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Can I announce beta testing version of a new XML software?


treestages

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Now, I want to know...what is it?
So far no objections. I hope nobody will feel offended if I mention it. It is an XML Tree Editor XEntrant. It alows you to browse and edit XML instances, DTDs and XML Schemas. If you select a node, you see its model type definition with all inherited information, which is useful particularly for beginners. It has a prevalidation feature, which does not allow unexperienced users to drag and drop elements where they do not belong. You can learn about other interesting features as well on the site http://www.treestages.com. Read "Getting Started" and eventually you can download it (5.3 MB only).
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Having seen some XML editors, and having only one (Stylus Studio) to impress me enough, I have to say, the screenshots of this one make me think it's too much GUI and too less text and I'm more of the manual type of guy.Don't get me wrong, if this is the first version of this application, it already seems very good. It's certanly a lot better then MS XML Notepad, which is what's currently my bottomest line (I mean it just sucks BIG).And btw, I'm really impressed by the download time of your site. It's just a blast. But I'm not that impressed for the markup, so if I had to give a grade, it won't be excellent.P.S. I haven't "tryed" the application, I'm only judging by what's written and the screenshot(s?). When I have more time, I may try the application itself, though I doubht my opinion will differ a lot.

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Having seen some XML editors, and having only one (Stylus Studio) to impress me enough, I have to say, the screenshots of this one make me think it's too much GUI and too less text and I'm more of the manual type of guy.Don't get me wrong, if this is the first version of this application, it already seems very good. It's certanly a lot better then MS XML Notepad, which is what's currently my bottomest line (I mean it just sucks BIG).And btw, I'm really impressed by the download time of your site. It's just a blast. But I'm not that impressed for the markup, so if I had to give a grade, it won't be excellent.P.S. I haven't "tryed" the application, I'm only judging by what's written and the screenshot(s?). When I have more time, I may try the application itself, though I doubht my opinion will differ a lot.
Thanks a lot for the honest comment. It is the first version and there is still a lot to be done. We are working on new features and the performance with really big files for the next release. And yes, it is more GUI than text. I am more GUI guy.:-)But the GUI is quite simple, just python with Tk, nothing fancy. We tried to focus more on the browsing and editing functionality. If you try it, I would be glad to know your opinion, however negative it might be. Thanks again.
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OK. I tryed the application and from the first few minutes, I already have a few suggestions:

  1. The installations ends with "Installed finished successfully. You must restart the application". What the ****? Remove this.
  2. I don't have MSXML 4, but I have MSXML 6, or at least so says my "Add and Remove Programs". Can't XML validation be done with it instead? XEtrant should detect if any possible MSXML version is installed and use it. Supporting other validators would be nice too, but that's not as important. Also, I can't actually supress the warning. It appears every time and it annoys me.
  3. A thing you can instert in almost any part of an XML document is a processing instruction. You should add it into the insert menu.
  4. Speaking of insert, when you create shemas, it should only allow you to insert elements that are appropriate at the current context. Currently it allows you to create ANY element, as if you're creating an ordinary XML document. If you can't get the menu to change dynamically based on the context, at least allow only schema elements (regardless of the context) to be inserted.
  5. There must be SOME sort of text editing available. What's the point of well formdness check if you can't get the file un well formed and oh my god, how can a newbie learn without seeing the text equivalent of a graphic? A good place to put this will be under the left tree.
  6. The big text box allows any characters to be entered. I think the user should be prohibited to enter invalid characters altogether or at least the more internationally forbidden ones like spaces, end lines and quotes.
  7. Shrink the big text box. You can use the free space to show additional information about the selected node.
  8. I personally think attributes should describe the element at hand, while child elements should carry additional information that should then be described by more information or selfly described by attributes. Having that said, one of the things you can fill the text box space will be a list of all elements' attributes and their values. For PIs and attributes, their text. For text nodes, the text node itself of course.

Don't get me started on the XSLT editing. There WAY too much to be done there.By the way, I really can't grasp the concept of the right tree. What's the idea?

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Thank you very much for your comments. We will certainly address many of them. I will just briefly reply on few.1. Agreed.2. We are planning to support more validators and we will try to accomodate other versions of MSXML (at least I don't see a reason why it should be a problem). And to suppress the message will be really easy to fix.3. Agreed.4. We are planning in a very near future to fully aupport schema editing. You are right, for now they are treated as an XML document only. 5. Good point. In this realease we do not allow editing of unwellformed text, which is a problem if you want to create XML file from a text.6. Agreed. The text window should be more strict. It does allow you to enter even "&" but in that case at least will idicate that it is wrong.7. You can shrink (by dragging the borders) the text window to almost any size you wish. But to add another window with more info about the selected node is probably a good idea. The text window is possible to increase to bigger size as well in order to edit big text under the selected node. If it contains other elements you can use (right click in the text window) "Subtree tagged text" mode and drag elements directly into the text to create the markups in the text.8. This is I believe partially addressed with the "Subtree tagged text" mode. But we will certainly think about it to make it better.For XSLT we plan to create our own schemas plus some other features. There is a schema XSLT available on the web which can be used with our XEntrant to edit XSLT-s but it is too convoluted and complex for a common user to use it easily.Thanks again for your very professional and to the point comments. We will try to address most if not all of them.

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By the way, I really can't grasp the concept of the right tree. What's the idea?Sorry, I forgot to answer this one. The right tree contains always the model of the definition and type of the selected node in the left tree. It is supposed to be one of the most important features, which is enabling you to drag and drop into the left tree only the nodes from the right model definition (DTD or schema). Try an examlpe of XML with DTD or schema and you will see what is in the right tree. Only those nodes and items which are allowed in the left selected node.

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And there is more to the right tree. If you click on the right mouse button within that panel you will se all the possibilities: list of all elements, directory tree, jpg file with the name of left selected node (if there is one), from which ju can drag and drop hot spots into the left tree, special characters, colours and more ...

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