XML.com

Release of XMLmind XML Editor v10.0

December 2, 2021

Submitted by Hussein SHAFIE, XMLmind Software.

Release of XMLmind XML Editor v10.0

This version 10 has been developed mainly for the two following reasons:

  • Get rid of rarely —if ever— used features in order to make the desktop XXE application “lighter” and also simpler to maintain and enhance.
  • Create new applications running on headless servers based on the desktop XXE application, its architecture, its configurations, its add-ons, etc. The first of such applications is the xxeconvert command-line utility (which replaces the xxetool command-line utility).

As a consequence, this version 10 has a lot of regressions and incompatibilities with previous version 9. However please note that V10 is fully compatible with V9 in terms of use and configuration. All the incompatibilities are related to extension points written in the Java™ language like “native” commands and CSS stylesheet extensions. Porting these extensions from V9 to V10 should be pretty straightforward and is documented in XMLmind XML Editor - Developer's Guide.

Enhancements:

  • The xxeconvert command-line utility, which replaces the xxetool command-line utility, runs on headless servers.
  • The xmltool command-line utility now automatically uses all the XML catalogs found in the two add-on directories of XXE (XXE_install_dir/addon/ and XXE_user_preferences_dir/addon/).
  • Commands:
  • DocBook configurations: added two XSL stylesheets to the "Convert to RTF, WordprocessingML, OOXML, OpenDocument" and "Convert to PDF, PostScript" sections of the dialog box displayed by "Options|Customize Configuration|Customize Document Conversion Stylesheets". These stylesheets are called "Stock stylesheet" and "Stock profiling stylesheet" and they let the user revert to the stock DocBook XSL stylesheets used to convert DocBook to XSL-FO. These stock stylesheets use a 10pt base font size while the default —customized by XMLmind Software— stylesheets use a 11pt base font size (among a few other customizations).
  • "FlatLaf Look and Feel" add-on: updated FlatLaf to version 1.6.4. Added two nice-looking themes: FlatIntelliJ (light theme; alternative to FlatLight) and FlatDarcula (dark theme; alternative to FlatDark).
  • Upgraded XMLmind Web Help Compiler (whc for short) to version 3.3.
  • Upgraded XMLmind DITA Converter (ditac for short) to version 3.9.
  • Upgraded XMLmind Assembly Processor to version 1.1.
  • Upgraded the "Word To XML" add-on to XMLmind Word To XML version 1.8.5.
  • Upgraded XMLmind Ebook Compiler (ebookc for short) to version 1.5.0.
  • XMLmind XML Editor, which passed all non-regression tests, is now officially supported
    • on Java™ 17 platforms;
    • on macOS Monterey (version 12.0), including on Macs having an Apple® M1 (ARM®) processor;
    • on Windows 11.

    Limitations when using XXE on a Mac having an Apple® M1 (ARM®) processor:

    • JavaFX WebView crashes Java™ (bug JDK-8276991), hence it has been disabled on this platform. As a consequence, a rudimentary online help system and feature "In the styled view, render audio and video elements by embedding a media player" has been disabled.
    • The "Hunspell Spell Checker" add-on, leveraging Hunspell, cannot work on this platform, hence you cannot download it and install it using "Options|Install Add-ons".

Bug fixes:

  • XMLmind DITA Editor and XMLmind DocBook Editor allowed to user to download and install third-party add-on containing configurations (e.g. add-on "DTBook Support") but after restarting the application these configurations were deliberately ignored. This is no longer the case. Now these third-party add-ons may be installed using "Options|Install Add-ons" and after restarting the application, the corresponding configurations are taken into account.
  • When a document was not associated to an XXE configuration, some of its view settings (e.g. alternate CSS stylesheet, visible tags) were not persistent across editing sessions.
  • Opening a document styled by a stylesheet making use of proprietary CSS extension show-row-column-labels caused a NullPointerException to be raised.
  • When revisions are stored in the document (Tools|Revisions|Store All Revisions in the Document), the dialog box displayed by menu item Tools|Revisions|Open Revision lets you open (and also compare) any past revision in XXE. Saving a document with some or all transclusions “untranscluded” (Edit|Reference|Untransclude Reference) caused the stored revision data to be corrupted. Therefore this revision and all older revisions could not be opened by Open Revision without errors.
  • DocBook 5 and 5.1 configurations: "DocBook|Convert between informal element and element" worked randomly for informaltable/table. In some cases an empty HTML table was used to replace a CALS informaltable. This is no longer the case. However, this command still does not work for HTML informaltable/table (though it does not produce any incorrect result). It works only for informalfigure/figure, informalexample/example and CALS informaltable/table.
  • The FTP virtual drive plug-in was extremely slow at downloading large files.

Possible incompatibilities:

  • The XMLmind XML Editor desktop application has been slightly simplified.
    • The Window menu is now called Tab. Menu entry "New Window" is now found in the File menu.
    • Feature "Enable the 'XML|Convert Document' submenu", which was enabled by default, has been removed from Options|Preferences, General|Features.
    • Feature "Enable all advanced tools including the Document Cache Indicator" (Options|Preferences, General|Features) replaces "Enable the Developer Tools" and "Enable the Document Cache Indicator".
    • The following menu entries, which were enabled by the "Enable the Developer Tools" feature, have been removed:
      • Options|Reload All Configurations
      • Help|Mouse and Key Bindings
      • Help|Plug-ins

Regressions:

  • The xxeconvert command-line utility, which replaces the xxetool command-line utility, cannot be used to compare documents anymore. This simpler tool can just be used to convert XML documents to other formats.
  • Command-line utilities XXE_install_dir/bin/csscheck and deployxxe have been discontinued.
  • Deploying XXE using Java™ Web Start is no longer supported.
  • Embedding XXE in a third-party Java™ application is no longer supported.
  • All DITA and DocBook configurations: removed the "Convert to Java Help" item from the "Convert Document" menu. Rationale: Java™ Help is an obsolete format. The Java™ Swing component used to render it on screen gives poor results and is not maintained.
  • DITA Topic configuration: removed items "xref(play)" and "Insert/Edit Action" from the menu of "Insert media object" toolbar button. Rationale: these buttons were used to generate the EPUB epub:trigger element, a feature not supported by any major EPUB viewer and deprecated as of EPUB 3.2.
  • Commands:
    • Removed the following commands: setImageMode.
    • Renamed command masterDocumentControl to XXE.masterDocumentControl.
    • Command repeat looses its index_in_command_history parameter. This facility is now found in new command listRepeatable.
    • Command checkValidity does not return an array of com.xmlmind.xml.validate.Diagnostics of anymore. Also, it has a new commitChanges parameter.
  • Environment variable (or Java™ system property) XXE_GUI is no longer supported. It was possible to set this variable to the location of a .xxe_gui file in order to completely change the GUI of XXE. Now the only way to customize the GUI of XXE is by the means of one or more customize.xxe_gui files.
  • Add-ons:
    • Add-on "WebDAV virtual drive plug-in" is no longer available. This is a temporary situation. This add-on currently leverages a very old HTTP client and we really need to port it to a modern, up-to-date, HTTP client.
    • Add-on "Keep using DITA 1.2" has been discontinued.

What is XMLmind XML Editor?

Home page: http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/

Personal Edition is free to use by many persons and organizations. Download: http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/download.shtml

Related links

News items may be commercial in nature and are published as received.