selection