What's New in Oxygen XML Author 25.0
October 13, 2022
Related version: 25.1
Oxygen XML Author version 25.0 provides a platform to work both with XML and XML-related resources by extending its support to other languages such as JSON and YAML, and being able to treat some file types (Word, Excel, OpenAPI, HTML, Markdown, and others) as DITA-compatible resources and thus reference and use them from DITA maps, similar to how XML DITA topics are referenced and used.
The performance when working with DITA was improved, as large maps and topics are now opened more quickly by having content references and included content expanded on-demand. The DITA map validation tool automatically validates topics that reference Relax NG schemas and it also detects if a related link points to a topic that is not included in the current map.
DITA publishing benefits from performance improvements, you can generate Google Structured Data in WebHelp output, and you can now generate PDF/A-compliant PDFs in CSS-based PDF output.
The Git Client, Batch Documents Converter, and Terminology Checker add-ons received lots of improvements, a new command-line script can be used to validate files or directories, and as usual, this release includes new API entry points, various bug fixes, and component updates.
There are changes in:
DITA Authoring
Modified Maps in the DITA Maps Manager are Automatically Saved
By default, local DITA maps that are edited in the DITA Maps Manager are
automatically saved whenever a modification is made. The Automatically save local
DITA maps after each modification option in the DITA → Maps
preferences page can be deselected to disable this feature.
Improvements for Working With DITA-Compatible Resources
Various improvements have been added to enhance your experience when working
with DITA-compatible resources (Word, Excel,
OpenAPI, HTML, Markdown) that are referenced in DITA maps and dynamically published:
- The possibility to insert a topic reference to a DITA-compatible resource in the DITA Maps Manager.
- The title for each referenced resource is presented in the DITA Maps Manager.
- When inserting topic references, cross references, or content references to content inside DITA-compatible documents, the insertion dialog box presents a list of DITA-specific IDs from the target document.
- Utilizing the Validate and Check for Completeness action, DITA-compatible documents that are referenced in the DITA map are now converted to DITA topics in the background and validated the same as any other DITA topic.
- When transforming DITA maps that have DITA-compatible documents referenced, the transformation converts the documents to normal DITA output on the fly.
Expand Map and Topic References On Demand
If the Display referenced content option is not selected in
the Author preferences page, when a DITA map is opened in the main editor
area in the Author visual editing mode, references to topics or sub-maps
can be expanded on demand by clicking the small expansion button located on each element
that contains such a reference. If the Allow referenced content to be
edited option is selected, referenced topics and sub-maps that are expanded
on-demand can also be edited directly.
Expand Content References On Demand
When opening a topic in the main editor area in the Author
visual editing mode, content references and content key references can now be expanded on
demand by clicking the small expansion button located on each element that contains such a
reference (in the main editor area). This functionality is enabled if the Display
referenced content option is not selected in the Author
preferences page.
Easy Access to DITA Metrics Report
A new Generate Metrics Report action was added to the toolbar
in the DITA Maps Manager and in the DITA Maps menu. It
generates a metrics report that contains useful statistics for the current DITA map (e.g.
the number of maps/topics, content reuse percentages, the number of
elements/words/characters, processing instructions, external links, and
more).
Define Conditional Profiling Attribute Groups in a Subject Scheme Map
It is now possible to contribute conditional profiling attribute groups by
defining them in a subject scheme map. For more details and an example, see Defining Conditional Profiling Attribute Groups in a Subject Scheme
Map.
New Action in DITA Reusable Components View Makes it Easy to Insert Images Inside Figures
In the contextual menu of the DITA Reusable Components view, a new action
(Insert as Figure) was added that saves you some steps when inserting
images inside figures. It is available if the selection is an image and it inserts the
selected image inside a figure element (
<fig>) with an empty
<title> element.
Performance Improvements When Opening DITA Maps
Various speed improvements were implemented for opening large DITA maps in the
DITA Maps Manager or opening large maps in the editor with all the referenced topics
resolved.
Enable Inline Insertion Actions in DITA Maps
A new Inline insertion actions CSS style is now available in
the Styles drop-down toolbar menu when editing a DITA map in
Author mode that makes it easier to insert new topic references. Enabling
this style renders an insertion widget in locations in the map document where a new topic
reference can be inserted.
Improvements for Editing DITA Open Toolkit Project files
To enhance the user experience when DITA Open Toolkit Project configuration
files are edited in the Author visual editing mode, all
includes now appear expanded in-place and each deliverable has a
play button that can be used to publish it individually.
Drag and Drop Resource Improvements in the Text Editing Mode
When topic references from the DITA Maps Manager view are
dragged and dropped inside a DITA topic open in the Text editing mode,
specific DITA elements that contain either direct or key references to the dropped
resources are now properly inserted.
Set the Type for Notes Using a New In-place Action
When a DITA topic contains a
<note> element, an in-place
pop-up action located next to the note type icon can be used to easily change the note
type.
Set the Syntax Highlight Language for Codeblocks Using a New In-place Action
When a DITA topic contains a
<codeblock> element, an
in-place pop-up action can be used to easily change or set a syntax highlight language
(@outputclass attribute) for the code block content.
DITA Preview for Markdown Documents More Permissive
When editing Markdown documents, the DITA preview pane is more permissive,
allowing documents that start with a high heading level or where heading levels increase
by more than one unit (the heading level skips one or more levels).
DITA Map Validation
Report Related Links Whose Target Topic is Not Referenced in the DITA Map
The DITA Maps Manager view's Validate and check for
completeness action now reports related links defined in relationship tables
whose target topics are not referenced in the DITA map when the Report links to
topics not referenced in DITA maps option is selected.
Report Validation Errors for Relax NG based DITA Topics
The Validate and Check for Completeness action was improved to
report validation errors according to the schema in Relax NG-based DITA topics even when
the Batch validate referenced DITA resources option is not
selected.
DITA Publishing
Dynamically Convert OpenAPI Documents to DITA During Publishing
The Dynamic Non-DITA Resource to DITA
Converter now includes the option to convert OpenAPI documents (in either JSON or
YAML format) to DITA during the publishing process.
Generate Google Structured Data
You can generate Google Structured Data in DITA WebHelp Responsive output.
Google uses structured data to better understand the contents of the page and display
special search results in a Google Search. For details about how to do this, see How to Generate Google Structured
Data.
Improved Publishing Speed
The speed of DITA transformations was improved when publishing from an Oxygen
kit bundled with Java 17, or when using the Oxygen Publishing Engine from the command line
using Java 9 or newer.
Syntax Highlights in Codeblocks Now Supported For New Content Types
Syntax highlights now appear in the output when publishing DITA
<codeblock> elements that contain YAML,
PowerShell, DTD, or CMD
(Windows-style command script) content.Default Validation Now Works on RNG-based Topics and Maps
By default, the publishing engine now reports errors if RNG-based topics or
maps are invalid according to the associated schema.
Publish All Deliverables for a DITA OT Project File in Author Mode
When a DITA Open Toolkit project file is open in Author mode,
there is now a play button next to the project file name that can be used
to publish all deliverables specified in the file. While the transformation is running,
the button turns into a stop button in case you need to terminate the
process.
Make Documents PDF/A-Compliant
For CSS-based PDF transformations, a new pdf.archiving.mode
transformation parameter can be used to make PDF documents archive-able. The possible
values are: PDF/A-1a, PDF/A-1b,
PDF/A-2a, PDF/A-2b, PDF/A-2u,
PDF/A-3a, PDF/A-3b, PDF/A-3u. For
more details, see How to Allow Document
Archiving.
Filter Glossary to Show Only Referenced Entries in PDF Output
For CSS-based PDF output, a new
filter.unused.glossentries
parameter can be set to yes to filter the glossary to only display
referenced glossary entries in the output. If the parameter is set to no
(the default), all glossary entries are displayed.Scaling in Image Maps Improved
When working with image maps, adding the
@scale attribute on
the <imagemap> element now scales the image and its areas in both
WebHelp and PDF output. DITA Questions/Answers
New Action to Insert Intent Question Within DITA Topic
A new action named Insert Intent Question is available in
various menus (in the Insert submenus within the DITA
menu, contextual menu, and a drop-down menu on the toolbar) and it can be used to insert a
DITA intent question (inside the prolog section). The action inserts a question (that
could be asked by a user) and its answer is found in the current topic.
New Questions and Answers DITA Topic Type
You now have the possibility of creating a new DITA topic type named
Questions and Answers (Relax NG). It is useful for creating frequently
asked question documents that contain multiple question/answer groups. Such documents are
used during the publishing process for creating Google Structured Content
metadata.
Author Visual Editing
Smart Editing in Author Mode Improved
The smart editing mechanism in Author mode was improved so that when
you start typing in a location where text is not allowed, Oxygen will search for the
closest applicable context that accepts text.
Expand xi:include References On Demand
A Display referenced content option found in the
Author preferences page can be deselected to make it possible for
xi:includes to be expanded on demand by clicking a small expansion
button that is located next to each element that contains such a reference in the main
editor area.
Support for Custom Values for the 'list-style-type' CSS Property
The Author visual editing mode now renders custom string values for the
list-style-type CSS property defined in the CSS for list items.
Add-ons
A variety of add-ons are available for Oxygen that extend the functionality of
the application.
Semantic Versioning For Add-ons
The version defined for an add-on in the XML descriptor file can now have
either the usual MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH form or the semantic version form
(MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH-PRE_RELEASED_VERSION), making it easier for
developers to create add-on builds for pre-release versions.
Git Client Improvements
Some improvements were made to the Git Client add-on:
- A new Validate each file before committing option was added in the Git Client preferences page. Selecting this option enables automatic validation of each file before each commit.
- A new Validate all files from the project's "Main Files" folder before pushing option was added in the Git Client preferences page. Selecting this option enables automatic validation of the files located in the Main Files folder before the push operation processes.
- The integrated JGit library was upgraded to version 6.3, which brings support for ssh-agent forwarding.
For a complete list of updates added in the Git Client, see https://github.com/oxygenxml/oxygen-git-plugin/releases.
Batch Documents Converter Improvements
Various improvements were made to the Batch Documents Converter add-on:
- You can now convert JSON or YAML files that use and conform to the OpenAPI specification (versions 2.0, 3.0, or 3.1) to DITA documents and there is a Create DITA maps from OpenAPI documents option that can be selected to instruct the converter to split the documents into separate topics that are referenced in a DITA map.
- Word to DITA or HTML conversion improvements:
- The Word styles mapping configuration was improved by inheriting the style configuration of the custom style from the base style.
- SVG images embedded in Word documents are preserved as SVG.
- IDs that result from image and table bookmarks are now handled better to find the correct location.
- IDs generation was improved for topics and sections by using the text from headings.
- Handling of tables was improved by preserving header row information during the conversion when converting Word to DITA or HTML.
- For HTML to DITA conversions:
- Conversion of object elements from HTML was improved by adding a proper
@outputclassattribute in the DITA result. - An option was added in the conversion dialog box that allows you to decide
whether or not the
<div>elements will be ignored.
- Conversion of object elements from HTML was improved by adding a proper
- For Markdown to DITA conversions, support was added for Markdown abbreviations.
- For HTML to XHTML conversions, the formatting of
<pre>elements is prevented.
Terminology Checker Improvements
Various improvements were added to the Terminology Checker add-on:
- XPath Context - You can define simple XPath expressions for particular defined rules to match or skip specific elements.
- Part of Speech Tagging - When scanning for terminology problems, the problem is presented only if the term's part of speech matches the one specified in the defined rule (available only for the English language).
- Phases - In the terminology configuration file, you can set the phase in which incorrect terms are detected (editing/validation/always). Performance improvements were also implemented when checking files.
- Load Terms Provided by Other Add-ons - Any Oxygen add-on (plugin) can now contribute terminology files to be used by the Terminology Checker. The contributed terminology files will be loaded and used if the contributor add-on is enabled. For more details, see Terminology Files Contributed from Other Oxygen Add-ons.
Scripting
The all platforms distribution of Oxygen is bundled with a
scripts sub-folder that contains scripts for automating and running
various utilities from a command line interface. To run any of these scripts, you need to
purchase a scripting
license.New Command Line Launcher for Validating Files or Directories
It is now possible to validate files or directories from a command line
interface. You can check that your documents are valid from an integration server and you
can generate reports in several formats (text, XML, JSON, or an HTML visual format). For
more information, see the Validate Command
Line Script topic in the user guide. The scenarios and configurations
that you use to validate files from Oxygen can be used from a command line script:
- You can specify a certain schema file to validate against.
- You can validate using the schema(s) that are internally associated within files.
- You can validate using the default Oxygen validation scenarios for respective file types.
- You can specify a validation scenario name to be referenced from either a scenarios file or a project file.
Batch Convert OpenAPI Documents to DITA
The Batch Converter script now includes the option to convert
multiple documents from OpenAPI to DITA.
Other
Syntax Highlights in DocBook 'programlisting' Element Now Supported For New Content Types
Syntax highlights now appear in Docbook-based WebHelp Classic output when
publishing
<programlisting> elements that contain
JSON, XQuery, YAML,
PowerShell, DTD, or CMD
(Windows-style command script) content.Basic Editing Support and Syntax Highlights Added for PowerShell Files
Basic editing support and syntax highlights are now provided for working with
PowerShell files in Oxygen.
Folders can be Added to the Main Files Directory
Normal folders can now be added to the Main Files directory
when the Main Files Support is enabled. Previously, only logical folders
and files could be added.
Control Indentation in Code Blocks
It is now easier to add indentation in code blocks by using the
Tab or Shift+Tab keyboard shortcuts.
XPath in Files Speed Improvements
The speed for the XPath in Files mechanism was greatly
improved when running XPath over XML documents with associated DTDs, XML Schema, or Relax
NG Schemas.
Component Updates
Java 8 is No Longer Supported
Starting with Oxygen version 25.0, Java 8 is no longer
officially supported. Java 11 is now the minimum officially supported
version.
Windows 11 Support
Starting with Oxygen version 25.0, the Windows 11 operating
system is officially supported.
OpenJDK 17.0.4.1
The version of OpenJDK that is bundled with the installation kits for providing
the Java Runtime Environment was updated to version 17.0.4.1 from Eclipse Adoptium.
OpenJDK Distribution Runs on Both Intel Macs and Apple Silicon Macs
The OpenJDK distribution of Oxygen for macOS is now universal, as the same
distribution now runs on both Intel Macs and Apple Silicon Macs.
Windows ZIP Distribution Bundles 64-bit JRE
The Windows ZIP distribution of Oxygen XML Editor/Author/Developer now bundles
the 64-bit version of the OpenJDK (17+) JRE. Previously, the Java 8u202 32-bit version was
bundled.
Eclipse 4.25
Updated the Eclipse plugin to support version 4.25.
Eclipse 4.5 is Now the Minimum Required Version
The Eclipse plugin now requires a minimum of Eclipse version 4.5.
Deprecated Support for the MathFlow Integration
Support for using MathFlow when rendering and editing MathML
equations in the Author visual editing mode is officially deprecated. It will
be replaced soon by a new integration with MathType, developed by
Wiris.
DITA OT 3.7.3
The DITA Open Toolkit version that is bundled with Oxygen has been updated to
version 3.7.3.
TEI Schemas 4.4.0
Updated the bundled TEI schemas to version 4.4.0.
TEI Stylesheets 7.53.0
Updated the bundled TEI XSLT stylesheets to version 7.53.0.
Apache FOP 2.7
Updated the Apache FOP library to version 2.7.
Apache Batik 1.15
Updated the Apache Batik toolkit to version 1.15.
Calabash 1.5.1-110
Updated the Calabash engine to version 1.5.1-110.
Everit 1.14.1
Updated the JSON Schema Validator library from Everit to version
1.14.1.
Jackson 2.13.2
Updated the third-party Jackson libraries to version 2.13.2 to help prevent
vulnerability issues. Specifically, the jackson-annotations,
jackson-core, and jackson-dataformat-yaml libraries
were updated to version 2.13.2 and the jackson-databind library was
updated to version 2.13.2.2.
JSON-Java 20220320
Updated the JSON-Java (org.json) package to version 20220320.
Saxon 11.4
Updated the built-in Saxon processor that is used for XSLT and XQuery
transformations and debugging to version 11.4.
XML Resolver 4.5.0
Updated the XML Resolver component to version 4.5.0.
Saxon SQL 11.4
Updated the saxon-sql library to version 11.4.
Saxon XSLT and XQuery Transformer Add-on Updated to Version 10.8
The Saxon 10 transformer add-on was updated to version 10.8. This allows you to validate and
transform XSLT and XQuery documents with the Saxon 10.8 engine.
Xerces XPath 2.0 Processor 1.2.1
Updated the Xerces XPath 2.0 processor to version 1.2.1.
Mozilla Rhino 1.7.14
Updated the Mozilla Rhino JavaScript engine to the latest stable 1.7.14
version.
XProc Calabash 1.5.0
The XProc Calabash engine has been updated to version 1.5.0 for Saxon
11.
SnakeYAML 1.31
The SnakeYAML library was updated to version 1.31.
API
Display Syntax Highlights for Various Code Languages
A new API method (
OxygenUIComponentsFactory.createTextArea()) was added for
creating a custom Swing JTextArea-based component that can be used to
display syntax highlights for various code languages. The
OxygenUIComponentsFactory.changeContentType() method can be used to
change the syntax highlight type for a previously created text area.Validate Certain XML Resources
A new addition is represented by the
PluginWorkspace.getValidationUtilAccess() API method that can
be used to validate and return validation problems for an arbitrary list of
resources.Obtain List of Main Files
ProjectController.getMainFileResourcesIterator() is a newly
added API method that can be used to obtain the list of resources placed in the project's
Main Files folder.Author Operations to Start and Stop Transformation Scenarios
The new ExecuteCustomizableTransformationScenarioOperation and
StopCurrentTransformationScenarioOperation predefined Author operations
allow you to start a transformation scenario with a set of custom parameters or to stop a
running transformation scenario.
Access to Author Content as Char Sequence
A new API method (AuthorDocumentController.getContentCharSequence) was added to allow access to
the char sequence that contains all text nodes and marker characters from
the Author visual editing mode.
Create Editor Panes
The OxygenUIComponentsFactory.createHTMLEditorPane(String, boolean) API method was
added to allow you to create an editor pane capable of rendering HTML code that looks
similar to the panes implemented in Oxygen.