What's New in Oxygen XML Author 25.1
March 16, 2023
Related version: 25.0
Oxygen XML Author version 25.1 is a minor release of the industry-leading bundle of tools for content authors, collaborators, and publishers. This release offers both enhancements to existing functionality as well as some brand new features that were requested by the community.
Some of the highlights of this release include various productivity improvements for DITA authors and new possibilities for DITA publishers who produce either CSS-based PDF or WebHelp output. Many of our popular add-ons were updated with new options, visual improvements, performance enhancements, and ease-of-use features. A new Live Tutorials add-on is available to help you create tutorials for learning various editing functions and another new add-on is available to help you manage Fluenta DITA translation projects. This release also provides various important component updates, bug fixes, and security enhancements.
There are changes in:
DITA Authoring
Support for Branch Filtering in Validate and Check for Completeness Operations
The Validate and Check for Completeness action that is used to
validate DITA maps was enhanced with initial support to process branch filtering
(
<ditavalref> elements) during the operation.DITA Maps Manager's Context Drop-down Menu Reorganized
The Context map drop-down menu in the DITA Maps Manager was
reorganized to improve the grouping of the contexts from DITA-OT projects that are set as
Main Files.
Option to Hide Irrelevant Contexts in DITA Maps Manager
A new option (Only display items related to currently open maps in the
Context drop-down list) was added in the DITA / Maps
preferences page and it can be activated to hide irrelevant contexts in the
Context map drop-down menu in the DITA Maps Manager. It is especially
helpful if you are working with multiple DITA-OT projects and DITA maps set as
Main Files since it helps you narrow down the relevant
contexts.
New Action to Choose Context from Main Files
A new action (Choose context from main files) is now available
in the Choose context root map drop-down menu in the DITA Maps Manager.
It can be used to search for a context in the DITA maps and the DITA-OT project files that
are set in the Main Files folder.
DITA Map Metrics Report Improved
Oxygen includes a Generate Metrics Report action on the DITA
Maps Manager's toolbar that creates a metrics report with useful statistics for the
current DITA map. The visual appearance of the resulting report was improved to make it
easier to read, and the table of contents panel on the left side now remains stationary
allowing you to scroll through the report while keeping the TOC visible.
Better Filtering Options for the DITA Reusable Components View
A new filtering option (named Show only keys with closest relative key
scope) is available in the settings menu within the Keys and
Media tabs of the DITA Reusable Components view. It filters the
presented keys to only show the relative key references that have the closest relative key
scope path to the current context (it hides the fully qualified key scope paths). This
toggle option can be combined with any of the other filtering options.
Validate a Topic in the Current Key Scope Context
When topics are opened from the DITA Maps Manager view in a
certain key scope context, the key references and content key references within the topic
are validated according to the particular context of the key scope.
APIs to Resolve Key Reference From XSLT Stylesheets or Schematron Schemas
Some APIs were added that retrieve information about DITA keys
that are referenced within a topic. The APIs can be called from XSLT Stylesheets (including XML Refactoring operations)
or Schematron schemas.
Performance Improvements for Large DITA Maps
Various performance and validation improvements were implemented for situations
when editing DITA maps with peer map references used for cross-deliverable
links.
XML Refactoring Action to Change/Remove Profiling Attribute Values Now Updates DITAVAL Files
The XML Refactoring action Change or remove profiling attribute
value now also modifies the value in DITAVAL filter files, as well as in DITA
maps and topics.
Option to Index Only Files Marked as Resource-Only in the Context DITA Map
A new setting (Only index files referenced in the context DITA map and
set as resource-only) was added in the Open/Find Resource
preferences page to only index the resources that are referenced in the context DITA map
and set as "resource-only". This setting is useful when you have a very large number of
topics, to restrict the indexing to only the resources from the main DITA map and thus to
speed up the computation of the reusable components displayed by the DITA Reusable
Components view in the Components tab.
DITA Publishing
Embed Videos in Your PDF Output (EXPERIMENTAL)
For CSS-based PDF transformations, it is now possible to embed videos
(mov, mp4, m4v) that your readers can
watch directly in your published PDF documents by referencing them from within your HTML
or XML documents. For details on how to do this, see Oxygen DITA-OT CSS
Publishing to PDF: Videos.
Display Line Numbers in Codeblocks
For CSS-based PDF transformations, it is now possible to display line numbers
in codeblocks by setting the
@outputclass attribute on the
<codeblock> elements to the show-line-numbers
value. For more details, see How to Add Line Numbering in Code Blocks.Display Whitespace Characters in Code Blocks
For CSS-based PDF transformations, it is now possible to display a visual
representation of whitespace characters in code blocks. You can do this by setting the
@outputclass attribute on the <codeblock> elements
to the show-whitespace value. For more details, see How to Display Whitespaces in Code Blocks.DITA-OT Project File Transformation Error Reporting Improved
The information, warning, and error messages that are presented in the
Results pane if issues are detected when publishing a DITA-OT Project
file were improved. For example, the messages now contain the ID of the
deliverable.
Control the Behavior of Footnotes
For CSS-based PDF transformations, a new transformation parameter
(
args.css.param.clone-referenced-footnotes) is available to control the
behavior of footnotes. When set to yes, footnotes that are referenced
multiple times throughout a publication are cloned and placed at the bottom of the page
for each occurrence. Otherwise, only the first footnote reference is placed at the bottom
of the page and subsequent references point back to the original footnote.Author Visual Editing
Improved Content Completion for Element Values
A schema or an Oxygen content completion configuration file may define a set of
values for an XML element. The content completion mechanism in Author mode now
allows you to insert any number of values from that set by re-triggering the list of
content completion proposals and filtering out the proposals that were already
inserted.
Set the Default Schema Using the Framework Extension Script
If an XML document does not specify a DTD or a schema, it is still possible for
Oxygen to determine a default schema or DTD to use for validation and content completion
if it is specified by an Oxygen framework that matches the respective document. A document
framework can also be defined with an Oxygen Framework Extension Script file and it is now possible to specify the default
schema or DTD for that framework directly in these files.
Add-ons
A variety of add-ons are available that can be used to extend the functionality
of Oxygen.
JSON Schema Documentation Generator Improvements
Various improvements were added to the JSON Schema Documentation Generator add-on:
- The time it takes to generate the documentation has been reduced significantly, especially for large schemas.
- Text content will wrap on multiple lines to avoid exceeding the cell margins.
- Schema definitions are now presented even if they are not referenced.
- Some rendering problems were fixed regarding the linking of the diagrams with the components from the documentation.
- Various performance and bug fixes were implemented, including some broken links and encoding issues.
OpenAPI Documentation Generator Improvements
The following improvements were added to the OpenAPI Documentation Generator add-on:
- You now have the option to include hyperlinks for the diagrams displayed for each JSON schema component. The hyperlink navigates to the definition of that component.
- The OpenAPI Documentation action is now properly aligned in the Generate Documentation menu on macOS distributions.
- Links from the Source code section are now functional.
- Various layout and rendering improvements were implemented.
Git Client Improvements
Some improvements were made to the Git Client add-on:
- A new options page was added for SSH connections to control SSH agent usage.
- The Oxygen project change detection mechanism was improved. It is now faster and the Git Staging view no longer needs to be displayed.
- The presentation of the labels associated with a commit in the Git History view has been improved to avoid truncating names when it is not necessary.
- The commit dot in the Git History graph associated with the head of the current branch is now painted differently to make it easier to be seen.
- Various bug fixes and performance improvements were implemented.
For a complete list of updates added in the Git Client, see https://github.com/oxygenxml/oxygen-git-plugin/releases.
Saxon XSLT and XQuery Transformer Add-on is Now Available for Saxon Version 12
A new Saxon XSLT and XQuery transformer add-on is now
available for Saxon version 12. The add-on integrates the latest major release of Saxon
(version 12.0 of the engine).
Updated Saxon XSLT and XQuery Transformer Add-on for Saxon 11
A new version for the Saxon XSLT and XQuery transformer 11 add-on is now available. The new version
integrates Saxon 11.5, the latest maintenance release of the Saxon 11
engine.
Live Tutorials Add-on
The new Live Tutorials
add-on allows you to create live tutorials for people who want to learn various
editing functions for a certain vocabulary using the application. The add-on comes bundled
with small tutorials for learning how to perform various DITA-related editing tasks in
Oxygen. For example, there are tutorials that contain various missions for learning some
basic DITA editing tasks, learning how to work with tables, learning how to edit and
insert images, and more.
Fluenta DITA Translation Add-on
Fluenta is a tool designed to simplify the translation of DITA projects. The
new
Fluenta DITA Translation add-on allows you to manage a Fluenta translation
workflow directly from within Oxygen. The Fluenta DITA Translation add-on provides access
to the following features:
- A Fluenta menu is added to the contextual menu in the DITA Maps Manager and it includes a Create project action that opens a dialog box where you can create and configure a Fluenta project.
- Once you are ready to send a project to translators, you can use the Generate XLIFF action (available in the Fluenta menu) to open a dialog box where you can select the languages and other options and then generate an XLIFF file for each selected language. You could then send the XLIFF file(s) to a translation service provider.
- Once you receive the XLIFF back from the translator, you can use the Import XLIFF action (available in the Fluenta menu) to generate a translated version of your project.
- You can edit previously created Fluenta projects by using the Edit project action (available in the Fluenta menu).
Batch Documents Converter Improvements
Various improvements were made to the Batch
Documents Converter add-on:
- The processing of table captions was improved when converting Word to XHTML or DITA. The table is now obtained with a caption child in HTML or with a title in DITA.
- The width of table columns is now preserved when converting Word to XHTML or DITA.
- The processing of figure captions was improved when converting Word to XHTML or
DITA. For XHTML, a
<figure>element is obtained with a<figcaption>child element. For DITA, a<fig>element is obtained with a<title>child element.
Terminology Checker Improvements
Two new extra plugins were added to the Terminology Checker add-on:
- The ASD Simplified Technical English Specification (ASD-STE100) Rules plugin contributes ASD Simplified Technical English Specification rules to the Terminology Checker.
- The MS Writing Style Guide Vale Rules plugin contributes a set of Vale-compatible rules based on the Microsoft Writing Style Guide to the Terminology Checker.
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.Ready-to-use GitHub Project Templates Available to Help You Explore Oxygen Scripting
Now you have access to some ready-to-use GitHub project templates and GitHub
actions that allow you to automate scripts that will be triggered every time you push
changes to your repository. The following templates are available for you to use for
inspiration and learning:
- Validate - https://github.com/oxygenxml/oxygen-script-validation-template
- Transform - https://github.com/oxygenxml/oxygen-script-transformation-template
- Compare Directories - https://github.com/oxygenxml/oxygen-script-comparison-template
- XSD/XSL/WSDL Documentation - https://github.com/oxygenxml/oxygen-script-documentation-template
Validation Script Improvements
Framework validation scenarios are automatically detected for OpenAPI,
AsyncAPI, and JSON-LD. When these types of documents are validated, the validation
scenarios that are associated with the document type are now automatically detected and
used for the validation by default.
New Script for Generating JSON Schema Documentation
A new script (
jsonSchemaDocGen.sh) is available to generate
documentation from a JSON schema file using the command line. For more details, see Scripting Oxygen: JSON Schema Documentation.New Script for Generating OpenAPI Documentation
A new script (
openApiDocGen.sh) is available to generate
documentation from an OpenAPI file using the command line. For more details, see Scripting Oxygen: OpenAPI Documentation.Other
Impose a Content Type for an Element when Configuring Content Completion
When configuring the content completion proposals at framework level using the
cc_config.xml configuration file, you can now force an element to have
a content type imposed. This is done by using the new contentType
attribute on the elementProposals and its possible values are:
elementOnly, mixed, and
empty.Basic Editing Support and Syntax Highlights Added for Dockerfile Documents
Basic editing support and syntax highlights are now provided for working with
Dockerfile documents.
Relative Paths in Framework Extension Script Files are Automatically Resolved
When using a Framework Extension Script file to customize a framework,
relative paths listed in the script file are now automatically resolved relative to the
location of the script file.
XQuery Trace Functions Now Presented in Results View
The output of the XQuery
trace() functions that are used in
XML refactoring actions for debugging purposes is now presented in the
Results view at the bottom of the application.Performance Improvements for XML Refactoring Operations
When processing XML refactoring actions that use the document
function to load additional resources, the access to schemas that are referenced in the
loaded documents is now cached to speed up the refactoring process.
Component Updates
Apache Batik 1.16
Updated the Apache Batik toolkit to version 1.16.
Apache FOP 2.8
Updated the Apache FOP library to version 2.8.
Calabash 1.5.3-110
Updated the Calabash engine to version 1.5.3-110.
CSS Validator 20220105
Updated the W3C CSS Validator library to version 20220105.
DITA OT 3.7.4
The bundled DITA Open Toolkit version was updated to version
3.7.4.
Eclipse 4.27
Updated the Eclipse plugin to support version 4.27.
EPUBCheck 5.0.0
Updated the EPUBCheck tool used to validate EPUB resources to version 5.0.0.
Also updated the schemas used to validate and provide content completion for XHTM5
documents using the latest schemas distributes with the EPUBCheck library version
5.0.0.
eXist 6.2.0
Oxygen has been tested against the latest eXist 6.2.0 server.
JSON-Java Package 20230227
Updated the JSON-Java (org.json) package to version 20230227.
macOS 13 (Ventura)
Oxygen has been fully tested on macOS 13 (Ventura) and it is now officially
supported.
OpenJDK 17.0.6
The version of OpenJDK that is bundled with the installation kits for providing
the Java Runtime Environment was updated to version 17.0.6 from Eclipse Adoptium.
SnakeYAML 1.33
Updated the SnakeYAML library to version 1.33.
TEI Schemas 4.5.0
Updated the bundled TEI schemas to version 4.5.0.
TEI Stylesheets 7.54.0
Updated the bundled TEI XSLT stylesheets to version 7.54.0.
Help System
Offline Help No Longer Available
The installation kits no longer include an offline user manual (only the online
version of the manual can be accessed from the application). A new action is now available
in the Help menu that opens the appropriate HTML page for downloading the
User Manual. It is useful when your work environment restricts internet access and you
need to view the User Manual.