XMLSpear Version 3.0 is coming: Mac Beta-3 Available
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Introduction
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XMLSpear is a free XML editor with real-time validation.
It is easy to use, built in Java and available for all platforms.

Experienced XML users will find several advanced, unique features e.g. the interactive schema resolving, the display of loaded schemas and the extensive XPath panel (version 3.0).
The XML is displayed in three different views:
  • The treetable gives a nice overview of the structure of the xml file. You can insert and delete nodes, and even build a whole document from scratch. It is the most convenient view for correcting and editing xml. Don't worry about writings tags or escaping reserved XML characters. This view makes XMLSpear different form many other XML tools.
  • The element view is especially usefull if your element has many attributes.
  • The source view can be used for correcting unwellformed xml, doing finds-replaces or copy-and-paste. You can always escape to this view to do advanced things that are not supported in the other views.
The included text editor is usefull for editing plain text files (shell scripts, ini and config files, etcetera).
Mac OS users can open and edit their plist files, even when they are in binary format.

XMLSpear is packaged with a MQSeries plugin for browing queues and putting messages, so you can even test your MQ based services.

Please read the progress pages for more details.
Features

Some of the features of XMLSpear that are already available:

  • Xpath search panel (version 3.0)
  • XML catalog support (version 3.0
  • XSLT translations (version 3.0)
  • Full schema validation using DOM3 in Xerces 2.9.0
  • Tree editor for inserting, repeating (version 3.0) and deleting nodes
  • Real-time validation against schema or DTD while editing
  • Interactive resolving of schema or DTD locations
  • GUI component reflecting all loaded schemas
  • Test facility for correct proxy settings
  • GUI components reflecting the XML schema
  • Visual and textual feedback for errors
  • Support for multi-document view
  • Generation of complete XML documents from schema
  • Generation of schemas (DTD, Relax NG, W3C XML Schema) from xml instances (version 3.0)
  • Conversion between several schema types (version 3.0)
  • Opening and correction and even formatting of not-well formed XML
  • Unformat XML (while keeping cursor position in version 3.0) to filter out all the whitespace to shrink your file size
  • Checks xsd schemas for errors, in exactly the same way as normal xml files
  • Plug-In interface for extending functionality
  • Flexible encoding (character set) support during opening and saving files
  • Support for Unix and Windows text formats
  • Text editor for plain (unformatted) text is included.
  • Support for binary plist files (only avaible in the Mac Os version)
  • File viewer
  • Integrated text and HTML plugin
  • Import or export messages to MQSeries
Roadmap

XMLSpear is still full in development.

  • Editor general
    • XPath search (version 3.0)
    • Keep positioning in XML between tree and source view (version 3.0)
  • Tree Editor
    • Select of multiple nodes (suspended)
  • Source Editor
    • Show xpath position (version 3.0)
  • Translations
    • Support stylesheet transaltions (version 3.0)
    • Schema generation for XML instance documents (version 3.0)
  • Validation
    • Support for xml catalog (version 3.0)
System Requirements

The editor is 100% pure Java.

Versions 2.x

  • Java Runtime 1.4.x upwards
  • Testing is done on the following platforms Mac OS 10.4.11 and Windows XP.
    A separate download is available for Mac OS 10.2.x users.

Versions 3.x
  • Java Runtime 1.5.x upwards
  • Testing is done on the following platforms Mac OS 10.4.11 and Mac OS 10.5.8 and Windows XP.
    You can see which java version is started in the console window of XMLSpear. On Mac OS Leapard and Snow Leopard it is recommended to set the default java version to 1.6. You can do this with the Java Preferences program which is located in the Application/Utilities folder.
Please let me know of your experiences running on other platforms.

Downloads
XMLSpear is available as java web start application or as standalone application. If you use the webstart version, you will always have the latest updates. But be patient the first time you launch XMLSpear and wait till the application is completely loaded. This will be the case if you see the XMLSpear logo appear in the centerpane. It may take several minutes depending on your connection. The next time you launch, will be much faster because only the modified files are downloaded.
Please check the included readme.txt included in the stand alone package.

For the Version 3.00 beta3 see the Progress and Screenshots.

Main downloads.

Special downloads.

File which are not included un the webstart version.

Plugins
You can extend the functionality by using plugins. Their are two types of plugins:
  • ContentHandlers which can edit or browse certain file types (not released yet)
  • Adapters that can import or export data to one of the contentHandlers.
At this moment you can only make your own adapter plugins. I am inviting you to write your own import/export functionality. It is very simple to build a adapter. You don't have to be a experienced java programmer. Take a look at my sample plugin. In general a adapter will do some transformation of data.
Some ideas for plugins:
  • Import and exports to Excel
  • Database adapters
  • Soap adapter for testing webservices
  • Print or PDF adapters
So start programming now and get your name on the list below!!

Provider Description Version Download link
DonkeyDevelopment MQseries jms plugin for browsing and putting messages 1.03 included in distribution
DonkeyDevelopment Hello example plugin 1.00 included in distribution

 

Contact

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