What's New in Oxygen XML Editor 26.0

October 11, 2023

Oxygen XML Editor version 26 introduces the exciting new Oxygen AI Positron Assistant, an add-on that provides a powerful tool to help writers increase their productivity by performing repetitive tasks, reviewing grammar, generating structure and text, or proposing changes to improve readability. It always keeps the writer in control, offering a visual diff comparison to help quickly understand what changed and the ability to continue the chat with the AI to refine the proposals.

There is new functionality available for DITA users, XSLT/XQuery developers, as well as for JSON/YAML developers. It is now possible to generate comparison results as documents containing change tracking highlights to allow the changes to be rendered visually in the resulting documents, making it easy to review, accept, or reject them.

WebHelp publishers can look forward to some exciting advanced search features that were implemented in conjunction with the upcoming release of Oxygen Feedback 4.0. Oxygen Feedback is a modern comment management platform that allows your community to easily interact with and provide feedback on your content and it has been specifically designed to seamlessly integrate with Oxygen XML WebHelp. The advanced search features will be available once Oxygen Feedback 4.0 is released.

Some of our popular add-ons were updated such as Git Client, Batch Documents Converter, and OpenAPI Documentation Generator. As always, this release also provides various important component updates, such as DITA-OT and Saxon, bug fixes, and security enhancements.

Oxygen AI Positron Assistant

Unlock the Potential of AI with the Oxygen AI Positron Assistant add-on

Oxygen now offers the Oxygen AI Positron Assistant add-on, a powerful tool designed to enhance the productivity of writers by providing support for using AI-generated content with the Oxygen AI Positron service. Once the AI Positron Assistant add-on is installed, you gain access to two invaluable side views: the AI Positron Assistant and the AI Positron Chat. The AI Positron Assistant side-view offers a comprehensive interface for all AI actions and options, empowering you to leverage the full capabilities of AI technology. Meanwhile, the AI Positron Chat side-view presents real-time progress updates and results after triggering an action.

AI Positron Actions

The AI Positron Assistant side-view and various menus contain a variety of AI-powered actions. For example, actions are available to provide helpful hints for your next writing steps, enhance the readability of your content, correct grammar errors, generate a short description or index terms, convert passive voice phrases to active, translate content, create marketing-related material, or even restructure parts of your document. Additional custom actions can also be configured in the add-on's preferences page.

AI Chat View

The AI Positron Chat allows you to conveniently track the progress and view the results of triggered actions, along with the responses received from the AI platform. With actions available to insert the response within the document, preview the response insertion, or copy the response to the clipboard, you have complete control over the AI-generated content before it is incorporated into your document. Additionally, you can further refine the responses by sending messages directly to the AI Positron platform. It also supports storing favorite prompts and utilizing variables that expand to the selected content or the entire document, you can edit previously sent prompts, and a History drop-down allows you to revisit previous conversations and continue where you left off.

Validation Fixes

When validation problems are displayed in Oxygen's Results pane, you can right-click on a problem and use the AI Positron Fix action to request assistance from the Oxygen AI Positron platform to resolve the issue. It will propose content in the AI Positron Chat view that can be used to solve the problem.

AI Positron Preferences

The Oxygen AI Positron Assistant preferences page (Options > Preferences > Plugins) provides options for configuring custom actions and defining a context used in each action and chat request. This ensures that the AI-generated content is more relevant and aligned with your requirements, enhancing the overall quality of the responses. Additionally, the preferences page includes an option to cache identical requests. This feature works by sending fewer requests to the AI server, resulting in a faster and more efficient process.

Change Default Model

The Oxygen AI Positron Assistant preferences page has an option for changing the default model (GPT 3.5 or GPT 4) to use for the chat view and for actions that do not explicitly specify a model.

Custom AI Actions

In the Oxygen AI Positron Assistant preferences page, you can define a reference to a folder that contains custom actions, which can be easily created using Oxygen's new file wizard. The benefit of this feature is that it provides you with a seamless way to create, organize, and manage your custom actions to effectively leverage the power of AI technology within Oxygen.

Custom Schematron Rules

The add-on contributes two XPath extension functions [ai:transform-content(instruction, content) and ai:verify-content(instruction, content)] that can be used from custom Schematron schemas or XML Refactoring actions to rephrase content or to perform validation checks on existing content.

Record Examples for a Set of Instructions

This newest version introduces a valuable feature in the Oxygen AI Positron Assistant. Located in the top left corner, you will find the Record button that enables you to provide a set of instructions and record a collection of examples directly in the editing area to assist the AI in better understanding the given instructions. This allows you to save the final result in two useful ways: as a favorite prompt in the AI Positron Chat side-view that you can easily access and reuse it in future interactions with the AI Positron Assistant; or as an AI Positron action for you to streamline repetitive tasks and automate certain actions.

DITA Authoring

Apply Colors and Styles from DITAVAL Files When Editing

You can use a DITAVAL filter file to flag specific content with colors and styles. Now you can automatically apply those colors and styles to render the content in the editor by enabling a new setting called Automatically apply colors and styles from DITAVAL files referenced in the Main Files folder. You can find this setting in the preferences page: Editor > Edit Modes > Author > Profiling/Conditional Text > Colors and Styles. When enabled and DITAVAL filter files are referenced within the Main Files folder in the Project view, those colors and styles will be applied when the Show Profiling Colors and Styles option from the Profiling / Conditional Text toolbar drop-down in Author mode is also enabled.

Create New DITA Topic from a Selection of Content

This feature greatly simplifies the process of extracting and organizing parts of a document into separate topics, making your editing experience more efficient and streamlined. When editing a DITA topic in Author mode, you now have access to a new action called Extract Topic From Selection. You can find this action both in the contextual menu and in the main DITA menu allowing you to effortlessly create a new DITA topic from a selection within the current topic.

Improved Support for Non-ASCII File Names and IDs

Several improvements and bug fixes have been implemented to enhance the editing experience for DITA projects that include file names and IDs containing non-ASCII characters (such as Japanese or Chinese). One notable improvement is that when creating new DITA topics using the various available methods, Oxygen can now generate file names and IDs that contain non-ASCII characters (for such cases, the non-ASCII characters were previously omitted, resulting in DITA topics with confusing names). This ensures that your project can accurately represent and handle content in various languages.

Chinese Translations for Static Text Labels

Static text labels that are presented in the visual DITA editor (such as the labels for notes: Tip, Warning, Important, etc.) are translated into Chinese if the xml:lang attribute is set to zh-CN in the topic's root element. Previously, Chinese translations were not supported for the static text. With this update, users can now enjoy a fully localized experience, allowing for easier understanding and navigation of the visual editor.

Distinct Icons for References to Glossary Items in DITA Maps Manager

The DITA Maps Manager now presents distinct icons for references to glossentry and glossgroup topics. Previously, those types of topics shared the same icon with other types of topics, so this enhancement makes it easier to distinguish them, improving visual clarity and streamlining the management of DITA maps.

DITA Publishing

Bundled DITA-OT Updated to Version 4.1.1

The bundled DITA-OT distribution was updated to version 4.1.1, which contains:

The latest grammar files for the upcoming DITA 2.0.
The latest grammar files for the upcoming LightWeight DITA standard.
A new PDF (XSL-FO based) theme plugin (com.elovirta.pdf).
Improvements and bug fixes for the org.lwdita Markdown conversion plugin.
Lots of other small improvements and bug fixes.

"Insert Label" Editing Action Added to Assist with Finding Related Topics in WebHelp Responsive Output

The WebHelp Responsive output recognizes a special label keyword in topics to provide support for finding all the topics marked with the same label. By assigning a label to related topics, it allows the user to quickly locate and navigate relevant content, improving the experience of users interacting with your documentation. To support this functionality, a new Insert Label action is available in both the Insert submenu within the DITA menu and the contextual menu when editing DITA topics in Author mode. This action allows you to easily insert the special label keyword in the prolog of the DITA topic. For more details, see User Guide Topic: How to Add Searchable Labels in WebHelp Output.

Support for XPath Expressions in SVG Templates for CSS-based PDF

You can now leverage XPath expressions to dynamically populate and modify elements in your SVG templates, resulting in more personalized and tailored PDF outputs. SVG files with the file extension .template.svg are considered by the CSS-based PDF transformations to be SVG templates and by default, the XPath expressions that have a format of ${expression} in the SVG template files will be replaced with the value that corresponds to that expression. This behaviour is controlled by the expand.xpath.in.svg.templates parameter. For more details, see User Manual: SVG Templates.

Semantic Search

A Semantic search is a data searching technique that delivers more accurate results by understanding the real intent behind the search and providing an enhanced user experience. Oxygen XML WebHelp now supports semantic searches to help produce more relevant search results. This feature requires an integration with the OpenAI platform by specifying an API key.

Faceted Search

A Faceted search allows users to refine their search results by applying multiple filters that correspond to different properties or "facets" of the information being sought. WebHelp users can select one or more of these facets, and the search engine will return only the results that match all selected facets. For more details, see User Guide Topic: How to Configure Faceted Search in WebHelp Output.

Advanced Search Queries

Oxygen XML WebHelp integrates the Oxygen Feedback Search Engine, which supports advanced query syntax that allows users to create more complex, flexible, and useful queries to help make the search results more precise. Some examples of these supported advanced queries include phrase searches, regular expression searches, and proximity searches.

Author

Tracked Changes are More Visible When Renaming Elements

When renaming an XML element in the Author visual editing mode with change tracking enabled, the change is now tracked as an element deletion followed by the newly renamed element insertion. This enhancement provides a more accurate representation of the changes made during the renaming process.

Improved Support for Non-ASCII File Names and IDs

Combine Multiple Content Completion Rules in the Configuration File

Content Completion Configuration (cc_config.xml) files provide a simple and efficient way to configure the content completion proposals Oxygen offers to users for a specific document type. By default, when defining rules in a content completion configuration file, if multiple rules match a certain element context, then only the first one that matches is applied. Now it is possible to combine multiple rules by setting the merge="true" attribute on the rules that match a single element context. This allows for a more intuitive and flexible way of specifying the content completion behavior via content completion configuration files.

JSON

Dedicated Outline View Added for JSON Diagram Editor

A dedicated Outline view was added for the JSON Diagram editor. It presents all of the properties, pattern properties, and definitions found in the document, making it easy to navigate to a specific item within the document. You can also drag items from the Outline view and drop them into an appropriate location in the diagram editor, an intuitive feature that simplifies the process of structuring and reordering your JSON data. For more details, see User Guide: JSON Outline View.

Improved Property Renaming in JSON Diagram Editor

When renaming a property in the JSON Diagram mode, the required property field is automatically updated by either modifying the property accordingly or deleting it from the array. This feature is particularly useful for keeping the validity of the JSON schema when a property is renamed or removed, saving you time and effort by eliminating the need to manually update the schema and preventing any inconsistencies or errors.

Oxygen Can Learn Document Structure When JSON Schema is not Detected

If no JSON schema is associated with a JSON document, Oxygen can learn the document structure by parsing the document internally to provide an initialization source for content completion and validation. To facilitate this process, a pair of actions (Learn Structure and Save Structure) are available in the Document > JSON Document menu that can be used to create a new JSON schema document from the learned structure of the current JSON document. For more details, see Learn Document Structure When JSON Schema is not Detected.

YAML

Full Support for Creating, Editing, and Validating YAML Documents

With Oxygen's specialized YAML editor, you can streamline your YAML editing process, making it easier to create, edit, and manage YAML files. Boost your productivity and accuracy with the extensive range of features designed specifically for YAML editing. For more details, see User Guide: Editing YAML Documents.

Configuration Wizard Page Added for Creating New YAML Documents

When using the new document wizard to create a new YAML document, a Customize option is now available. This feature allows you to configure the generation of new YAML documents based on a specified JSON schema, ensuring consistency and adherence to predefined rules.

Go to Definition Action Added for YAML Documents

The Go to Definition action was added in the contextual menu when editing YAML documents. It allows for easy navigation to the definition of the current key, provided that a JSON schema is associated with the YAML document and that schema contains a definition for the key.

Open Associated Schema in YAML

New action available for YAML documents to open the associated schema. With this new action, you can easily open the associated schema for your YAML document, providing a seamless way to validate and enhance your work.

Enhanced Visibility for the Space Character in the YAML Text Editor

Space characters are now more visible and distinguishable with the addition of vertical lines to help preserve proper indentation. This enhancement aims to improve the overall readability and editing experience of your YAML files. With the latest update, we have introduced a new option called Show SPACE marks for YAML. Enabled by default, it controls whether or not the vertical lines are displayed in the editor. You can find this option in the preferences page: Editor > Edit Modes > Text.

XSLT / XQuery / XPath

XSLT and XQuery Transformation and Debugging Updated to Use Saxon Version 12.3

The built-in Saxon processor from Saxonica used for XSLT and XQuery transformations and debugging was updated to version 12.3. See https://www.saxonica.com/documentation12/#!changes for details.

Content Completion Support for the New Saxon Extension Functions

Saxon added more extension functions and instructions in the Saxon namespace, as well as experimental implementations for version 4.0 extensions. These functions are now supported and included in the list of proposals of the content completion assistant. Some examples include: fn:all(), fn:all-different(), fn:all-equal(), fn:characters(), fn:contains-sequence(), fn:ends-with-sequence(), fn:expanded-QName(), fn:foot(), fn:deep-equal(), fn:parse-uri(), fn:xdm-to-json(), and many more. For details, see https://www.saxonica.com/documentation12/index.html#!functions/saxon.

Some Saxon Functions Have Been Dropped in Saxon 12.3

The saxon:evaluate(), saxon:eval(), and saxon:expression() extension functions have been dropped, but the same effects (and more) can be achieved using the xsl:evaluate standard XSLT 3.0 instruction. Also, the saxon:parse-html() extension function is now synonymous for fn:parse-html() (a new function proposed for XPath 4.0). If you use any of these functions you will need to update your code before using Saxon 12.3.

XPath 4.0 Syntax Extensions

XPath 4.0 syntax extensions are now fully supported.

Improved XPath Expressions Handling for the Extract Function Refactoring Action

When using the Extract Function action (found in the contextual menu's Refactoring submenu) to extract XSLT functions, XPath expressions are rebuilt based on the current context. The context is passed as a parameter in the newly created function. This ensures that the extracted functions seamlessly integrate into the existing code, providing a more efficient and reliable development process.

Content Completion for New AI-based XPath Extension Functions

Two new AI functions are now available in the content completion proposals for XSLT, XQuery, XPath, and Schematron. The

ai:transform-content(instruction,
            content)

function can be used to rephrase content and the ai:verify-content(instruction, content) function can be used to perform validation checks on the existing content. These extension functions are added by the Oxygen AI Positron Assistant plugin, enabling the use of AI-based processing from XPath expressions.

XML Refactoring

Default Resources Filter Pattern in XML Refactoring Actions

Some refactoring actions can be applied on specific documents, thus providing a way to select only those documents. A new optional filesFilter attribute can be used in the descriptor file when creating custom refactoring operations to specify a default resources filter by using a file pattern or list of file patterns separated by a comma (e.g. filesFilter="*.dita, *.xml" will select only the files with either .dita or .xml extensions).

File Comparison

Merge Documents with Change Tracking Highlights

A new Merge Documents with Change Tracking Highlights action is available in the Tools menu. It can be used to merge two XML files (based on a 2-way mode comparison). All the files involved in the process are merged by saving the visual comparison results as a separate document with highlighted tracked changes that can later be reviewed and accepted or rejected. For more details, see User Guide Topic: Merge Documents with Change Tracking Highlights.

Merge Directories with Change Tracking Highlights

A new Merge Directories with Change Tracking Highlights action is available in the Tools menu. It can be used to merge two directories (based on a 2-way mode comparison). All pairs of modified XML files involved in the process are merged by saving the visual comparison results as documents with highlighted tracked changes that can later be reviewed, with the option to accept or reject these changes. For more details, see User Guide Topic: Merge Directories with Change Tracking Highlights.

Save Comparison as New Document with Tracked Changes

The file comparison tool has a new action in the File menu called Save Comparison as Document with Tracked Changes. This action allows you to merge two compared documents based on the differences detected and save the results as a specified file that includes the special change tracking marks. You can load the resulting file in Oxygen's Author mode so you can conveniently accept or reject the changes, ensuring accurate and efficient collaboration on your documents.

Markdown

Syntax Highlights Improved for Markdown Files With LaTeX Equations

The syntax highlights were improved for Markdown content, making it easier for you to work with LaTeX equations within your Markdown files, allowing for more efficient editing and seamless integration of mathematical expressions.

Add-on Updates

A variety of add-ons are available that can be used to extend the functionality of Oxygen.

OpenAPI Documentation Generator Improvements

The following improvements were added to the OpenAPI Documentation Generator add-on:

An option was added to transform the OpenAPI content into DITA or PDF output.
The examples element is now rendered when transforming to HTML output.
A detailed warning message is now displayed when the transformation’s target file has unsaved changes.

Git Client Improvements

Various improvements were made to the Git Client add-on:

Large File Support (LFS) is now integrated. This means that if you have installed LFS and specified which extensions represent large or binary files that should be uploaded through LFS, they will be automatically detected and handled correctly.
When you clone a repository, the Git Client automatically detects and opens Oxygen project files. This feature simplifies the process of working with Oxygen projects that are stored in a Git repository.
The project detection mechanism was improved when opening a new repository in the Staging view.
When checking out a branch, submodules in parent repositories are now checked out at the index defined in the parent repository. This ensures that the submodules reflect the actual state of the parent repository at that time.
The integrated JGit library was upgraded to version 6.7.
Various messages in the user interface were improved.
Various bug fixes were implemented. For example, an issue was fixed where untracked files were not being restored from a stash.

For a complete list of updates added in the Git Client, see https://github.com/oxygenxml/oxygen-git-plugin/releases.

Batch Documents Converter Improvements

Several enhancements were made to the Batch Documents Converter add-on, including corrections for the OpenAPI to DITA, Word to HTML/DITA, Confluence to DITA conversions, and updates to its components.

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.

Merge Files with Change Tracking Highlights

A new Merge Files with Change Tracking Highlights script is available. It can be used to merge two XML files (based on a 2-way mode comparison) with highlighted tracked changes that can be later reviewed and accepted or rejected. For more details, see User Guide Topic: Merge Files with Change Tracking Highlights Script.

Merge Directories with Change Tracking Highlights

A new Merge Directories with Change Tracking Highlights script is available. It can be used to merge two directories (based on a 2-way mode comparison) with highlighted tracked changes. All pairs of modified XML files involved in the process are merged by saving the visual comparison results as documents with tracked changes highlighted that can be later reviewed and accepted or rejected. For more details, see User Guide Topic: Merge Directories with Change Tracking Highlights Script.

New option for Compare Directories script

A new option has been added to the Compare Directories script. With the inclusion of the (-enx XPathExprToExcludeNodes) option, users can now exclude specific nodes from the comparison using XPath expressions. For more details, see User Guide Topic: Compare Directories Script.

XPath Expressions Supported in Generate HTML Report for Directory Comparison Tool

An XPath expression specified in the Ignore nodes by XPath text field (in the Options > Preferences > Diff > Files Comparison preferences page) is now taken into account if you opt to generate additional file comparison reports.

Other

Application Now Uses Trusted Root Certificates From the Windows Certificate Store

By default, the application now uses the trusted root certificates from the Windows certificate store to improve coverage for HTTPS certificate validation in corporate environments. To trust a certification, the root certificate needs to be imported into the Windows Trusted Root certificate store. After importing the certificate, you should be able to connect without seeing certificate errors.

Component Updates

Java 17

Oxygen (desktop and Eclipse plugin) now requires a minimum version of Java Virtual Machine 17 to run.

OpenJDK 17.0.8

Upgraded the bundled version of OpenJDK in our installation kits to provide the latest Java Runtime Environment, now at version 17.0.8.

Apache Batik 1.17

Updated the Apache Batik toolkit to version 1.17.

Apache FOP 2.9

Updated the Apache FOP library to version 2.9.

Apache Xalan-Java 2.7.3

Updated the Apache Xalan XSLT processor to version 2.7.3.

Calabash 1.5.7-120

Updated the XProc Calabash engine to version 1.5.7-120.

DITA-OT 4.1.1

Updated the bundled DITA Open Toolkit to version 4.1.1.

Eclipse 4.29

Updated the Eclipse plugin to support version 4.29. Note that starting with version 4.28, the Eclipse IDE requires Java 17 or higher.

EPUBCheck 5.1.0

Updated the EPUBCheck tool used to validate EPUB resources to version 5.1.0.

Jackson 2.15.0

Updated the Jackson JSON libraries to version 2.15.0.

macOS 14 (Sonoma)

Oxygen 26 has been fully tested on macOS 14 (Sonoma) and it is now officially supported.

Oxygen License Server Supports Windows Server 2022

The Oxygen License Server now supports Windows Server 2022.

Oxygen License Server Bundles Eclipse Adoptium Temurin 17

The Oxygen License Server installers now bundle Eclipse Adoptium Temurin 17

SnakeYAML 2.2

Updated the SnakeYAML library to version 2.2.

TEI Schemas 4.6.0

Updated the bundled TEI schemas to version 4.6.0.

TEI Stylesheets 7.55.0

Updated the bundled TEI XSLT stylesheets to version 7.55.0.

Berkeley DB XML Support Removed

The previously deprecated support for the Berkeley DB XML database connection has now been removed.

Deprecated Support for DocBook WebHelp Classic

The DocBook WebHelp Classic transformation scenario has been marked as deprecated and may be removed in a future major version.

API

Open Preview Changes in Files Dialog

A new API method (openPreviewDialog) was added in the ro.sync.exml.workspace.api.standalone.DiffAndMergeTools API. It can be used to display a dialog box that shows a preview of the changes between the original and modified versions of the resources.

Merge Changes between Two Files

A new API method (openMergeApplication) was added in the ro.sync.exml.workspace.api.standalone.DiffAndMergeTools API. It can be used to display a dialog box that shows differences between two files and you can save changes.

Display Warning Message

A new API method (showWarningDialog) was added in the ro.sync.exml.workspace.api.WorkspaceUtilities API. It can be used to display a warning message dialog box.