What's New in Oxygen XML Author 20.0
March 16, 2018
Related version: 20.1
Version 20.0 of the Oxygen XML Author brings you a variety of new features and improvements that focus on productivity, performance, efficiency, and simplicity to enhance your XML authoring experience.
This major release includes productivity improvements for DITA, a new publishing template package feature for customizing WebHelp Responsive output, more add-ons to extend Oxygen's functionality, as well as numerous enhancements for Oxygen PDF Chemistry.
As usual, this version also contains numerous new API entry points or extensions, component updates, and more.
There are changes in:
DITA
Report Unreferenced Key Definitions
You can now select an option in the DITA Map
Validate and Check for Completeness dialog box to report key
definitions that are not referenced.
Report Unreferenced Reusable Elements
You can now select an option in the DITA Map
Validate and Check for Completeness to report potential reusable
elements that are not referenced anywhere in the context map. These are elements that have
an ID attribute and are defined in topics marked as resource only, or in topics where
other elements are reused.
Convert DITA Sections to Topics
A new XML refactoring operation was added that extracts sections inside DITA topics to
external topics. If the action is invoked from the DITA Maps manager, then the current map
will be updated to include references to the newly generated topics.
Rename Keys
A new DITA-specific XML refactoring action has been added that provides the ability to
easily rename keys. This action does not currently support DITA 1.3 key
scopes.
Convert CALS Tables to Simple Tables
A new XML refactoring operation was added that converts DITA CALS tables to DITA
simple tables. The conversion assumes that the CALS tables have no spans.
DITA-OT 1.8 No Longer Supported
The old DITA-OT version 1.8 is no longer bundled in the Oxygen installation
kits. If needed, it can be downloaded and used as an external DITA-OT
processor.
Provide External DITA-OT Distribution as an Add-on
A plugin
extension was added to contribute additional DITA Open Toolkit distributions to
the OxygenDITA preferences page.
Accessibility Support Added to DITA Map to PDF WYSIWYG Transformation
Accessibility support was added to PDF output generated by the DITA Map to
PDF WYSIWYG Transformation Scenario. For example, most of the paragraphs,
tables, lists, headers, and footers are tagged automatically so a PDF reader can use this
information to present the content to the visually impaired.
Add-ons
To offer the benefit of more rapid release cycles, some new functionality was
added using the Add-ons support. A variety of plugins were made available on the default add-ons
update site.
Git Support Add-on
A new add-on is available that contributes a Git Staging view
in Oxygen. It provides a built-in Git client and includes various actions that perform
common Git commands, such as push, pull, change branch, commit, and more. It also uses
Oxygen's built-in diff tool for comparing and merging changes. For more information,
please visit: https://github.com/oxygenxml/oxygen-git-plugin
Batch Converter Add-on
A new batch converter add-on is now available that contributes actions in the
Tools menu and in the contextual menu of the Project
view to enable batch conversion between various formats (for example, convert from
Markdown or HTML to XHTML, DITA, or DocBook). For more information, please visit:
https://github.com/oxygenxml/oxygen-resources-converter
DocBook Validation Add-on
A new add-on is available that contributes a Check DocBook for
Completeness action on the toolbar and in the DocBook editor contextual menu.
This action opens a dialog box that offers various validation options for running a
completeness check on the current DocBook document. For more information, visit: https://github.com/oxygenxml/oxygen-docbook-validate-check-completeness
Translation Package Builder Add-on
A new add-on is available that contributes a Translation Package
Builder submenu in the contextual menu of the DITA Maps Manager. This submenu
includes actions to generate a ZIP package of modified files that can be sent to
translators, as well as an action to extract translated files back into your DITA project.
For more information, visit: https://github.com/oxygenxml/oxygen-dita-translation-package-builder
DITA Prolog Updater Add-on
A new add-on is available that contributes a preferences page
(Options > Preferences > Plugins > DITA Prolog Updater) that
includes various options for updating the prolog section of a DITA topic or map. For more
information, visit: https://github.com/oxygenxml/oxygen-dita-prolog-updater
WebHelp Responsive Publishing
Publishing Templates
Oxygen version 20 introduces the Oxygen
Publishing Templates. They define all aspects of the look and feel (layout and
styles) of the WebHelp Responsive output. These templates represent a customization package that you can easily share with your team. It is designed
as a self-contained package stored either as a ZIP archive or as a folder on
disk.
Built-in Publishing Templates Gallery
Oxygen comes with a built-in publishing
templates gallery, available in the Templates tab in WebHelp
Responsive transformation scenarios. You can easily find the template you want by using
the filtering options and the template preview images.
User Defined Publishing Templates Galleries
If you define multiple Publishing Templates then you can organize them into a
gallery, a folder containing multiple publishing templates, to easily share them with
others. The WebHelp Responsive transformation scenarios now include a Configure Publishing Templates Gallery option in the
Templates tab allowing you to specify directories where your
custom templates are stored. The templates stored in these additional directories will
appear in the preview pane.
Topic Table of Contents Component
A table of contents component displaying links to each section within the
current topic can now be included in the topic page. The section corresponding to the
current scroll position is highlighted. You can use the
webhelp.show.topic.toc parameter to specify whether or not this table of contents component will be visible.
Highlight Image Map Hotspots
Image map hotspots are highlighted when you move the mouse over the
image.
Improved Default Layout
The default layout of the WebHelp Responsive output was improved to make it easier
to browse your documentation. The main publication table of contents component was moved
to the left side and you can use it to find specific topics and then the new topic TOC
component that appears on the right side of each topic page helps you to navigate through
the major sections of that topic.
Expand/Collapse Sections
A new Expand/Collapse Sections button was added to the navigation actions
and it allows you to easily expand or collapse all the topic sections.
Control the Initial State of Collapsible Elements
A new parameter was added to set the initial state of the collapsible elements.
The parameter name is webhelp.topic.collapsible.elements.initial.state and its
possible values are: collapsed or expanded (default
value).
Display Images
For the responsive images that are displayed with a smaller dimension than its
original size, you can click the image to enlarge it in a popup window.
Responsive Videos
If you have embedded videos in WebHelp Responsive output, they are now resized
automatically according to the size of the browser.
Other
Editor Variables that Point to a Plugin Folder
Every Oxygen plugin includes a unique ID it its plugin.xml
file. Two new editor variables (${pluginDirURL(pluginID)} and ${pluginDir(pluginID)}) are now available that are resolved
to the folder that contains the plugin.xml file, providing a URL or a
file path, respectively.
Duplicate Lines in Text Mode
New shortcuts were added that duplicate selected lines (or the current line)
and inserts the duplicate content above or below the current selection/line. On
Windows/Linux, Ctrl + Shift + ↑ duplicates the selection/line upward,
while Ctrl + Shift + ↓ duplicates downward. On Mac OS X, the shortcuts
are Alt + Shift + ↑ and Alt + Shift + ↓,
respectively.
Added Content Completion and Syntax Highlighting for the ISO Schematron documents Attributes
For the Schematron pattern element, in the value of the
documents attribute, the content completion list now offers proposals
for functions, variables, and XPath expressions. Also added support for XPath syntax
highlighting in the documents attribute.
Copy Description Text from the Results Panel
In the contextual menu of the Results panel, there is now a new
action that copies the description text of the selected items. For example, this can be
used to copy the results of an XPath search operation.
API
Set a Status Message and Color
Added a new API method: WorkspaceUtilities.showStatusMessage(String,
OperationStatus). It can be used to set a message and its color in the
Oxygen status bar.
Set and Get Multiple String Values for an Option
Added two new API methods: WSOptionsStorage.getStringArrayOption(String, String[]) and
WSOptionsStorage.setStringArrayOption(String, String[]). They
can be used to set and retrieve multiple string values for an option.
Text Field with Undo Support
Added the ro.sync.exml.workspace.api.standalone.ui.TextField API
component that has undo support and a contextual menu with editing actions.
Customize the Project View
Added an API method: addRendererCustomizer(ProjectRendererCustomizer) for the
ProjectController API that allows you to customize the
Project view (for example, you can provide specific tooltips or
icons).
Contribute External XProc Engine
A new plugin extension type called AdditionalXProcEngine can be used to contribute a folder that
contains an external XProc engine. After installing the plugin, when you run an XProc
transformation scenario, your external XProc engine can be selected from the
Processor drop-down menu.
Translate the Interface into a New Language
A plugin extension was added to the Oxygen SDK that allows you to localize the Oxygen interface
into a new language and you can select that language from the Global
preferences page.
Component Updates
Saxon 9.8.0.8
Updated the built-in Saxon engine to its current latest version, Saxon
9.8.0.8.
Saxon 9.7 Transformer Available as External Add-on
The previous version of Saxon, 9.7 can be used as an external transformer, an
add-on based on version 9.7.0.21 is available.
focheck 0.6.1
The bundled focheck framework (https://github.com/AntennaHouse/focheck)
developed by Antenna House, Inc and used in Oxygen to offer enhanced XSL-FO
validation, was updated to version 0.6.1.
DITA-OT 2.5.4
Updated DITA-OT to the latest 2.x version, DITA-OT 2.5.4.
Lightweight DITA
Updated the Lightweight DITA framework to support the latest available DTDs
made available in the public review draft from February 13, 2018. Note that Lightweight
DITA support is experimental and its status is work in
progress.
Calabash 1.1.19
Updated the Calabash engine to version 1.1.19, which is compatible with Saxon
9.8.
XSpec 1.0.0
Updated XSpec to the latest version, XSpec 1.0.0.
TEI Schemas 3.3.0
Updated the bundled TEI schemas to version 3.3.0.
TEI XSLT 7.44.0
Updated the bundled TEI XSLTs to version 7.44.0.
W3C CSS Validator
Updated the W3C CSS validator to support the latest CSS 3
properties.
eXist 4.0
Updated Oxygen to work with eXist 4.0.
Oxygen PDF Chemistry
New CSS Extension Properties to Control Page Sequence Placement
Two new CSS extension properties were added (-oxy-initial-page-number, -oxy-force-page-count). For instance, these allow you to
specify whether chapters should start (or end) at odd or even pages, and additional blank
pages will be added if needed.
Added -oxy-page-group CSS Extension Property for Forcing Page Sequence Breaks
Chemistry now fully implements the W3C specification regarding the page
sequence breaks between elements that have different page names. Elements in a sequence
that use the same page name are left in the same page sequence (group). If you need to
change this behavior (i.e. to create a new sequence for each element even if it has the
same page as the one before it), you can use the -oxy-page-group : start CSS extension property.
Support for PDF Named Destinations
Chemistry now supports named destinations, providing a way to
link to a particular anchor within a PDF document. For any element with an ID attribute,
you can create a link to its PDF location using '#id' as an anchor into the PDF URL. For
example: http://example.com/sample.pdf#introduction.
Support for transform CSS Property
Chemistry supports the transform CSS property for page margin
boxes. This is helpful for creating vertical text around the page.
Enhanced Hyphenation Properties
Hyphenation properties can now be applied also to inline
elements.
Aggressive Hyphenation
When hyphenation is enabled, Chemistry adds hyphenation breaking points after
underscores, dots, and before case changes, in addition to the ones driven by
dictionaries. This is useful when your publication contains snippets of code (Java,
etc).
Additional Hyphenation CSS Extension Properties
Some hyphenation CSS extension properties were added (-oxy-hyphenation-character, -oxy-hyphenation-push-character-count, -oxy-hyphenation-remain-character-count). These allow you to
control the number of characters remaining before or after the break position as well as
the hyphenation symbol.
Support for overflow-wrap CSS Property
Chemistry now supports the overflow-wrap:break-word CSS
property.
Compact Large Tables
You now have the possibility to use hyphenation in tables when the layout is
set to automatic. This is helpful for compacting large tables that bleed out of the page
space.
Table Column Styling Improvements
The properties set on a column element (with
display:table-column) are applied to the cells from the corresponding
column.
Support for font-variant CSS Property
Chemistry now supports the font-variant:small-caps CSS
property.