What's New in Oxygen XML Author 19.1
September 29, 2017
Version 19.1 of the oXygen XML Author brings you a variety of new features and improvements that focus on productivity, efficiency, and simplicity.
This maintenance release includes numerous productivity improvements for DITA, enhancements to various components in the WebHelp Responsive system, a new built-in CSS to PDF processing engine called Oxygen PDF Chemistry, a new visual Author mode in the file comparison tool, and much more. As usual, this version also contains numerous new API and component updates.
DITA
New Components Tab in the DITA Reusable Components View
A new Components tab has been added to the DITA Reusable Components view. It collects reusable
components (elements with an ID) from all topics within your root map that are marked as
resource only and provides a very quick and simple way to insert
content references in your documents. The available components list also includes ways to
filter and search for particular reusable components.
DITA Table Validation Improvements
Various improvements were made to the table structure
validation in DITA. For example, additional errors are reported when cells
overflow the table row or when the column numbers are not properly specified for each
column.
Validation Option to Check for Duplicate Key Definitions
A new option was added in the DITA Map
Completeness Check dialog box that reports multiple key definitions
with the same key name. This is helpful in cases when people use by mistake the same key
name to refer two or more different resources as all references will point to the first
resource encountered and the others will be ignored.
Convert To General Task
Another DITA
topic conversion operation was added that allows you to convert to a
General Task topic type. It is a lest restrictive alternative to the
Strict Task topic type.
Better Completion Assistance for Values in the Attributes View and In-place Attributes Editor
When editing DITA href, conref or
conkeyref attributes, both the in-place Attributes editor dialog and
the Attributes view will show proposals of target file names and IDs
depending on the value written so far. Also when inserting multiple values for a profiling
attribute you can press the CTRL+SPACE shortcut to choose from a list of
profiling attribute values.
Float Images in PDF and XHTML Output
You now have the possibility of floating images to the left or right side of your DITA topics
in PDF and XHTML output.
Editor Variables for DITA Root Maps
Some new editor variables were added that expand to a path or URL for DITA root
maps. Specifically, ${rootMapFile} and ${rootMapDir}
expand to the file path of the current root map and current root map's parent directory,
respectively. Similarly, ${rootMapURL} and
${rootMapDirURL} expand to the URL of the current root map and current
root map's parent directory, respectively.
Visual Editing Mode
Author Mode Table Improvements
Oxygen now automatically renames all references to a
column name in the entire table when its value is changed in the Attributes
view.
Pasting Text Formatted with Monospace Font in Author Mode Converts it to an Inline Code Element
The Smart Paste mechanism will style text
fragments formatted with the monospace Courier New font wrapped in
an inline code element (for example, in DITA it would be wrapped in
codeph).
Browser Form Control Can Listen for Document Changes
A browser form control can receive notifications whenever
something changes in the document so that it can update that information. This makes it
easier than ever to create custom form controls with only a bit of HTML and JavaScript
coding.
Chemistry
Oxygen PDF Chemistry
Our new product called Oxygen PDF
Chemistry allows you to obtain PDF output from HTML or XML documents
simply by styling them with CSS. It comes bundled with the standard distributions of
Oxygen and is a CSS Paged Media processor based on the open-source
Apache FOP XSL-FO engine. Its main purpose is to provide you with a simple tool that
allows you to leverage your CSS knowledge to create printable deliverables. It is
particularly a great processor for generating technical documentation.
WebHelp Responsive
Side TOC Component Improvements
The side TOC component received a lot of improvements to make
it easier to navigate through the topics in your documentation. It now
includes expand/collapse buttons that you can use to see the child topics for a particular
topic. Also, when you hover over a topic, a short description is now displayed in a
tooltip. Furthermore, you can now control whether the side TOC will
only present topics from the active chapter or all topics from your entire
publication.
WebHelp Menu is Created Dynamically
The WebHelp menu was redesigned so that it is created
dynamically when the user hovers over a certain topic. This reduces the size of the
generated HTML files and increases the loading speed.
Automatic Permanent Links
Automatic permanent links are generated for topics that
contain inner sub-sections. These links are useful when you want to share an exact section
from your documentation with others.
Index Terms Page Redesigned
The index page was redesigned and improved. An alphabet that
contains the first letter of the documentation index terms is now generated at the top of
the index page. Each letter represents a link to a specific indices section. More over,
the indexes are presented in multiple columns to make it easier to read this page.
Next/Previous Navigation Buttons
Next and Previous navigational
buttons are generated depending on the
collection-type="sequence" attribute that is set on the topic
references in your DITA map. If you don't want to set this attribute on all
topicref elements, you can instead use the
webhelp.default.collection.type.sequence parameter to set the default
value for the collection-type attribute to
sequence.
Comparison Tools
File Comparison Tool Now Includes a Visual Author Mode
The file comparison tool now allows you to display the files in a visual
Author mode. This makes it easier to see how the compared changes will look in
the final output once the changes are merged. This new visual mode includes unique
features such as actions to control the tags display mode, the ability to do second level
comparisons, and it presents differences made with Change Tracking
enabled.
3-Way Directory Comparison Improvements
When performing three-way
comparisons on directories, you now have the option to automatically open
all the files that are modified by the merge operation after the operation is
finished.
New Editing Features in File Comparison Tool
When XML files are opened in the file comparison
tool, its Text mode now includes many of the usual editing features
that are present in the Text mode in Oxygen (such as content
completion, the ability to rename elements, to
highlight matching tags, and more).
Content Completion
Configure Content Completion Proposals to Insert Attribute Values
When using our special XML configuration file to define custom constraints for
elements or attributes that are proposed in the Content Completion Assistant,
you can now use a new attribute called insertAttribute to not only insert
a specified attribute but also its value, when the user selects that proposal from the
content completion list.
CSS
CSS Paged Media Expressions Can be Formatted
You now have the ability to format and indent (pretty-print) CSS page
(@page) and media (@media) expressions.
Validation Errors
We performed some changes to the application UI regarding the reporting of
validation errors. The result was a simplification of the UI, with less
clutter.
The link to the W3C Specification and the link to the Main Schema file were removed
The W3C Schema specification is very hard to read and understand by the typical
user. The link to the specification was removed from the error details in all places where
the error is displayed. The link to the main schema file presented in the
Message dialog was also removed.
Cleaned up the validation error message
The cryptic codes reported by the validation engine in the error message (like
cvc-complex-type.2.4.a) were removed, resulting in more space for showing the effective
error message.
Other
Mac OS X 10.13 (High Sierra)
Oxygen has been tested and supports the latest Mac operating system: OS X
High Sierra (10.13).
New Convert Attribute to Element Refactoring Operation
A new refactoring operation was added that allows you to quickly
convert attributes to elements.
Oxygen SDK Now Provides Media Form Controls
The Oxygen SDK now provides form
controls that can be used to render media objects in Author
mode.
New External Transformer Plugin for Saxon 9.8
Streaming large documents is now possible with the Saxon 9.8 external transformer which can be installed as an
add-on. The Saxon 9.7 version of the external plugin also has the ability to
stream documents.
Accessibility Improvements
Improved section 508 compliance accessibility features to make Oxygen more
accessible to users with visual disabilities.
Search for Opened Files
A new Switch
Editor Tab action opens a dialog box that allows you to find and
switch to a particular opened editor tab.
Attribute Editing Improvements
When using the Attributes view in both the Text and
Author editing modes (and the in-place attributes editor in Author
mode), you can now use Ctrl-Space in the Value field to
show a list of possible choices and to compose compound values (such as
profiling attribute values) from multiple simple values.
API
DITA Topic Type Conversion and Duplicate Actions are Available in Action Provider API
The DITA topic type conversion and Duplicate actions are now available in the
DITAMapActionsProvider API.
Listener for when Editor is Closed
A new WSEditorListener.editorAboutToBeClosedVeto(URL) method was
added. It is called when an editor is about to be closed, allowing you to decide whether
or not the closing operations should proceed.
Pop-up Menu Customizer
A new MenusAndToolbarsContributorCustomizer.customizeEditorTabPopUpMenu(JPopupMenu,
WSEditor) API method was added. It allows you to customize the menu
shown when right-clicking the editor tabs from both the main editing area and the DITA
Maps Manager.
Get Encoding of the Current Editor
A new WSEditorBase.getEncodingForSerialization() API method was
added and it can be used to get the encoding of the current editor.
Customize DITA Maps Manager Icons
The existing DITAMapNodeRendererCustomizer API now offers the possibility
of customizing the icons that are displayed in the DITA Maps Manager.
Access Oxygen's Proxy Settings
A new StandalonePluginWorkspace.getProxyDetailsProvider API was
added and it allows a plugin to access Oxygen's HTTP(S) proxy settings.
Open Referenced Resource at Cursor Location
A new WSAuthorEditorPageBase.buildURLForReferencedContent API was
added. If the cursor is placed somewhere inside an entity reference, an
xi:include reference, or a DITA content reference, this method will
return a URL that, when used with Oxygen's Workspace.open(URL) API, will open the target resource and
position it precisely at the location where the cursor was in the original XML document
that referenced the content.
Compare Differences in Files from an Oxygen Plugin
A new PluginWorkspace.getCompareUtilAccess().createDiffPerformer()
API was added and it allows custom code which runs in an Oxygen plugin to compare the
differences of two XML files.
Customize the Project View
A new StandalonePluginWorkspace.getProjectManager() API was added
that allows you to customize the Project view. For example, add new actions to the
contextual menu, refresh a folder, or link a folder.
Component Updates
Schematron 2016
Updated Schematron schemas to the latest version (Schematron
2016).
Calabash 1.1.16
Updated the Calabash engine to version 1.1.16.
ECMAScript 2016
Updated syntax highlighting to the latest specifications (ECMAScript
2016).
Eclipse 4.7
The Oxygen Eclipse plugin was updated to officially support the latest
Eclipse version 4.7.
DITA-OT 2.5.2
Updated the bundled DITA-OT distribution to version 2.5.2.
Saxon 9.7.0.19
Updated the Saxon 9.7 libraries bundled with Oxygen to version
9.7.0.19.
Saxon 9.7 and 9.8 External Add-ons updated
Updated the Saxon 9.8 add-on to version 9.8.0.4 and updated the Saxon 9.7
add-on to version 9.7.0.20.
DITA For Publishers Plugin 1.0.0RC26
Updated the DITA For Publishers plugins bundled with Oxygen and used for
publishing DITA to EPUB to version 1.0.0RC26.
Apache XML Graphics FOP 2.2
Updated the Apache XML Graphics FOP processor used to create PDFs to the latest
stable version 2.2.
Apache Batik 1.9
Updated the Apache Batik libraries used for SVG support to version
1.9.
EPUB OPF 3.1
Updated EPUB validation support for the Open Package Format (OPF) to version
3.1.
MarkLogic 9
Oxygen has been tested and is officially compatible with the MarkLogic 9
server.
TEI Schemas 3.2.0
Updated the bundled TEI schemas to version 3.2.0.
TEI XSLT 7.43.0
Updated the bundled TEI XSLTs to version 7.43.0.