The Project View

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

Figure: The Project View

By default, the Project view is positioned on the left side of the Oxygen XML Editor window, above the Outline view. A closed view can be quickly reopened at any time with the Project > Show Project View menu action.

The tree structure occupies most of the view area. In the upper left side of the view, there is a drop-down menu that contains all recently used projects and project management actions:

Open Project (Ctrl F2 (Meta F2 on OS X)): Opens an existing project. Alternatively, you can open a project by dropping an Oxygen XML Editor XPR project file from the file explorer into the Project panel.
Note: When a project is opened for the first time, a confirmation dialog box will be displayed that asks you to confirm that the project came from a trusted source. This is meant to help prevent potential security issues.
New Project: Creates a new, empty project.

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 project tree highlights the currently edited file, if it is found in the project files.

Note: This button is disabled automatically when you move to the Debugger perspective.

Settings

A sub-menu that contains the following actions:

Filters

Allows you to filter the information displayed in the Project view. Click the toolbar button to set filter patterns for the files you want to show or hide. Also, you can set filter patterns for the linked directories that are hidden.

Show Full Path

When selected, linked files and folders are presented with a full file path.

Enable Master Files Support

Select this option to enable the Master Files support.

Change Search and Refactor operations scope

Allows you to change the collection of documents that define the context of the search and refactor operations.

Use only Master Files, if enabled - Restricts Oxygen XML Editor to perform the search and refactor operations starting from the master files that are defined for the current resource. This option is available when you select Project in the Select the scope for Search and Refactor operations dialog box and the Master Files support is enabled.
Working sets - Allow you to specify the set of files on which the search and refactor operations will act on.

The files are usually organized in an XML project as a collection of folders. There are three types of resources displayed in the Project view:

Logical folders - marked with a blue icon on Windows and Unix/Linux () and a magenta icon on Mac OS X (). They help you group files within the project. This folder type has no correspondent on the physical disk, since they are used as containers for related items. Creating and deleting them does not affect the file system on disk. They are created on the project root or inside other logical folders by using the contextual action New > Logical Folder. The contextual menu action Remove from Project 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 Mac OS X). 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, Add Folder, etc.) Also, the contextual menu action Remove from Disk (Shift+Delete) can be used to remove them from the project and local file system.
Shortcut folders and files - the icons for file shortcuts include a shortcut symbol and names of folder shortcuts are displayed in bold text. All files and folders that appear as direct descendants of a logical folder are considered shortcuts. They are created and added with the contextual actions Add Files and Add Folder from the project root. Both contextual menu actions Remove from Project and Remove from Disk (Shift+Delete) are available for shortcuts. Remove from Project just removes the shortcut from the project, while Remove from Disk (Shift+Delete) removes the shortcut and the physical resource from the local file system.

Figure: The Project View with Examples of all Three Types of Resources

Creating New Projects

The following action is available in the Project menu, the New menu in the contextual menu, or from the drop-down menu in the top-left of the Project view:

New Project: Creates a new, empty project.

Creating New Project Items

The following actions are available by selecting New from the contextual menu, when invoked from the Project view:

New > File: Opens a New file dialog box that helps you create a new file and adds it to the project structure.
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.
New > Logical Folder: Available when invoked from the project root, this action creates a logical folder in the tree structure (the icon is a magenta folder on Mac OS X - ).
New > Logical Folders from Web: Available when invoked from the project root, this action replicates the structure of a remote folder accessible over FTP/SFTP/WebDAV, as a structure of logical folders. The newly created logical folders contain the file structure of the folder it points to.

Add Content to a Logical Folder

The project itself is considered a logical folder. You can add content to a logical folder using one of the actions available in the contextual menu, when invoked from the project root:

Add Folder: Adds a link to a physical folder, whose name and content mirror a real folder that exists in the local file system (the icon of this action is different on Mac OS X ).
Add Files: Adds links to files on the local file system.
Add Edited File: Adds a link to the currently edited file in the project.

Managing Project Content

Creating/Adding Files and Folders

You can create linked folders (shortcuts) by dragging and dropping folders from the Windows Explorer / Mac OS X Finder to the project tree, or by selecting Add Folder in the contextual menu from the project root. To create a file inside a linked folder, select the New >

File action from the contextual menu.

Note: The linked files presented in the Project view are marked with a special icon. Linked folders are displayed in bold text.

You can create physical folders by selecting New > Folder from the contextual menu.

When adding files to a project, the default target is the project root. To change a target, select a new folder. Files may have multiple instances within the folder system, but cannot appear twice within the same folder.

Removing Files and Folders

To remove one or more linked files or folders, select them in the project tree and press the Delete key, or select the contextual menu action

Remove from Project. To remove a linked file or folder from both project and local file system, select the contextual menu action

Remove from Disk (Shift+Delete). The

Remove from Disk (Shift+Delete) action is also used to remove physical files or folders.

CAUTION:

In most cases this action is irreversible, deleting the file permanently. Under particular circumstances (if you are running a Windows installation of Oxygen XML Editor and the Recycle Bin is active) the file is moved to Recycle Bin.

Moving Files and Folders

You can move the resources of the project with drag and drop operations on the files and folders of the tree.

You can also use the usual Cut, Copy, and Paste actions to move resources in the Project view.

Renaming Files and Folders

There are three ways you can rename an item in the Project view. Select the item in the Project view and do one of the following:

Invoke the Rename action from the contextual menu.
Press F2 and type the new name.
Click the selected item and type the new name.
To finish editing the item name, press Enter.

Note: The Rename action is also available on logical files.

Locating and Opening Files

If a project folder contains a lot of documents, a certain document can be located quickly in the project tree by selecting the folder containing the desired document and typing the first few characters of the document name. The desired document is automatically selected as soon as the typed characters uniquely identify its name in the folder.

The selected document can be opened by pressing the Enter key, by double-clicking it, or with one of the Open actions from the contextual menu. The files with known document types are opened in the associated editor, while binary files are opened with the associated system application. To open a file with a known document type in an editor other than the default one, use the Open with action. Also, dragging and dropping files from the project tree to the editor area results in the files being opened.

Saving the Project

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

Validate Files

The currently selected files in the Project 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 sub-menu:

Validate > Check Well-Formedness: Checks if the selected file or files are well-formed.
ValidateValidate: Validates the selected file or files against their associated schema. EPUB files make an exception, because this action triggers a Validate and Check for Completeness operation.
ValidateValidate with Schema: Validates the selected file of files against a specified schema.
ValidateConfigure Validation Scenario(s): Allows you to configure and run a validation scenario.

Applying Transformation Scenarios

The currently selected files in the Project view can be transformed in one step with one of the following actions available from contextual menu in the Transform sub-menu:

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

Along with the logical folder support, this allows you to group your files and transform them very easily.

Refactoring Actions (Available for certain document types (such as XML, XSD, and XSL)

Oxygen XML Editor 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 sub-menu:

Refactoring > Rename resource: Allows you to change the name of a resource.
Refactoring > Move resource: Allows you to change the location on disk of a resource.
Refactoring > XML Refactoring: Opens the XML Refactoring tool wizard that presents refactoring operations to assist you with managing the structure of your XML documents.

Other Contextual Menu Actions

Other actions that are available in the contextual menu from the project tree include:

Open: Opens the selected file in the editor.
Open with submenu: This submenu allows you to open the selected file with the internal editor, a system application, or other internal tools: DITA Maps Manager, Archive Browser, MathML Editor, Generate/Convert Schema, WSDL/SOAP Analyzer, Large File Viewer, Hex Viewer, SVG Viewer.
Open All Files (when a folder or multiple resources are selected): Opens all the selected files with the corresponding editors.
Show in Explorer (or Show in Finder on OS X): In Windows, the content of the selected folder or file is presented in a specific explorer window. On MAC OS X, the parent folder is opened and the selected folder is highlighted in a specific finder window.
Copy Location: Copies an application-specific URL for the selected resource to the clipboard.
Refresh: Refreshes the content and the dependencies between the resources in the Master Files directory.
Find/Replace in Files: Allows you to find and replace text in multiple files.
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.
Open/Find Resource: Opens the Open/Find Resource dialog box.
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.
Open in SVN Client: Syncro SVN Client tool is opened and it highlights the selected resource in its corresponding working copy.
Compare: Opens the Compare Directories or Compare Files tool.
Generate Documentation > XML Schema Documentation: Opens the XML Schema Documentation Dialog Box.
Generate Documentation > XSLT Stylesheet Documentation: Opens the XSLT Stylesheet Documentation Dialog Box.
Generate Documentation > XQuery Documentation: Opens the XQuery Documentation Dialog Box.
Generate Documentation > WSDL Documentation: Opens the WSDL Documentation Dialog Box.
Properties: Displays the properties of the current file in a Properties dialog box.

Menu Level Actions

The following actions are available in the Project menu:

New Project: Creates a new, empty project.
Open Project (Ctrl F2 (Meta F2 on OS X)): Opens an existing project. Alternatively, you can open a project by dropping an Oxygen XML Editor XPR project file from the file explorer into the Project panel.
Note: When a project is opened for the first time, a confirmation dialog box will be displayed that asks you to confirm that the project came from a trusted source. This is meant to help prevent potential security issues.
Save Project As: Allows you to save the current project under a different name.
Validate all project files: Checks if the project files are well-formed and their mark-up conforms with the specified DTD, XML Schema, or Relax NG schema rules. It returns an error list in the message panel.
Filters: Opens the Project filters dialog box that allows you to decide which files and directories will be shown or hidden.
Enable Master Files Support: Allows you to enable the Master Files Support for each project you are working on.
Change Search and Refactor operations scope: Opens a dialog box that allows you to define the context of search and refactor operations.
Show Project View: Displays the project view.
Reopen Project: Contains a list of links of previously used projects. This list can be emptied by invoking the Clear history action.