Frequently Asked Questions

Installation and Licensing

What hosting options are available for applet delivery and licensing services (i.e., Apache, IIS, etc.)?
For applet delivery any web server. We currently use Apache to deploy the sample on our site. For the floating license server you would need a J2EE server, like Tomcat if you want to restrict the access to the licenses.

If you do not need the access restrictions that are possible with a J2EE server you can simplify the deployment of the floating license server by using the standalone version of this server. The standalone license server is a simple Java application that communicates with Author Component by TCP/IP connections.
Are there any client requirements beyond the Java VM and (browser) Java Plug-In Technology?
Oracle (formerly Sun) Java JRE version 1.6 update 10 or newer. At least 200 MB disk space and 200MB free memory would be necessary for the Author Applet component.
Are there any other client requirements or concerns that could make deployment troublesome (i.e., browser security settings, client-side firewalls and AV engines, etc.)?
The applet is signed and will request access to the user machine, in order to store customization data (frameworks). The applet needs to be signed by you with a valid certificate.
How sensitive is the applet to the automatic Java VM updates, which are typically on by default (i.e., could automatic updates potentially "break" the run-time)?
The component should work well with newer Java versions but we cannot guarantee this.
How and when are "project" related files deployed to the client (i.e., applet code, DTD, styling files, customizations, etc.)?
Framework files are downloaded on the first load of the applet. Subsequent loads will re-use the cached customization files and will be much faster.
For on-line demo (http://www.oxygenxml.com/demo/AuthorDemoApplet/author-component-dita.html), noted a significant wait during initial startup. Any other mechanisms to enhance startup time?
See the explanation above.
Does the XML Author component support multiple documents being open simultaneously? What are the licensing ramifications?
A single AuthorComponentFactory instance can create multiple EditorComponentProvider editors which can then be added and managed by the developer who is customizing the component in a Swing JTabbedPane. A single license (floating or user-based) is enough for this.

If you need to run multiple Java Applets or distinct Java processes using the Author component, the current floating license model allows for now only two concurrent components from the same computer when using the license servlet. An additional started component will take an extra license seat.

Another licensing technique would be to embed the license key in one of the jar libraries used by the applet. But you would need to implement your own way of determining how many users are editing using the Author applet.
Is there any internet traffic during an editing session (user actively working on the content, on the client side, in the XML Author component))?
No.
Does Oxygen XML Author work in virtualized environments with terminal services, such as Citrix.
Oxygen XML Author has been tested in virtualized environments with terminal services, including Citrix, and there have been no problems. We also have several customers that use Oxygen XML Author in Citrix environments and we have not received any problem reports from them either.

For named licenses, you would normally have to deploy the license for each user or let each user be asked by Oxygen XML Author for the license key and give it himself. Perhaps a better approach would be to create a file named "licensekey.txt"(without the quotes) and in this file paste the license key (all lines of text between the START-LICENSE-KEY and END-LICENSE-KEY markers). Copy this file to the Oxygen XML Author installation folder. Any user who runs Oxygen XML Author from this installation will use that license. Please note that this way of deploying the license key does not automatically limit the number of licenses to the specified number, so you should attempt to manually limit(keep evidence of) the number of users that are running Oxygen XML Author to the number of licenses specified in the license key.

Functionality

How and when are saves performed back to the hosting server?
What you can see on our web site is just an example of the Author component (which is a Java Swing component) used in an Applet.

This applet is just for demonstration purposes. It's source can be at most a starting point for a customization. You should implement, sign and deploy your custom applet implementation.

The save operation could be implemented either in JavaScript by requesting the XML content from the Applet or in Java directly working with the Author component. You would be responsible to send the content back to the CMS.
Is there a particular XML document size (or range) when the Author applet would start to exhibit performance problems?
The applet has a total amount of used memory specified in the JNLP JavaWebstart configuration file which can be increased if necessary. By default it is 156 Mb. It should work comfortably with documents of 1-3 megabytes.
What graphic formats can be directly rendered in the XML Author component?
GIF, JPEG, PNG, BMP and SVG.
Can links be embedded to retrieve (from the server) and "play" other types of digital assets, such as audio or video files?
You could add listeners to intercept clicks and open the clicked links. This would require a good knowledge of the Oxygen SDK. The Author component can only render static images (no GIF animations).
Does the XML Author component provide methods for uploading ancillary files (new graphics, for instance) to the hosting server?
No.
Does the XML Author component provide any type of autosave functionality?
By default no but you could customize the applet that contains the author component to save its content periodically to a file on disk.
Assuming multiple documents can be edited simultaneously, can content be copied, cut and pasted from one XML Author component "instance" to another?
Yes.
Does the XML Author component support pasting content from external sources (such as a web page or a Microsoft Word document and, if so, to what extent?
If no customizations are available the content is pasted as simple text. We provide customizations for the major frameworks (DITA, DocBook, TEI, etc) which use a conversion XSLT stylesheet to convert HTML content from clipboard to the target XML.
Can UTF-8 characters (such as Greeks, mathematical symbols, etc.) be inserted and rendered?
Any UTF-8 character can be inserted and rendered as long as the font used for editing supports rendering the characters. The font can be changed by the developers but not by the users. When using a logical font (which by default is Serif for the Author component) the JVM will know how to map all characters to glyphs. There is no character map available but you could implement one

Customization

Please describe, in very general terms, the menus, toolbars, context menu options, "helper panes", etc. that are available for the XML Author component "out of the box".
You can mount on your custom toolbar all actions available in the standalone Oxygen XML Author application for editing in the Author page. This includes custom actions defined in the framework customized for each XML type.

The Author component also can provide the Outline, Model, Elements and Attributes views which can be added to your own panels (see sample applet).
Please describe, in general terms, the actions, project resources (e.g., DTD/Schema for validation purposes, CSS/XSL for styling, etc.) and typical level of effort that would be required to deploy a XML Author component solution for a customer with a proprietary DTD.
The Author internal engine uses CSS to render XML.

For a special type of XML you can create a custom framework (which also works in an Oxygen standalone version) which would also contain default schemas and custom actions. A simple framework would probably need 2-3 weeks development time. For a complex framework with many custom actions it could take a couple of months. Oxygen already has frameworks for editing DocBook, DITA, TEI, etc. Sources for them are available in the Oxygen SDK.

More than one framework can coexist in the same Oxygen XML Author instance (the desktop standalone version or the applet version) and can be used at the same time for editing XML documents.
Many customers desire a very simplistic interface for contributors (with little or no XML expertise) but a more robust XML editing environment for editors (or other users with more advanced XML expertise). How well does the XML Author component support varying degrees of user interface complexity and capability?
- Showing/hiding menus, toolbars, helpers, etc.
  All the UI parts from the Author component are assembled by you. You could provide two applet implementations: one for advanced/power users and one for technical authors.
- Forcing behaviors (i.e., ensuring change tracking is on and preventing it from being shut down)
  You could avoid placing the change tracking toolbar actions in the custom applet. You could also use API to turn change tracking ON when the content has been loaded.
- Preventing access to "privileged" editor processes (i.e., accept/reject changes)
  You can remove the change tracking actions completely in a custom applet implementation. Including the ones from the contextual menu.
- Presenting and/or describing XML constructs (i.e., tags) in "plain-English"
  Using our API you can customize what the Outline or Breadcrumb presents for each XML tag. You can also customize the in-place content completion list.
- Presenting a small subset of the overall XML tag set (rather than the full tag set) for use by contributors (i.e., allowing an author to only insert Heading, Para and inline emphasis) Could varying "interfaces", with different mixes these capabilities and customizations, be developed and pushed to the user based on a "role" or a similar construct?
  The API allows for a content completion filter which also affects the Elements view.
Does the XML Author component API provide access to the XML document, for manipulation purposes, using common XML syntax such as DOM, XPath, etc.?
Yes, using the Author API.
Can custom dialog boxes be developed and launched to collect information in a "form" (with scripting behind to push tag the collection information and embed it in the XML document?
Yes.
Can project resources, customizations, etc. be readily shared between the desktop and component versions of your XML Author product line?
A framework developed for the Desktop Oxygen application can then be bundled with an Author component in a custom applet. For example the Author demo applet from our web site is DITA-aware using the same framework as the Oxygen standalone distribution.

A custom version of the applet that includes one or more customized frameworks and user options can be built and deployed for non-technical authors by a technical savvy user using a built-in tool of Oxygen. All the authors that load the deployed applet from the same server location will share the same frameworks and options.

A custom editing solution can deploy one or more frameworks that can be used at the same time.