What's New in Oxygen XML Author 22.1
May 19, 2020
Related version: 22.0
Version 22.1 of the Oxygen XML Author brings you more productivity improvements for DITA authoring, customization options and change bars for CSS-based DITA to PDF publishing, the JSON and HTML editing support continued to be enhanced, while some of the most popular add-ons were improved and new ones made available.
Other highlights include the ability to copy content from Author mode and paste it in HTML-aware tools while preserving the styling, the availability of the visual file comparison tool in the Eclipse plugin distributions, better search and replace functionality, and as usual, this release comes with various API additions, bug fixes, and component updates.
There are changes in:
DITA Authoring
Improved Navigation on Links and Topic References
DITA projects usually consist of lots of topics and maps with numerous
references between them. To allow you to easily navigate to the target of a reference,
when you press
Ctrl or Command (on OS X), the links and
topic references become hyperlinks in Author mode, so you can click on
them to reach the target location, thus making navigation very easy.Automate Keys Definitions on Inserting Topic References
If you use DITA keys and want to make all references via keys, you need to have
key definitions for all topic references. A new option is available in the
DITA > New Topics preferences page called Use the file name
as the value of the "keys" attribute for topic references. If selected, when
inserting a topic reference into a map, the file name will be used automatically as the
value of the
@keys attribute for the new
<topicref>, thus defining a key pointing to the inserted topic
that can be used to make indirect references to that topic.Create New DITA Map Directly From the DITA Maps Manager
A new action available from the DITA Maps Manager toolbar
allows you to create a new DITA map document by opening the New Document
Wizard that assists you with the creation process.
Import Profiling Styles from DITAVAL
If a DITAVAL filter already contains styles then you can easily use them during
authoring by importing them. Just go to the Profiling/Conditional Text > Colors
and Styles preferences page and press the Import from DITAVAL
button to import profiling styles from a
.ditaval file to either merge
new profiling styles with existing ones or to replace them completely. This feature also
works if you are using profiling attribute groups to organize the attributes into
subcategories.Conref Range Support when Creating Reusable Components
Prior to version 22.1, the Create Reusable Component action
replaced a selection of elements with a content reference (
conref) if the
Replace selection with content reference option was selected in the
resulting dialog box. Starting with version 22.1, the selection is replaced with a content
reference range (conref and conrefend).The Oxygen DITA References View Plugin is Easier to Install
The DITA References side view shows all outgoing references
for the current DITA topic. This view is contributed by an Oxygen plugin, and now the
Window > Show View menu contains an entry with its name, even when
the DITA References View add-on is not installed. The first time you
select it from that menu, Oxygen will automatically open a dialog box to help you
install the add-on.
CSS-Based DITA to PDF Publishing
Improved Error Reporting
When publishing to CSS-based PDF output, errors detected by the Chemistry
processor are now reported in the Results panel along with the other
DITA-related errors. The additional types of errors include font issues, text bleeding,
and more.
Show Tracked Changes and Comments as Change Bars
A new parameter called
show.changes.and.comments.as.changebars
can be used to control whether or not tracked changes and comments are shown as change
bars in the PDF output. When the parameter is set to yes (default) and
the show.changes.and.comments parameter is also set to
yes, the comments and tracked changes are shown as change
bars.Show Change Tracking Content as Sticky Note Annotations
A new parameter called
show.changed.text.in.pdf.sticky.notes.content is available for
controlling what information about tracked changes is presented as sticky note
annotations. If it is set to yes, the content of insertion or deletion
changes is shown in the annotation, while only the inserted and
deleted labels are shown if the parameter is set to
no.Control the Title Rendering for Tables
Two new parameters were added for CSS-based PDF transformations that control
how table titles are presented. The
table.title.placement parameter can
be used to control whether the title appears at the top or bottom of the table, and the
table.title.repeat parameter can be used to specify whether or not the
table caption should be repeated when the table spans on multiple pages.Control Embedded SVG Customization
The rendering of an SVG (which is basically an XML) can be customized with CSS.
A new parameter called
use.css.for.embedded.svg can be used to specify
whether or not custom CSS is applied to embedded SVG elements in CSS-based PDF
transformations.Improved Line Breaks Handling in Codeblocks
break-word is now the default value of the
overflow-wrap CSS property for <codeblock>
elements. This will help prevent problems with content in code blocks bleeding off the
page.Better Support for Hyphenated and Wrapped Words on Search and Copy/Paste
The behavior of search and copy/paste operations for hyphenated and wrapped
text now takes all spaces into account, helping to prevent unwanted word
combinations.
Improved Handling of Change Bars
Duplicate change bars painted on parent and child blocks have been removed.
Change bars are also placed in better locations within the page, avoiding text
overlaps.
Visual Editing
Copy/Paste From Author Mode as HTML
When you copy content from Author mode and paste it in
HTML-aware tools (like email clients, office applications, Google Docs, etc.) Oxygen
tries to preserve the overall styles such as links, lists, tables, bold, italic,
underline, etc.
CSS Property to Control Hyperlinks Activation in Author Mode
A new
-oxy-link-activation-trigger CSS property can be used to
specify when links can be followed to their target as hyperlinks in
Author mode. This allows you to control if link navigation happens
directly when clicking a link or when using a modifier (by pressing Ctrl
or Command on OS X and then click to navigate to the link target). The
second is particularly useful when you may need to edit the link itself and clicking
without a modifier will allow you to place the caret inside the link
element.Visual Comparison for Eclipse
Compare XML Documents in the Visual Author Mode
The Oxygen Eclipse plugin now provides support to compare
XML documents in the visual Author mode. This makes it easier to
understand the document changes. This new visual mode includes unique features such as
actions to control the tags display mode, the ability to do second-level comparisons to
see the actual changes inside modified blocks, and it handles nicely the change tracking
markup.
Eclipse Integration
The Oxygen visual Author mode comparison is integrated with the Eclipse
comparison support. The visual comparison is presented automatically for XML documents.
You can compare versions in the Workbench with versions in the repository, or with the
local edit history. You can also compare three files when a common ancestor
exists.
Merge Changes
The Oxygen visual Author mode comparison editor provides similar merge
support as the default Eclipse compare editor. It allows you to merge changes from the
left file to the right file, and vice versa. You can copy each individual change or you
can use actions such as Copy all non-conflicting changes to copy more
changes at once.
Comparison Options
The comparison solution includes a set of diff options. It includes an
XML Accurate algorithm for precise comparisons, an XML
Fast algorithm for speed and less memory usage at the expense of some accuracy,
or you can specify whether or not namespaces, prefixes, namespace declarations, or even
the order of attributes should be ignored.
HTML
Validate HTML Documents Using Schematron
It is now possible to validate HTML documents against a Schematron schema. Besides the default HTML
validator, Oxygen now also includes a built-in HTML Schematron Validator engine. This
can be done by specifying the Schematron in a validation scenario, using the
Validate with action (in the Validation drop-down menu
on the toolbar), or you can batch validate multiple HTML documents using the
Validate with schema contextual menu action from the
Project view.
Action to Make HTML Documents XML Well-formed
A new HTML to XML Well-formed action is available in the
contextual menu when editing HTML documents. It makes the currently edited HTML document
to be XML well-formed. This is helpful if, for example, you use XSLT stylesheets while
applying transformations on HTML documents (since the transformation will require the HTML
document to be XML well-formed).
Format and Indent HTML Elements
Support was added to format and indent the content of the current HTML element.
After the action is performed, the structure of the document will be preserved as is
(including, for example, unclosed elements or missing attribute quotes).
Add-ons
Oxygen provides access to a variety of default add-ons that extend the
functionality of the application.
Oxygen Emmet Plugin Improvements
The Emmet Plugin is now installed automatically the first time you invoke the Emmet
action. To help make expanding the abbreviations easier, you can now use the
Ctrl+Space keyboard shortcut. Also, the Wrap with
Abbreviation action now displays an in-place field where you can type the
abbreviation.Improved Filtering Comment Mapping for Oxygen Feedback Plugin
The Feedback Comments Manager view can filter comments by
site, version, and status. This makes
it easier for you to focus on particular comments (e.g. unresolved comments, or a
particular version or site). The mapping of the comments to DITA topics was improved to
support DITA-specific features such as branch filtering and chunking.
Install on First Use for the Git Client
The Git Client plugin now offers the Git
Staging view that acts as a basic Git client integrated directly into
Oxygen. It provides support for committing changes to a Git repository, comparing and
merging changes, and other Git-specific commands. This view is now listed in the
Window > Show View menu and the Tools menu even when
the Git Client add-on is not installed, making it easier to perform the
installation, as that is triggered automatically when one of these actions is
invoked.
Install on First Use for the Batch Document Converter
The Batch Converter add-on contributes numerous actions in a Batch
Converter submenu located in the Tools menu and the contextual
menu of resources in the Project view. These actions allow for batch
conversions between various formats (MS Word, MS Excel, HTML, JSON, and Markdown documents
to DITA, DocBook, XHTML, or XML). If the add-on is not already installed, selecting
Batch Converter will trigger the installation process for this
plugin.
XSpec Add-on Updated to Support XSpec Version 1.6.0
The XSpec add-on was updated to include XSpec version 1.6.0, which is the same
version that is now bundled with Oxygen.
Saxon Transformer Add-on for Saxon 10.0
The Saxon
transformer add-on now supports Saxon version 10.0.
Other
Movable Results View
The Results view that displays messages generated from various
operations like validations, transformations, or search can now be moved to your desired
UI location alongside other side views and you can also set it to be hidden automatically
when not focused.
Validation Status Details
When a validation operation is processed, information about the validation scenario is displayed in the stripe at the very
bottom of the application. If you hover over the information, a tooltip is presented with
even more information. You can also click the More details button to open
the Information view where further details about the validation are
displayed.
Locate Find/Replace in Files Matches in the Author Visual Editing Mode
The Find/Replace in Files dialog box now has a new option
(Always open selected results in Text mode):
- If unselected (the default state), double-clicking the resulted matches will open the documents in whatever editing mode is specified as the default for that document type. For example, DITA documents will open by default in Author mode.
- If selected, double-clicking the resulted matches will always open the documents in Text mode (even if the particular document type is set to open in Author mode by default).
Ignore Extra Whitespaces Option Added to the Find/Replace Dialog Box
The Ignore extra whitespaces option was added in the
Find/Replace dialog box. It is helpful when searching for
space-separated words because enabling this option means that line-breaks and indentation
between words will not affect the results.
Hide Editor Tabs
If you want full focus on the current file, or during some presentations, you
may find it useful that now it is possible to hide all the file tabs to only display the
currently open file. This does not close the other tabs, just hides them. You can still
navigate between tabs using keyboard shortcuts (
Ctrl+Tab,
Ctrl+Shift+Tab, Ctrl+F6,
Ctrl+Shift+F6).New Option to Specify an External Application for Editing MathML
A new option was added in the MathML preferences page where
you can specify an external MathML application for editing MathML equations. For example,
the following command could be used to edit MathML equations with a Libre Office
application in Windows:
"C:\Program Files\LibreOffice 5\program\smath.exe"
"${cf}".
API
Get Names of Pseudo-Classes Set for an Element
The
AuthorElement.getPseudoClassNames() method was added and it
can be used to retrieve the names of the pseudo-classes set on an element.Customize Link Tooltip Text in Author Mode
The
ExtensionsBundle.customizeLinkTooltipDescription() method was
added and it can be used to customize the tooltip description that is displayed when
hovering over a link in the Author editing mode.Load XML Content and Use the Author API to Make Changes
The
PluginWorkspace.createAuthorDocumentProvider(URL, Reader) API
can be used to create a provider for a given resource specified by a URL and/or Reader.
The provider creates a structure of AuthorNodes and allows it to be
manipulated via an AuthorDocumentController interface. This API is useful
if, for example, you want to load XML content and use the Author API to make changes to
it.Run Validation Scenarios from Custom Author Actions
Two new APIs were added that can be used to run validation scenarios in
particular situations. The
ExecuteValidationScenariosOperation API can be used to run a
validation scenario on an Author Action file, while the ValidationScenarioInvoker API can be used to run a validation
scenario from a plugin or framework customization.Contribute Code Templates for Fast Structure Insertions
A new
WSTextEditorPage.addExternalContentCompletionProvide API can
be used to display additional code template proposals in the content completion
assistant.Change the Tooltips for Filters in the File Comparison Merge Tool
A new
DiffAndMergeTools.openMergeApplication API can be used to
control the text presented in a tooltip when you hover over the filtering options in the
file comparison merge tool. Component Updates
DITA Open Toolkit 3.4.1
The DITA Open Toolkit version bundled with Oxygen was updated to
3.4.1.
DITA Open Toolkit Plugin for DITA-to-Word 1.4.0
The DITA Open Toolkit plugin for DITA-to-Word conversions was updated to
version 1.4.0.
Saxon 9.9.1.7
Updated the Saxon library that is distributed with Oxygen to version
9.9.1.7.
Xerces 2.12.1
Updated the Apache Xerces library to version 2.12.1.
Everit 1.12.1
The Everit library was updated to version 1.12.1.
MarkLogic 10
Oxygen has been tested and is officially compatible with the MarkLogic 10
server.
TEI Schemas 4.0.0 and TEI Stylesheets 7.49
Updated the bundled TEI schemas to version 4.0.0 and the TEI stylesheets to
version 7.49.
focheck 0.7.6
The bundled focheck framework that is used for enhanced XSL-FO
validation was updated to version 0.7.6.
Log4j 2.13
Updated the log4j library to version 2.13.
Rhino 1.7.12
The Rhino library was updated to version 1.7.12.
Eclipse 4.15
Updated the Eclipse plugin to support version 4.15. Note that starting with
Oxygen version 23, Eclipse versions earlier than 4.4 will no longer be
supported.
XSpec 1.6.0
Updated the XSpec library to version 1.6.