<oXygen/> XML Editor User Guide |
The <oXygen/> interface uses standard interface conventions and components to provide a familiar and intuitive editing environment across all operating systems.
The main window is central to the work process. In addition to the title bar, which shows the <oXygen/> program icon, name, license information, the main window is comprised of the following main components:
When two or more main window panels are displayed, <oXygen/> provides divider bars that allow arrangement of screen real-estate. By selecting a divider bar, it can be dragged to a new position, therefore increasing the space occupied by one panel while decreasing it for the other.
As majority of the work process centers around the Editor panel, other panels can be hidden from view using the expand and collapse controls located on the divider bars.
The main menu, located below the program title bar, provides menu driven access to all the features and functions available within <oXygen/>.
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Macintosh users should use the command key instead of the control key for all keyboard shortcuts. |
Table 3.1. Menu Options
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Table 3.2. Menu Options
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Table 3.3. Menu Options
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Table 3.5. Menu Options
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Table 3.7. Menu Options
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Table 3.8. Menu Options
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Table 3.9. Menu Options
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Table 3.11. Menu Options
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The Main toolbar, located below the Main menu, provides easy access to common and frequently used functions. Each icon is a button that acts as a shortcut to a related function. Hold the pointer/cursor over an icon to display a context label that will give you a hint about its functionality. Click an icon to use its function.
Table 3.12. Description of Main Toolbar Buttons
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Ctrl+N): Displays the New dialog from which to select the document file type. -> ( |
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Ctrl+O): Displays the Open dialog used to discover, select and open one or more files. -> ( |
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Ctrl+U): Displays the Open URL dialog used to discover, select and open one or more files using FTP/WebDAV. -> ( |
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Ctrl+S): Saves the current document. If the document does not have a file, displays the "Save As" dialog. -> ( |
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-> : Displays the Save URL dialog, used to name and save an open document to a file; or save an existing file with a new name, using FTP/WebDAV. |
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-> :Displays the Templates dialog used to discover, select and open a new document based on an existing template document. Template documents act as starting points that have predefined properties such as file type, prolog, root element, containers and even existing content. |
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-> : Displays the Add Templates dialog used to define the name by which the template will be recognized in the "New from templates" option. |
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Ctrl+Z): Reverses, a maximum of 100, editing actions to return to the preceding state. Complex operations like "Replace All", "Indent selection", etc are now treated as a single undo event. -> ( |
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Ctrl+Shift+Z): Recreates, a maximum of 100, editing actions that were undone by the "Undo" function. -> ( |
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Ctrl+X): Removes the current selection from the document and places it in the clipboard. -> ( |
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Ctrl+C): Places a copy of the current selection in the clipboard. -> ( |
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Ctrl+V): Places the current clipboard content into the document at the cursor position. -> ( |
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F4): Checks the spelling of the current document. -> ( |
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F7) -> Quick creation: Places a bookmark at current caret position. -> ( |
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Ctrl+F): Displays the Find/Replace dialog, used to define "search for" or "search for and replace" operations on the current document. -> ( |
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-> : Displays the Search/Replace in Files dialog, used to define "search for" or "search for and replace" operations across a number of files. |
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Ctrl+T): Displays the Tree View window. -> ( |
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-> : Opens the debugger perspective. |
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-> : Opens the editor perspective. |
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-> : Adjusts the contrast of markup in Editor perspective. |
The Project panel, located on the left-hand side of the main window, enables the definition of projects and logical management of the documents it contains.
The files from the entire project or from a project folder can be validated with a single button click against a schema of type Schematron, XML Schema, Relax NG, NRL, or a combination of the later with Schematron. This together with the logical folder support of the project allows you to group your files and validate them very easily.
If a project folder contains many documents a certain document can be quickly located in the project tree if the user selects with the mouse the folder containing the desired document (or some arbitrary document in this folder) and types the first characters of the document name. The desired document will be automatically selected as soon as the typed characters uniquely identify its name in the folder. Once selected the document can be opened by pressing the ENTER key or by double-clicking on it or it can be deleted by pressing the DELETE key or by choosing "Remove File" from the context menu.
The Project toolbar, located on the top of the Project panel, provides easy access to <oXygen/> project functions. Each icon is a button that acts as a shortcut to a related function. Hold the pointer over an icon to display a context label that will give you a hint about its functionality. Click an icon to use its function.
Table 3.14. Description of Project Toolbar Buttons
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-> :Create a new project in the Project pane. |
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Ctrl+F2): Displays the Open Project dialog used to discover, select and open a project file. -> ( |
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Ctrl+F3): Saves the current project. If the project does not have a file, displays the "Save Project As" dialog. -> ( |
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: Validate all project files. |
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: Toggles the file path ON and OFF for all files displayed in the Project View. |
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: Displays the New Folder dialog, used to specify the name of a folder about to be created under the existing and selected Project or Folder in the Project View. |
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: Includes the current document into the selected folder in the Project View. |
The Project view provides a method for logical management and visualization of files associated with a project. Once a project is opened, saved files can be added to or removed from the project. Either operations can be performed while the file is opened in the Editor Panel directly from a local or remote file system.
Table 3.15. Description of Project View
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To help organize files, virtual folders can be created. Virtual folders only exist within the project file, providing a logical method for visual organization. In addition to internal creation of Virtual Folders, you can also import system folders and their contents from local or remote file systems. The result is a tree-view that allows navigation and easy file management within the project, regardless of the files' physical location. All folders, whether created internally or imported, have no physical connection with a local or remote file system. i.e. If you add, delete or rename a Project folder those operations are only performed in the <oXygen/> project file. The same principle is applicable to files, with the exception that the representation of a file in the Project View does maintain a backward link to the physical file. i.e. Actions such as "Remove" only removes the file from the current project file, it does not delete the file from the file system. Double-clicking a file is equivalent to Ctrl+O) . -> (The full path to file is hidden by default. Click the Show/Hide Path button to toggle the file path on or off. The default target when adding files to a project is the project root. Selecting a folder changes the target to the selected folder. Files may have multiple instances, within the folder system but cannot appear twice within the same folder. Right-clicking any object in the tree-view displays the Project menu with functions that can be performed on, or from the selected object. Options available from the Project menu are specific to the object type selected in the tree-view. |
The project menu contains a list of actions that is dependent on the selected item. The description of all available actions follows.
Table 3.16. Description of Project Menu
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The Model View panel, located on the left-hand side of the main window, eases the editing effort by presenting the structure of the currently edited tag and additional tag documentation.
The Model View, combined with the powerful Outliner is an useful tool in providing the user with spacial and insight information on the edited document.
The Element Structure View shows the structure of the current edited or selected tag in a Tree format.
The Annotation View shows the annotations that are present in the used schema for the currently edited or selected tag.
The Editor panel is the place where you spend most of your time, reading, editing, applying markup and checking the validity and form of your documents.
The Editor panel is comprised of:
The <oXygen/> editor uses the tabbed page mode to display open documents. The document tab is located above the Editor Toolbar and shows the file type, file name and its edit status.
Modified files are denoted with an "*"; saving the document removes this status until the next edit operation.
Each open document has an associated tab displaying this information. To distinguish which document is currently under edit, the active document is highlighted and brought to the foreground. Inactive document tabs are shadowed in the background. Selecting a tab changes the document focus to display its contents for editing. Hovering the pointer over a tab displays the file's full path in a tool tip.
Right-click on any tab to display the Document Tab menu.
Document Tab Menu
: Closes only the selected tab. All other tab instances remain.
: Closes the other files except the selected tab.
: Closes all open documents. If a document is modified or has no associated file, a prompt to save, not to save, or cancel the save operation is displayed.
: Includes the current document into the selected folder in the Project View.
: Includes all open documents into the selected folder in the Project View.
The file type is denoted by an icon preceding the filename. While this information can be obtained from the file extension, visual identification of style types is improved using a color legend that correlates to the Project View icons:
XML Documents
DTD Documents
XSD Documents
Relax NG Schema - XML
Relax NG Schema - Compact
NRL Schema
XSL Documents
WSDL Documents
XQuery Documents
Schematron schema Documents
TXT Documents
The Editor toolbar, located below the Document Tabs, provides easy access to <oXygen/> editing functions. Each icon is a button that acts as a shortcut to a related function. Hold your the pointer/cursor over an icon to display a context label that will give you a hint as to its function. Click an icon to use its function.
Table 3.20. Description of Editor Toolbar Buttons
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Ctrl+Shift+V): Executes the Validation operation on the current document using a validating parser. Returns an error result-list in the Message panel. Mark-up of current document is checked to conform with the specified DTD, XML Schema or Relax NG schema rules. + -> ( |
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Ctrl+Shift+W): Executes the XML Form check operation on the current document using a non-validating parser. Returns an error result-list in the Message panel. + -> ( |
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+ -> : Displays the External Validation dialog, used to select a schema of one of the types XML Schema, Relax NG, NRL and Schematron to execute the validation operation on the current document. The Relax NG schema file can be either in XML syntax or in compact syntax. In case of errors the validation returns an error result-list in the Message panel. |
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Ctrl+Shift+T): Executes the transformation process using the configuration properties defined in the Configure Transformation dialog. + -> ( |
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Ctrl+Shift+C): Displays the Configure Transformation dialog, used to define properties for conversion of documents to multiple output targets. Also enables saving of scenarios. Each scenario can store an unique configuration ready to be used in the future. + -> ( |
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+ -> : You can start the debugging and the input file, the processor and parameter settings from the XSLT transformation scenario that is associated to the current edited file are updated into the debugger control panel. |
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Ctrl+Shift+P): Also referred to as "Pretty Print", "Format and Indent" performs layout functions to make mark-up easier to read on screen and in printed output. + -> ( |
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+ -> : Open the schema used for validating the current document. |
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+ -> : Associates a schema with the current document. |
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+ -> : Converts the current document to a supported grammar language using the integrated Trang converter. |
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Ctrl+Shift+L): Reads the mark-up structure of the current document so that it can be saved as a dtd file using the option. + -> ( |
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Ctrl+Shift+S): Save the learned document structure to an external dtd file. + -> ( |
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: When in "Lock" mode tags cannot be edited. Unlock to enable tag editing. |
: Executes an XPath expression, used to select specified elements within the current document. <oXygen/> can execute expressions according to XPath version 1.0 or 2.0.
The <oXygen/> editor provides a useful set of features that promote easy editing of structure mark-up documents. Features such as automatic syntax highlighting and checking, intelligent Tag-Insight, end tag auto completion help improve productivity and reduce errors. Text attributes such as font, formatting, coupled with customizable coloring options for syntax highlighting provide a flexible and powerful structured mark-up editor.
When moving the mouse pointer over an element or an attribute it is displayed a tooltip containing the documentation defined in the XML Schema or DTD.
Right-click anywhere in the editor to display a menu with options related to editing and mark-up operations.
Table 3.21. Description of Editor Space Menu
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The Editor status bar, located below the Editing space, provides information about the current document:
Displays the full path of the current document.
Displays the status of Validate XML , Check XML Form, Apply Transformation, XPath expression evaluation and Format and Indent (Pretty Print) operations and the result (success or not) and number of errors found in the last operation.
Displays the current position of the cursor in terms of Line Number: Column Number.
Indicates whether or not the document has been modified since the last save.
The Message panel, located across the bottom half of the main Window, displays messages returned from the following operations:
To distinguish between result types, each functions result-list is displayed in a separate tab within the panel.
To change focus between the result-lists, just select the tab required. To close a tab, or all tabs, right-click the tab to display a menu and select an option. To sort the column values, just click on the table column header. The first click will sort the table ascending, the second click will sort descending and the next click will return to unsorted state.
Table 3.22. Message Panel Tab Menu
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In all instances, each record within a result-list is linked to the document location where the indicated error or character string will be found. Selecting a result list record moves the Editors cursor to, and highlights the object in question. If the target document is closed, it will be opened in the Editor panel.
In addition to this time saving feature, the Message panel menu enables several operations to be performed on single or multiple selected records. The Message panel menu is displayed by selecting a record, then pressing right-click.
Table 3.23. The Message Panel Menu
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The "Validate document " and "Check document form" functions use the same tab instance named "errors" to display their results. As both functions use the same tab instance, "Validate XML " and "Check XML Form" result-lists overwrite each another. Each time one of these functions is executed the result-list is populated with new results.
When working with XPath expressions, <oXygen/> outputs errors and node results to the message panel.
During transformation processes, XML, XHTML or FOP, the message panel is used to display parser errors, warning messages and output of XML or XHTML. Each is displayed in a separate tab. Tab instances for XML/XHTML are created on a per document basis, error and warning tabs are simply repopulated.
The "Find/Replace" function opens a new tab instance for each document on which the function is run. Each tab instance is named "Find all results - <filename.ext>". Each time that the function is run the result-list in the documents associated tab instance is populated with new results.
The Outliner panel, located in the bottom left part of the main Window has the following available functions:
The Outliner displays a general tag overview of the current edited XML Document. It also shows the correct hierarchical dependencies between the tag elements, making it easier for the user to be aware of the document's structure and the way tags are nested.
When editing, the Outliner dynamically follows the modifications introduced by the user, showing in the middle of the panel the node which is currently being modified. This gives the user better insight on to where in the document he/she is positioned and how the structure of the document is affected by his/hers modifications.
Entire XML elements can be moved or copied in the edited document using only the mouse in the Outliner panel as this panel supports drag-and-drop operations. If you drag an XML element in the Outliner panel and drop it on another one in the same panel then the dragged element will be moved after the drop target element. If you hold the mouse pointer over the drop target for a short time before the drop then the drop element will be expanded first and the dragged element will be moved inside the drop one after its opening tag. If you hold down the CTRL key it will be performed a copy operation instead a move one.
The Outliner can also be used to search for a specific tag's location and contents in the edited document. Intuitively, by selecting with the left mouse button the desired tag in the Outliner Panel, the document is scrolled to the position of the selected tag. Moreover, the tag's contents are selected in the document, making it easy to notice the part of the document contained by that specific tag and furthermore to easily copy and paste the tag's contents in other parts of the document or in other documents.