What's new in Version 3.1?

Grid-based editing: The Grid view provides a convenient means for viewing and editing XML while shielding the user from the complexities of the actual mark-up. While the Grid is particularly useful for handling structured data, such as medical records or purchase orders, it also supports documents that contain mixed content. With its spreadsheet-like interface, the Grid view allows users to easily manipulate data in a tag-free but XML-Aware environment.

View the video demonstration of the Grid (4.5Mb / 9:48mins).

XSLT 2.0 Debugging using Saxon 8.4: The Exchanger XSLT Debugger now handles XSLT 2.0 Debugging using Saxon 8.4 (The Saxon XSLT and XQuery Processor from Saxonica Limited, www.saxonica.com). The Exchanger XSLT Debugger can be run in standalone mode as well as integrated with the Editor, thereby facilitating the debugging of much larger input documents which do not have to be opened in the Editor.

View the video demonstration of the XSLT Debugger (1.2Mb / 2:49mins).

Simplified XSLT transformations: XSLT Transformations have been simplified through the use of redesigned Input dialogs for both the XML Input and XSL Input. Users may now choose between the current open document, choosing a different document or choosing a document from a URL.

Sample Instance generation from XML Schema: allows the user to simply and easily generate an example document that conforms to an XML Schema. Required elements and required attributes will always be generated but the user also has the option to generate optional elements, optional attributes and to generate content.

View the video demonstration of Schema Instance Generation (1.7Mb / 3:10mins).

Improved User Interface with new icons: The user interface has been improved with the use of new and updated icons on the toolbar and throughout the Editor. This has helped to increase the visual appeal of such items as the Schema Viewer and Outliner.

JGoodies Look and Feel: have been included with this release of the Exchanger XML Editor giving the user more choice when assigning a look and feel.

In addition we now offer video demonstrations of the major features of the Exchanger XML Editor and Exchanger XSLT Debugger and a comprehensive documentation library. These can be viewed here.

What's new in Version 3.0?

Keyboard Shortcuts: Significant new functionality has been added to support rapid data entry via the keyboard. Every one of over 200 functions in Exchanger XML is now accessible through a configurable shortcut while Emacs key mappings have also been implemented for basic editing functionality. The Macintosh version now supports the use of the Command key for shortcuts.

Fragments: To further improve productivity, shortcuts can be created for common tag combinations, for example, when editing an XSLT file Alt+Shift+C will generate the typical <xsl:choose> <xsl:when> <xsl:otherwise> tag combination. For convenience, these shortcuts are also available on a popup menu or as buttons on a toolbar. Exchanger XML Editor V3.0 comes with a number of mappings already installed while further mappings will be available for download for vertical standards such as Docbook, TEI, XBRL, UBL, etc. from www.exchangerxml.com .

Splitting: Windows can be split vertically (or horizontally) to view and edit different documents side by side. A particularly useful feature is the ability to synchronise scrolling of two or more documents based on XPath - this is very convenient when comparing different language translations of the same document. Multiple windows can be opened on a single file so that you can edit different parts of the document at the same time. For example, the markup for an XHTML form can be edited in one window while the corresponding Javascipt code associated with the form is edited in another.

Unordered Differencing: An Unordered XML Differencing and Merge Tool has been added. Unordered Differencing is particularly useful for comparing versions of documents such as XML Schemas and XSLT Stylesheets where normal differencing can result in excessive spurious changes being reported if the position of elements such as XSL Templates or global XSD Complex Types have changed.

Folding: Content Folding has been added, whereby individual element content can be collapsed and expanded using the Content Folding Margin in the Editor window, giving an improved editing experience for large documents.

Bookmarks: Navigation within the Editor has also been enhanced via the use of Bookmarks that can be easily created and removed, and accessed via a pop-up list or an Overview Margin on the right-hand side.

Multiple Tag-Completion Schemas: Mix and match any number of schemas to perform tag-completion.

Attribute Value Completion: Prompt for attribute values based on the associated schema and the values found in the document. Also special attribute value completion for XML-Schema, RelaxNG and XSLT documents.

Import: It is now possible to import structured text files, Excel spreadsheets and Database tables into the editor as XML content. In addition, the SQL/XML standard as supported by IBM DB2 and Oracle can now be used as a means of extracting data from multiple database tables into an XML format for subsequent editing or transformation.

Refactoring: A number of common XML Refactoring scenarios are directly supported, including renaming namespace prefixes, stripping text content, renaming elements/attributes, converting attributes to elements and changing elements to attributes.

Navigator: Customized Views can be specified in the Navigator, facilitating easier navigation through the use of an XPath-based "table of contents" style tree.

Search: Improved Find/Replace functionality now allows use of XPath-based filters for narrowing the search area and Regular Expression parameters in replace.

Other: Drag n' Drop support has been added to the editor.

Windows can easily be maximised, while toolbars and margins can be hidden to provide more screen real-estate for viewing/editing data.

Easily switch between open documents using View->Select Document... (or pressing Alt-1 ) to display a list of documents from which to choose.

The menus XML and Schema menu have been rearranged slightly. Setting the properites of the open XML document is now on the XML menu as XML->Set Properties... while validating schemas, DTDs and RelaxNG grammars has moved to the Schema menu as Schema->Validate XML Schema, Schema->Validate DTD and Schema->Validate RelaxNG.

Frequently changed settings have been moved from the Preferences dialog onto the menus so that they are easier to access and to allow shortcuts to be created. For example, Editor properties such as showing line numbers, content folding and soft-wrapping are now available using the View->Editor Properties sub-menus, while the Viewer is configurable using the View->Viewer Properties sub-menus. Shortcuts for all these properties can be created in the Keys tab in the Preferences dialog.