Project Explorer View

The Project Explorer view is designed to assist you with organizing and managing related files grouped in the same XML project. The actions available in the contextual menu and on the toolbar associated to this panel allows you to create XML projects and provide shortcuts to various operations for the project documents.

Tip: You can also use the Project Explorer view for many of the same purposes as the Project Explorer view.

Figure 1. Project Explorer View

By default, the view is positioned on the left side of Oxygen XML Author Eclipse plugin, above the Outline view. If the view has been closed, it can be reopened at any time from the Window > Show View menu (the Project Explorer view is in the Other submenu).

Project View Toolbar

The following actions are grouped in the upper right corner:

Collapse All: Collapses all project tree folders. You can also collapse/expand a project tree folder if you select it and press the Enter key or Left Arrow to collapse and Right Arrow to expand.
Link with Editor: When selected, the currently edited file (from the main editor or from the DITA Maps Manager view) is highlighted in the project tree, if the file is found in the project.
View Menu: Drop-down menu that contains various settings contributed by the Eclipse plugin.

File Explorer Area

The rest of the view is basically a file explorer similar to most other commonly used file explorers. The XML project (.xpr file) is a logical container with a collection of resources (folders and files). The types of resources displayed include:

Logical folders with Linked folders/files - This folder type is used as containers for linked resources (shortcuts). The icons for file shortcuts include a shortcut symbol (). The linked folders/files are added using New > Folder > Advanced or New > File > Advanced, or by dragging and dropping files/folders from the view or the system file explorer. Delete can be used to remove them from the project.
Physical folders and files - Marked with the operating system-specific icon for folders (usually a yellow icon on Windows and a blue icon on macOS). These folders and files are mirrors of real folders or files that exist in the local file system. They are created or added to the project by using contextual menu actions (such as New > File, New > Folder, Copy, and Paste) or by dragging and dropping files/folders from the view or the system file explorer. Also, the contextual menu action Delete can be used to remove them from the project and local file system.

Figure 2. Project Explorer View with Both Types of Resources

Creating New Projects

The following actions are available from the New menu when right-clicking any item, or the File > New menu:

XML Project: Opens the New XML Project dialog box that allows you to create a new project and adds it to the project structure in the Project Explorer view.
Sample XML Project: Opens the New sample XML project dialog box that allows you to customize sample resources in a new project and adds it to the project structure in the Project Explorer view.

Managing Project Contents

There are various contextual menu actions, shortcuts, and ways to organize the folders and files inside the project:

Creating New Folders and Files

Right-click any item > New > File: Opens a New Document Wizard that helps you create a new file and adds it to the project structure.
Right-click any item > New > New from Templates: Opens a wizard where you can create a new document based on a template and adds it to the project structure.
Right-click any item > New > Folder: Opens a New Folder dialog box that allows you to specify a name for a new folder and adds it to the structure of the project.

Adding Resources

You can add resources by using drag and drop (or Copy and Paste) actions from within the Project Explorer view or dragging them from the system file explorer. Files may have multiple instances within the folder system, but cannot appear twice within the same folder.

Removing Folders and Files

To remove logical folders or the linked resources inside them from the project, use Delete from the contextual menu (or press Delete on your keyboard) and confirm by clicking OK in the resulting dialog box.

To remove folders or files from both the project and the local file system, use Delete from the contextual menu (or press Delete on your keyboard) and confirm by clicking OK in the resulting dialog box.

Moving Folders and Files

You can move the resources by using drag and drop actions from within the Project Explorer view.

You can also use the usual Copy and Paste actions (or the Move action) from the contextual menu to move resources in the project.

You can also move certain types of files (such as XML) or folders by using the Refactoring > Move resource action from the contextual menu. This action opens the Move resource dialog box that includes the following options:

Destination - Presents the path to the current location of the resource you want to move and gives you the option to introduce a new location.
New name - Presents the current name of the moved resource and gives you the option to change it.
Update references of the moved resource(s) - Select this option to update the references to the resource you are moving, based upon the selected scope. You can select or configure the scope by using the button.

Renaming Folders and Files

There are several ways to rename a folder or file in the project (this works for both physical and linked resources):

Select Rename from the contextual menu.
Press F2 on your keyboard.

You also can rename certain types of files (such as XML) or folders by using the Refactoring > Rename resource action from the contextual menu. This action opens the Rename resource dialog box that includes the following options:

New name - Presents the current name of the edited resource and allows you to modify it.
Update references of the renamed resource - Select this option to update the references to the resource you are renaming. You can select or configure the scope by using the button.

Opening Files

There are several ways to open a file:

Double-click the file.
Select it and press Enter on your keyboard.
Right-click the file and select Open.
Drag the file from the project tree and drop it in the editor area.
If you want to choose the application or location where to open it, you can right-click the file and select Open with.

Saving the Project

The project file is automatically saved every time the content of the Project Explorer view is saved or modified by actions such as adding or removing files and drag and drop.

Other Contextual Menu Actions

Numerous other actions are available in the contextual menu, depending on the type of file or folder where it is invoked from (some actions are available for multiple selected files):

Refactoring submenu

Oxygen XML Author Eclipse plugin includes some refactoring operations that help you manage the structure of your documents. The following actions are available from the contextual menu in the Refactoring submenu:

Rename resource (Available for certain types of XML documents or folders): Opens the Rename resource dialog box where you can change the name of a resource. It also includes an option to update the references to the renamed resource and you can choose between various scopes for the operation.
Move resource (Available for certain types of XML documents or folders): Opens the Move resource dialog box where you can choose a destination and change the name of a resource. It also includes an option to update the references to the moved resource and you can choose between various scopes for the operation.
XML Refactoring: Opens the XML Refactoring tool wizard that presents refactoring operations to assist you with managing the structure of your XML documents.
Apply all default quick fix proposals: Opens the Apply all default quick fix proposals tool that can be used to apply quick fix proposals for all reported validation errors in the selected documents when one or more quick fix proposals have been detected for reported validation errors.

Show referenced resources

Opens the Referenced/Dependent Resources view that allows you to see the referenced resource hierarchy for an XML document.

Show dependent resources

Opens the Referenced/Dependent Resources view that allows you to see the resource dependencies for an XML document. When working with DITA XML projects, this action is available when right-clicking images to find direct references to them.

Refresh

Refreshes the content and the dependencies between the resources in the Main Files directory.

XPath in Files

Opens the XPath/XQuery Builder view that allows you to compose XPath and XQuery expressions and execute them over the currently edited XML document.

Check Spelling in Files

Allows you to check the spelling of multiple files.

Format and Indent Files

Opens the Format and Indent Files dialog box that allows you to configure the format and indent (pretty-print) action that will be applied on the selected documents.

HTML to XML Well-formed (Available when selecting multiple resources)

Batch converts the selected HTML documents to be XML well-formed. This means that missing end tags will be added to applicable elements, unclosed tags will be properly closed, and quotes will be added to attribute values that were missing the quotes.

Notes:

All selected HTML files are backed up before being processed (same path/name but with the ".bak" extension added at the end).
Any detected conversion errors are grouped and listed in a dedicated tab in the Results pane at the bottom of the application.
A brief report is displayed at the end of the operation.

Transform submenu

The currently selected files associated with the Oxygen XML Author Eclipse plugin in the Package Explorer view or Project Explorer view can be transformed in one step with one of the following actions available from contextual menu in the Transform submenu:

Apply Transformation Scenario(s): Obtains the output with one of the built-in scenarios.
Configure Transformation Scenario(s): Opens a dialog box that allows you to configure pre-defined transformation scenarios.
Transform with: Allows you to select a transformation scenario to be applied to the currently selected files.

Validate submenu

The currently selected files associated with the Oxygen XML Author Eclipse plugin in the Package Explorer view or Project Explorer view can be checked to be XML well-formed or validated against a schema (DTD, XML Schema, Relax NG, Schematron or NVDL) with one of the following contextual menu actions found in the Validate submenu:

Check Well-Formedness: Checks if the selected file or files are well-formed.
Validate: Validates the selected file or files against their associated schema. For EPUB files, this action triggers an EPUB Validate and Check for Completeness operation.
Validate with Schema: Validates the selected file of files against a specified schema.
Configure Validation Scenario(s): Allows you to configure and run a validation scenario.
Clear Validation Markers: Clears all the error markers from the main editor and Problems view.

Properties

Displays the properties of the current file in a Properties dialog box.

Enable Main Files Support (Available from the project container)

Allows you to enable the Main Files Support for each project.

Detect Main Files (Available from the project container when Main Files Support is enabled)

Opens the Detect Main Files wizard that enables the automatic detection of main files.

Add to Main Files (Available when Main Files Support is enabled)

Adds the selected files to the Main Files folder.