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oXygen XML Author Changelog

What's new in oXygen XML Author 19.0

Jun 23, 2017
  • Version 19.0 of the oXygen XML Editor brings you a variety of new features and improvements that focus on productivity, efficiency, and simplicity.

New in oXygen XML Author 16.1 (Dec 13, 2014)

  • Adds improvements to both the XML development and XML authoring functionality.
  • Fixes for validation issues, such as adding a missing attribute or deleting an unexpected element are offered automatically by the Quick Fixes support.
  • The XSLT support helps you better understand what each XSLT instruction does by presenting associated annotations with the description of the instruction and links to the specification.
  • The XML authoring mode received a number of improvements to the table support, track changes functionality, generic editing, as well as to the DITA specific actions.
  • You can find patterns within an EPUB, OOXML, ODF or any ZIP archive by running XPath queries on all the documents from ZIP-based archives.
  • The Eclipse plugin version of oXygen XML Editor was updated to support Eclipse 4.4, the SVN support was updated to work with Apache Subversion 1.8, and many component libraries were updated to their latest stable versions.
  • XML:
  • XML Quick Fixes - The Quick Fix support helps you resolve different errors that appear in an XML document by proposing automatic fixes for common problems such as missing required attributes or invalid elements. This feature is only available for XML documents validated against an XML Schema.
  • Display Annotations Using HTML - You can use HTML styling in the annotations you add in an XML Schema or Relax NG schema. This improves the visual appearance and readability of the documentation and tooltip windows displayed when editing XML documents validated against such a schema.
  • Execute XPath Expressions Over Files Inside Archives - XPath expressions can be executed over files inside archives (including EPUB and Docx). The archive can be open in the Archive Browser view or referred from the currently selected scope.
  • Improved External Validation Engines Error Reporting - The recognized format of messages received from an external validation engine supports new parameters that allow more accurate highlighting of the place in the XML content where the error is located.
  • CSS:
  • CSS Minification Tool - oXygen includes a minification tool that allows you to compress and minimize the CSS stylesheets you are developing for deployment on a web server.
  • XSLT - XSLT Outline Displays xsl:key and xsl:output Components
  • The Outline view collects and displays information about the xsl:key and xsl:output components when you are editing an XSLT document.
  • Improved Documentation for XSLT Components - The documentation for XSLT components (elements, attributes and functions) has been reviewed and improved. The documentation is now displayed using a more readable HTML format with navigation links to the specification.
  • SharePoint Integration - SharePoint Browser View
  • The SharePoint Browser has been promoted as a dedicated view, allowing you to interact with SharePoint repositories through a set of specific actions.
  • Visual XML Editing:
  • Track Surround Changes - If Change Tracking support is enabled, all content surround operations are marked as changes.
  • Rectangular Selection in Tables - You can select rectangular blocks of cells in tables. You can then use this selection to edit properties or delete the content of the selected cells.
  • Show Location Tooltip on Mouse Move - When editing XML documents in a visual environment you might find it difficult to position the caret between certain tags that do not have a visual representation. To help you, oXygen displays a semi-transparent preview of the Position Information Tooltip when hovering between two elements.
  • 'Media' Rules for Windows High Contrast Themes - Two application-specific 'media' rules allow you to add specific styles for white-background and black-background high contrast Windows themes when editing in the Author visual editing mode.
  • Paste as Text Action - The Paste as Text action pastes the clipboard content, ignoring any structure or styling markup.
  • Insert Symbols in a Form Control - You can use the Characters Map dialog to insert symbols in embedded form controls.
  • The Width Property is Available for a Number of Form Controls - The width property is now supported by the text field, text area, URL chooser, date picker, combo box and pop-up form controls. You can specify the width of any of these form controls by setting them to absolute, relative or percentage values to achieve a better looking final layout.
  • Enable Button Form Controls in Read-Only Context - You can use the enableReadOnlyContext to enable buttons or groups of buttons in read-only contexts. This allows you, for example, to execute a utility action that does not modify the context.
  • WebHelp:
  • WebHelp Pages Use HTML5 Elements - WebHelp pages generated by the oXygen transformations from DITA XML and DocBook XML content start with a HTML5 DOCTYPE declaration. A video from a source XML document is translated to the HTML5 video element.
  • DITA Support - Option to Batch Validate Referenced DITA Resources
  • An option in the Validate and Check for Completeness action allows you to batch validate DITA files referenced in the DITA map. This means that DITA files can be validated using schemas from the associated validation scenarios.
  • Easier Way to Perform a Conref Push - The Insert Content Reference dialog provides an easier way to mark or replace referred content.
  • Reorganized DITA Maps Manager Contextual Menu - The DITA Maps Manager view offers a simplified and more ergonomic contextual menu.
  • Navref Element Support - The DITA Maps Manager view provides a dedicated action for inserting navref elements, plus a specific icon for rendering them in the DITA Map tree.
  • Action to Insert New Topic in a DITA Map Edited in Author Mode
  • When editing DITA Maps in Author mode, an action is available to create and insert a new topic at the caret position.
  • Eclipse Plugin:
  • Support for Eclipse 4.4 - The oXygen XML Eclipse plugin now officially supports Eclipse 4.4.
  • Deprecated Support for Eclipse 3.4 and 3.5 - Note that this is the last version of oXygen which supports Eclipse 3.4 and 3.5. Support for these older versions will be removed starting with the next version of oXygen.
  • Other:
  • Editor Variables to Find the Framework's Location - Two additional editor variables (framework(fr_name) and frameworkDir(fr_name)) allow you to find the location of a particular framework, both as URL and file path.
  • Single Sign-on Authentication - oXygen supports single sign-on authentication based on the Kerberos protocol by enabling a custom system property.
  • Ant Quick Fixes - Added Quick Fix support for missing target references in Ant build documents.
  • Configurable Stop Words List - To improve search performance, the indexing process skips some common short English words (so-called stop words). However, you can configure this list of words to adapt it to your authoring team's needs.
  • Improved Search Results - Keywords found in DITA and DocBook titles are promoted higher in the search result list, thus increasing the chance of finding a relevant topic much faster.
  • High Contrast Themes Inheritance - On Windows operating systems, oXygen inherits colors set in the high contrast themes.
  • Allow Filtering by Unicode Blocks - The Character Map dialog allows you to view all characters available in a certain Unicode block range for a specific font.
  • Improved Modularization Support for ISO Schematron Schema - Improved the inclusion mechanism when working with ISO Schematron modules by adding support for iso:extends element. This element allows you to include all the components defined in a Schematron schema (such as patterns or phases) as opposed to the standard inclusion mechanism defined in ISO Schematron (iso:include element) that allows you to include the root element of the included Schematron module.
  • Add-ons Packager Plugin - The Add-ons Packager plugin allows you to package frameworks or plugins as add-ons.
  • SVN Client:
  • Support for Subversion 1.8 - oXygen now supports Subversion 1.8 working copies and also SVN 1.8 FSFS-backed repositories accessed through the file:// protocol. Starting with this version, SVN 1.6 and older working copies are no longer supported, unless using an older version of Syncro SVN Client.
  • Improved Merge Support - The Merge support has been improved with ease-of-use in mind, bringing a more user-friendly and less error-prone interface. Also, it supports additional Merge options and it is more compliant with the svn merge command.
  • Improvements and Bug Fixes - oXygen includes various improvements and bug fixes regarding external items, memory management, operations performance, and the user interface.
  • Component Updates:
  • Saxon 9.5.1.7 - The Saxon XSLT, XQuery and XML Schema processor from Saxonica has been updated to version 9.5.1.7.
  • DITA OT 1.8.5 - The DITA Open Toolkit has been updated to version 1.8.5.
  • Updated TEI Schemas and Stylesheets - The TEI schema has been updated to version 2.7.0 and TEI XSL stylesheets to version 7.24.0.
  • Calabash 1.0.20 - The bundled Calabash XProc engine has been updated to version 1.0.20.
  • HTTP Client 4.3.3 - The Apache HTTP Client libraries have been updated to version 4.3.3.
  • API - Plugins Can Generically Refer Multiple Libraries Located in the Same Folder
  • The librariesFolder element in the plugin.xml can be used to point to multiple libraries located in the specified folder.
  • Custom Editor Variables Expander - The API UtilAccess.addCustomEditorVariablesResolver method allows you to add a custom editor variable resolver to the application.
  • Rename Element Operation - The RenameElementOperation allows you to build a custom framework-level action to handle element renaming.
  • Move Element Operation - The MoveElementOperation allows you to build a custom framework-level action to handle moving elements from one context to another.
  • Operation to Set or Delete Multiple Pseudo Class Values of Nodes Identified by XPath Expressions - The ChangePseudoClassesOperation operation allows you to set multiple pseudo class values to nodes identified by an XPath expression and to remove multiple values from nodes identified by an XPath expression.
  • Method for Creating an Author Toolbar - The WSAuthorComponentEditorPage.createAuthorToolbar() method returns an Author Toolbar containing the Refresh, Change Element Tags, and Profiling Sets actions.
  • Method to Insert an XML Fragment in Text Mode - The TextDocumentController.insertXMLFragment() API method allows you to insert an XML fragment in Text editing mode. The insert position is specified by an XPath expression.
  • Interface for Managing a Color Theme - The ColorThemeUtilities interface provides more information about the color theme currently used by oXygen. It also provides an image color inverter utility class.
  • Method to Reject the Switch Between Editing Modes - The WSEditorPageChangedListener.pageAboutToBeChangedVeto callback method allows you to exercise the right to veto against switching between editing modes (for example, between Author and Text mode) before the actual switch takes place.
  • Custom Form Control API for Callbacks From the Character Map Dialog. - The API InplaceEditor.insertContent() method allows a custom form control to receive input from the Characters Map dialog.
  • Dynamic Width for Form Controls - The AuthorInplaceContext.getPropertyEvaluator() method allows you to evaluate the width property of a form control.
  • Method to Get the XPath Expression of a Node Identified by its Offset - The AuthorDocumentController.getXPathExpression(int offset) method allows you to get the XPath expression of the node identified by the given offset.
  • Method for Delaying the Process of Setting Values to Form Controls - If you add form controls from a styles filter you can use the ro.sync.ecss.extensions.api.editor.LazyValue interface to delay the evaluation of its possible values until they are actually needed.
  • Method to Refresh the Content of a Form Control - The InplaceEditor.refresh() method allows you to synchronize the content of a form control when the document is modified from a source other than the form control.

New in oXygen XML Author 16.0 (May 20, 2014)

  • XML Editor 16 increases your productivity for XSLT development with the addition of Quick Fixes and improvements to refactoring actions. Saxon-CE specific extensions are supported and you can apply now XPath queries on multiple files.
  • If you use Ant to orchestrate build processes then will support you with a powerful Ant editor featuring validation, content completion, outline view, syntax highlight and search and refactoring actions.
  • Working with conditional content is a lot easier now as you can set different colors and styles for each condition or focus exclusively on a specific deliverable by hiding all excluded content. You can modify DITA and DocBook tables easily using the new table properties action.
  • You can customize the style of the WebHelp output to look exactly as you want using the new WebHelp skin builder.
  • As usual, the new version includes many component updates and new API functionality.

New in oXygen XML Author 15.2 (Apr 17, 2014)

  • Editing XML documents visually is a lot easier in XML Author version 15.2 with the intelligent content completion and paste functionality while new CSS 3 and CSS 4 features allow for creating more interactive and user friendly interfaces.

New in oXygen XML Author 14.2 (Feb 14, 2013)

  • XML Editor adds important features for both XML Development and XML Authoring.
  • On the XML development side, completes the set of XML Schema 1.1 related features with full schema editing support and capabilities to generate XML instances and schema documentation in accordance with this new W3C standard.
  • On the XML Authoring side, streamlines XML reviewing by adding support for highlights and a Review manager panel. Highlights help you focus on the content you need to review and the Review manager panel presents all the changes, comments and highlights from a document so you can quickly inspect and manage them.
  • Improvements were made for quickly finding resources in the project by searching in their content or file paths. offers these advanced search capabilities by adding a dedicated view that supports complex text search expressions, such as: multiple words, boolean operators, group searches, etc. as well as XML-aware filters.
  • Documents from a Microsoft SharePoint server can now be accessed using the Data Source Explorer view, where you can edit, check-in, or check-out resources directly.
  • As usual, XML updates many components to their latest versions, and extends the API available to third party applications.

New in oXygen XML Author 14.1 (Oct 20, 2012)

  • Makes the XML authoring available to everybody, by allowing attributes to be edited directly in the Author view though form-like controls and placing actions directly in the document flow. This also expands the range of documents that can be edited visually to any XML document, no matter where the content is stored, in elements or attributes.
  • The support for the built-in frameworks was improved, especially the DITA support which features better error reporting and a rename/move topic refactoring action.
  • As many partners depend now on XML for their solutions, a lot of effort was put into improving and expanding the API to allow them to develop more integrated oXygen-powered applications.

New in oXygen XML Author 14.0 (Jul 5, 2012)

  • Marks a major step forward in the XML development support as it introduces new concepts and functionality that change the way you develop XML and XML-related applications.
  • The XML authoring competes now with word processors on ease of use and functionality while providing all the benefits of having XML documents as the result of your work - it has never been easier before to create, annotate and review XML content.
  • The new support for plugin and framework repositories allows users to discover and install extensions to the standard functionality and enables the plugin and framework developers to easily deliver and update their applications to users.

New in oXygen XML Author 12.0 (Sep 16, 2010)

  • Improves the existing functionality, adds new features and, most importantly, enhances the user experience. A lot of effort was invested in minimizing memory usage and improving the general performance.

New in oXygen XML Author 11.2 (Jun 21, 2010)

  • Author Component:
  • Author Component Integration
  • An Author page is available as a component that can be integrated in your Java application or applet. All features available for editing in the XML Editor Author page are also available in the Author component.
  • See demonstration and more details here. Please note that the demonstration requires Java 6 and it works only on Windows and Linux.
  • Author for DITA:
  • Support for Reusable Components
  • A fragment of a topic can be extracted in a separate file for reuse in different topics. The component can be reused by inserting an element with a conref attribute where the content of the component is needed. This works without any additional configuration and supports any DITA specialization.
  • Content References Management
  • The DITA framework includes actions for adding, editing and removing a content reference (conref, conkeyref, conrefend attributes) to/from an existing element.
  • Fast Loading of DITA Maps
  • A new schema caching mechanism allows to quickly open large DITA Maps and their referred topics.
  • Author Editing Mode:
  • Preserve Formatting for Unchanged Elements
  • A new option allows formating and saving only the modified elements. This keeps the formating of the other elements for easy comparing of two versions of the file in a versioning system.
  • Schema-aware editing improvements
  • In case when multiple recovery strategies are validated by the schema information a dialog appears presenting the available recovery alternatives. The dialog also allows to evecute the original action unchanged with the notice that the result will be invalid according with the schema.
  • Author API:
  • Update the Outline View
  • The current selection can be accessed and set in the Outline view from custom extensions of an Author framework.
  • Customize the Outline View
  • The popup menu and the displaying and filtering of the tree nodes can be customized in the Outline view with an extension of an Author framework.
  • Customize the Breadcrumb
  • The text displayed in the nodes list of the Breadcrumb and the popup menu of the Breadcrumb can be customized with an extension of an Author framework.
  • Update the Status Bar
  • The user can be notified about the state of an operation by updating the status bar. This is usually preferable to displaying a dialog box.
  • Text Editing Mode:
  • Improved Handling of Large Documents
  • The support for large documents has been improved so that the opening and editing of large documents are faster. can now also open documents with very long lines by using automatic line wrapping.
  • Customizable Font Styles for Syntax Highlighting
  • A font style (bold/italic) and a background color can be set for any token (element, attribute, text, etc.) that is displayed in an editor in Text mode.
  • XSLT and XQuery:
  • Debug XPath Expressions
  • Now the XSLT Debugger is capable to step into XPath 2.0 expressions when using the bundled Saxon-HE/PE/EE XSLT processor.
  • XQuery 1.1 Transformations
  • Saxon 9 EE bundled with can be used to run XQuery 1.1 transformations.
  • New Tools:
  • New Spell Checker
  • Hunspell (the engine used by OpenOffice, Mozilla and others) is now used by for spell checking. ships with dictionaries for English, German, French and Spanish but users can also install others from the almost 100 dictionaries available for Hunspell. The old spell checking engine remains available.
  • Hexadecimal Viewer
  • includes a hexadecimal viewer.
  • Plugins API:
  • Workspace Access Plugin
  • A new type of plugin was added. This plugin provides support for customizing the menus, toolbars and views of the application and for opening and closing documents. It is active in both Text mode and Author mode of all opened documents.
  • Mark Resource Read-Only
  • A resource opened with a custom protocol plugin can be marked as read-only. It can be used when opening resources from a CMS (Content Management System).
  • Open Redirect Plugin
  • This type of plugin is useful for opening more than one file with only one open action. For example when a zip archive or an ODF file or an OOXML file is opened in the Archive Browser view the plugin can decide to open also a file from the archive in a new XML editor panel, like the document.xml main file from an OOXML file archive.
  • SVN Client:
  • Faster Working Copy Load Time
  • A working copy is cached, so when it is loaded next time in the Working Copy view, the operation will be much faster than in the previous versions of Syncro SVN Client.
  • Automatic Refresh of the Working Copy
  • The working copy is automatically refreshed every time Syncro SVN Client gains focus, if changes are detected in the file system. This is done in order to update the state of the resources modified by external applications.
  • More Responsive Repository Browsing
  • You can configure the repository connections timeout and stop non-responsive repository browsing operations.
  • Better Handling for Obstructed Resources
  • Operations correctly take into account obstructed resources.
  • Print or Save as Image a Revision Graph
  • Generated revision graphs can be printed or saved as images.
  • Component Updates:
  • Updated DITA Open Toolkit
  • DITA Open Toolkit was updated to version 1.5.1 M1. It includes a speed improvement implemented by caching the grammar pool used for transforming DITA files.
  • Updated TEI P5 Framework
  • The TEI P5 schemas were updated to version 1.6.0. The TEI XSL stylesheets were updated to version 5.29.
  • Updated Saxon 9 Processor
  • The Saxon 9 XSLT/XQuery processor was updated to version 9.2.0.6.
  • Updated Libxml and Libxslt Libraries
  • The Libxml library was updated to version 2.7.6. The Libxslt library was updated to version 1.1.26.
  • Updated Calabash XProc processor
  • The Calabash XProc was updated to version 0.9.19.
  • Updated CSS Validator
  • The W3C CSS Validator was updated to version 2.0.