Oxygen XML Forum

Hi, I often work with big XML files, and Oxygen gets really slow or freezes when I try to validate, search, or format them. Has anyone found a good way to make it faster?

Working with very large XML files can strain certain features. Here are proven ways to improve performance and stability in Oxygen when editing, validating, searching, or formatting big documents:

Quick setup
- Use the latest Oxygen version/build and 64-bit edition.
- Increase Java heap size for Oxygen (e.g., -Xmx4g if RAM allows). Make sure you edit the correct launcher (vmoptions or bat/sh for your distribution).

Editing and navigation
- Prefer Text mode for very large files; Author mode renders more and can be slower.
- Temporarily disable heavy background features for large files:
- Automatic validation as you type.
- Content completion and occurrences highlighting.
- Spell checking.
- Code folding and continuous outline sync.
- Close nonessential views (Outline, Results) and reduce the number of open editors.

Validation and schema access
- Use local XML Catalogs to eliminate network lookups for schemas/DTDs.

Formatting and structure
- Pretty-printing huge or single-line XML can be expensive. Format once, then avoid re-formatting the entire file repeatedly. If you only need part, format just the selection.

Search and XPath
- Use literal search or carefully scoped regex; avoid “highlight all matches” on massive files.
- XPath on very large files can be slower than running a focused XSLT; limit queries or run transformations instead when practical.

Very large or monolithic files
- Consider splitting into smaller modules and referencing them (XInclude or external entities), so you edit manageable pieces while producing the same combined result.
- For files that are only for inspection, use the Large File Viewer.

Environment tips
- If you’re using the Eclipse plugin, remember its heap is shared with Eclipse and other plugins; try the standalone edition or increase Eclipse’s heap.

If performance is still an issue, please share a few details so we can tailor exact steps:
- Oxygen edition and version/build (Help > About).
- OS and RAM.
- File size and whether a DTD/schema is associated (and how).
- Current -Xmx value.
- Which operation is slow (validate, search, format) and whether you run it on the whole file or a selection.

If you can provide an anonymized sample that reproduces the slowdown, we can profile it and recommend precise settings.