What's New in Oxygen XML Editor 26.1
March 25, 2024
Related version: 26.0
Oxygen XML Editor version 26.1 is an incremental release of the industry-leading bundle of tools for content authors, developers, collaborators, and publishers. Starting with this release, the Enterprise edition of Oxygen XML Editor/Author/Developer becomes AI-ready, offering access without the need for an additional subscription to the Oxygen AI Positron Assistant Enterprise add-on which allows direct connection to OpenAI accounts or to the Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service.
Other highlights for this release include various time-saving productivity enhancements for DITA authors, including the ability to convert sections to new topic files and several actions listed as proposals in the content completion window make it easy to insert content references and key references. DITA publishers that use the Zendesk Help Center transformation scenario benefit from it automatically creating a table of contents and it now supports publishing to a subsection. For CSS-based PDF transformations, the new support for prepress processing ensures that your PDFs are print-ready. Additional editing highlights include improvements to the spell checker, the Split action in the Author mode's content completion now automatically adds required first child elements inside the newly created element, and the Smart Paste mechanism converts Markdown content that is pasted within XML documents in Author mode into the appropriate target vocabulary.
The AI Positron Assistant now has a separate Enterprise version available for users who want to connect to OpenAI accounts or Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service. New document templates are also available to help you easily create AI Positron custom actions, a new AI action is also available to translate content into any desired language, and the AI Positron Refactoring action now even works when applied on remote resources.
JSON users now have the power to transform JSON documents using XSLT transformation scenarios, the content completion for JSON now offers proposals even when no schema is associated, the JSON Outline view now displays the number of child elements in each array's label and also supports drag and drop. Furthermore, basic text editing support was added for JSON5 documents, and a new JSON Schema Validator add-on is available that provides support for validating JSON documents against JSON schema version 2020-12.
You also now have the ability to execute Quick fix proposals in bulk, the latest engines are available for the Saxon XSLT and XQuery Transformer add-on, XProc 3.0 schemas were added to offer support for content completion and validation for XProc 3.0 files, unique values are now automatically generated for ID-type attributes that are inserted using the Content Completion Assistant, and schema files and new file templates were added to support editing DocBook 5.2 documents and SVG 1.2 Tiny documents.
This release also implements a variety of performance improvements, security enhancements, API and component updates, and various bug fixes.
There are changes in:
DITA Authoring
Insert Content/Key References from Content Completion Assistant
When editing DITA topics, you now have access to several actions listed as
proposals in the content completion window that make it easier to insert content
references and key references. The conref action opens a pop-up window
that allows you to choose reusable content from a list of all the reusable components
(elements with IDs in topics that are referenced as resource-only in the
context DITA map). The keyref action opens a pop-up window that allows
you to choose a key from a list of all the keys that are gathered from the context DITA
map.
Preserve Topic Type When Converting Sections to New Topics
When using the Convert sections to new topics XML refactoring
operation, users will benefit from the topic type being preserved for the new topic files
created from the inner sections. This applies specifically to DITA topics of the type
topic, concept, or reference.
Previously, the generic topic type was used, but now users can ensure
consistency in the topic types throughout the conversion process.
Option to Control Conversions of Non-DITA Resources When Inserting Topic References
A new option (Dynamic conversion of specific non-DITA
resources) is available in the DITA Maps preferences page that
controls whether or not non-DITA resources are automatically converted to DITA when
inserting topic references in the DITA Maps Manager. The option is enabled by default,
which means non-DITA resources (such as Word, Excel, Markdown, OpenAPI, and HTML) are
dynamically converted when chosen in the Insert Topic Reference dialog
box. You can disable the option if you do not want such resources to be converted to
DITA.
DITA Publishing
Automatic Fix of Width/Height Values for Images
When performing CSS-based PDF transformations, it is important to ensure that the values for the width or height of an image do not contain uppercase letters for units of measurement (this can cause the image to be missing in the output). If the system detects that an image has width or height values that contain units of measurement written in uppercase letters, it now automatically corrects them to ensure that the image is properly displayed in the output. Additionally, a warning message is displayed to alert you about the issue so that you can also fix the problem in the source file.
Zendesk Transformation Automatically Creates Table of Contents
The Zendesk Help Center transformation scenario now
automatically creates and publishes a table of contents as the first article in the target
section. This initial article serves as a hierarchical reference to all other articles.
The title of the table of contents article is the title of the DITA map. To disable the
publication of a table of contents, you can set a new parameter called
zendesk.create.toc to false. Additionally, there are
two new optional parameters, zendesk.toc.title.prefix and
zendesk.toc.title.suffix, which allow you to specify a prefix or suffix
to be added to the title of the table of contents article.Publish to Zendesk Subsection
The Zendesk Help Center transformation scenario now supports
publishing to a subsection. The Section parameter can contain a path of
section names separated by '///'. For example:
Main section///Subsection
1///Subsection 1.1.Real-Time Publishing Steps Presented for DITA Transformations
When running DITA transformations, the real-time progress is constantly updated
in the status bar to present the current publishing step being processed.
Support for Prepress Print Layout With New Cropping Properties
For CSS-based PDF transformations, support was implemented for prepress
processing with the addition of the new cropping properties
(
-oxy-scale, -oxy-crop-box, and
-oxy-crop-offset). It is also possible to add the crop and/or
registration marks to the PDF document by using the marks
property.Author Mode
Spell Checker Improvements
When using the spell checker for DITA, DocBook, or TEI documents opened in
Author mode, the borders of consecutive inline elements are now
considered transparent. This means that if there is no space between two consecutive
inline elements and the text inside them would form a misspelled word when placed
consecutively (without a space) in the output, a spell check error will be
reported.
Smart Paste Markdown Content
Markdown content that is pasted within DITA, DocBook, TEI, or XHTML documents
in the Author visual editing mode is converted to the target vocabulary,
similar to pasting web page content or MS Word content.
Split Action in Content Completion Automatically Inserts Required Child Element
When using the Split action within the content completion
feature in Author mode, if the initial element has a required first child
element, it will automatically be added as an empty child element inside the newly created
element.
Text Mode
Batch Execute Quick Fix Proposals
A new Apply all default quick fix proposals action was added
in the Text editing mode's contextual menu that can be used to batch execute all detected
default quick fix proposals for all reported validation errors.
Toggle Comments Action Supports Multiple Languages
The Toggle Comments action that is used to enclose the
currently selected fragment in a comment is now context dependent, making it possible to
comment multiple types of languages within a document. For example, you can comment XML,
CSS, JavaScript, or XPath fragments inside an XSLT document.
Automatically Generate Unique Values for ID-Type Attributes
When an ID-type attribute is inserted using the Content
Completion Assistant, a unique value is now automatically generated for it, eliminating
the need for an extra step of adding an unique value for the attribute.
JSON
Transform JSON Documents with XSLT
An enhanced feature was added that enables you to transform JSON documents
using XSLT processing. This involves the implementation of transformation scenarios, which
can be created and linked to JSON documents. This facilitates the smooth processing of
JSON documents, streamlining the overall workflow. See Transforming JSON Documents with XSLT for more details.
Transform Multiple JSON Documents at Once
It is now possible to transform multiple JSON documents at once with XSLT
processing. To achieve this, select multiple JSON documents in the Project view, and from
the contextual menu, you can choose to apply or configure an XSLT transformation
scenario.
Edit JSON5 Documents
Text editing support was added for JSON5 documents (a superset of JSON that
aims to alleviate some of the limitations of JSON by expanding its syntax to include some
productions from ECMAScript 5.1). The Outline view also includes syntax highlights for
JSON5 documents. Validation support is also available. See Editing
JSON5 Documents for more details.
Content Completion Offers Proposals Even When no Schema is Associated
When editing a JSON document that does not have an associated schema, Oxygen
automatically learns the document structure as you edit and the content completion
assistant will propose inferred JSON structures accordingly.
Better Array Rendering in JSON Outline View
The JSON Outline view now displays the number of child elements in each array's
label and each child is prefixed with the index in the array. This makes it easier to
identify and work with the arrays using the Outline view.
Enhanced Drag and Drop Functionality in JSON Outline View
Significant improvements were made to the drag and drop support in the JSON
Outline view. Now, you can easily drop a property within an object or array as a sibling
or a child. This feature ensures a more seamless and efficient editing
experience.
XSLT / XQuery / XPath / XProc
Updated Engines Available for the Saxon XSLT and XQuery Transformer Add-on
New versions for the Saxon XSLT and XQuery transformer add-on are now available to install. They
integrate the latest available engine versions for Saxon 10 (10.9), 11 (11.6), and 12
(12.4).
Default XSLT Stylesheet version set to 3.0
XSLT 3.0 is now used as the default version for the various components within
the application. New document templates, sample files, and various options within
preferences pages now have XSLT 3.0 set as the default rather than 2.0.
XProc Version 3.0 Schemas
XProc 3.0 schemas were added to offer support for content completion and
validation for XProc 3.0 files. The validation support for version 3.0 is only available
using the default validation engine (if a custom engine is used, version 3.0 support
depends on whether it is available for that particular custom engine).
File Comparison
Merge Documents with Change Tracking Highlights Tool Improved
Improvements were made to the Merge Documents with Change Tracking
Highlights tool to provide better handling of particular cases where documents
with extensive structural changes are compared (one such example would be the case in
which elements are renamed to ensure that the new structure is generated correctly and all
the attributes are copied). This should help eliminate false validation errors when
comparing pairs with lots of structural changes.
API for Merge Documents or Directories with Change Tracking Highlights
The newly added
AuthorDiffChangeTrackingMergerFactory.AuthorDiffChangeTrackingMergerFactory()
API can be used for merging a pair of compared XML documents or directories and the
resulting merged document will contain highlighted tracked changes. The class provides 2
methods: createChangeTrackingMergePerformer() for merging documents, and
createDirectoryChangeTrackingMergePerformer() for merging
directories.Markdown
Syntax Highlights for Languages Embedded in Markdown
For Markdown documents that contain code from various languages, those blocks
are now rendered with proper syntax highlights to make it easier to distinguish the
non-Markdown syntax. The languages that are rendered with syntax highlights in Markdown
documents include JavaScript, JSON, YAML, XML, Java, Python, and CSS.
DITA Preview Presents Colors and Filters for Profiling Attributes
For Markdown documents that contain profiling attributes within curly braces
(e.g.
## Header 2 {audience=expert}), the DITA preview pane now presents
the profiling attributes, colors, and filtered elements similar to how they are presented
in Author mode, provided that the profiling is set to be shown in the
Profiling/Conditional Text drop-down menu in the DITA Maps Manager.
Oxygen AI Positron Assistant
Oxygen AI Positron Assistant Enterprise
A separate Enterprise version of the Oxygen AI Positron Assistant add-on is now
available allowing users to directly connect to their AI models, either
by using their OpenAI accounts or on Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service. This enables them to
have full control over the AI service that is used by the Oxygen AI Positron Assistant and
to leverage personalized or company-specific AI models. Users can configure their
company-specific AI service details in the new AI Service Configuration preferences page
(Options->Preferences->Oxygen AI Positron Assistant->AI Service
Configuration).
Oxygen AI Positron Assistant Enterprise operates with a subscription license. Additionally, it can now be used without a separate subscription on the newly introduced Enterprise (AI-ready) edition for Oxygen XML Editor/Author/Developer.
Easily Create Custom AI Actions
New document templates are available to help you easily create AI Positron
custom actions. The AI Positron Custom Action file template contains a
single custom action definition in JSON format and can be used to configure a single
action, while the AI Positron Custom Actions List file template provides
a convenient way of defining multiple actions inside the same file. While working on such
an action, you will also benefit from the help given by the content completion
assistant.
Translate Content to Any Language
A new action (named "Other") was added inside the Translation
section and can be used to translate content into any desired language. You are able to
choose from a predefined set of languages or type your own target language.
AI Refactoring Available for Remote Resources
The AI Positron Assistant add-on contributes an AI Positron Refactoring action
in the contextual menu (Refactoring->AI Positron Refactoring) of both the
Project and DITA Maps Manager views that can be used to refactor multiple files at once.
Now, this feature also works when applied on remote resources (for example, resources
placed on WebDav servers or Content Management Systems).
Easier Access to Actions
The available AI actions are now displayed as buttons in the Oxygen AI Positron
Assistant view when the chat is empty (in addition to being displayed in the
Actions drop-down menu), thus providing easier access to start a new AI
action.
XML Syntax Coloring In Chat Response Area
The chat pane now uses XML syntax highlighting for XML code to make it easier
to see and understand the XML structure.
Add-ons
Oxygen offers a range of add-ons that can be utilized to expand its
functionality. Version 26.1 introduces the JSON Schema Validator add-on and brings new
improvements for the Batch Documents Converter add-on.
JSON Schema Validator
A new JSON Schema Validator add-on is available to provide
support for validating JSON documents against JSON schema version 2020-12. The validation
engine is based on the json-sKema
library. Once the add-on is installed, you can choose the JSON Schema
Validator (json-sKema) engine when creating a validation scenario. For more
details, see JSON
Schema Validator add-on.
Batch Documents Converter Improvements
Several enhancements were made to the Batch
Documents Converter add-on, including the addition of an XSD to JSON
Schema conversion that results in a version 2020-12 JSON
Schema.
Scripting
The All Platforms distribution of Oxygen is bundled with a
scripts sub-folder that contains scripts for automating and running
various utilities from a command line interface. To run any of these scripts, you need to
purchase a scripting license.Performance Improved for Validation and Check for Completeness Script
The DITA Validate and Check for Completeness script received
important performance enhancements. By eliminating a lot of duplication within the
processing, the time it takes for the script to finish when using DITAVAL filters has been
reduced significantly.
Miscellaneous
Experimental Dark Color Theme in Eclipse
A new experimental system property
(
-Dcom.oxygenxml.eclipse.dark.color.theme=true) can be set in the
eclipse.ini configuration file to enforce a dark color theme when
opening XML documents in Oxygen's Eclipse plugin. The regular color theme in Eclipse must
also be set to Dark (in the
Preferences->General->Appearance page) to consistently
apply the Dark theme in the entire workbench.Create and Validate SVG 1.2 Tiny Documents
SVG 1.2 Tiny schema grammar files were added and a new file
template to create new SVG 1.2 Tiny documents is available in the new
file wizard. These updates make it possible to easily create, edit, and validate SVG Tiny
1.2 documents.
DocBook 5.2
Schemas and new file templates were added to support creating, validating, and
editing DocBook 5.2 documents.
Component Updates
Eclipse 4.31
Updated the Eclipse plugin to support version 2024-03 (4.31).
XSpec Helper View Add-on Now Bundles XSpec 2.3.2
The XSpec Helper View add-on was updated to include XSpec version 2.3.2.
TEI XML Schemas 4.7.0 and XSLT 7.56.0
The TEI XML vocabulary schemas were updated to version 4.7.0 and the XSLT
stylesheets were updated to version 7.56.0.
OpenJDK 17.0.10
The version of OpenJDK that is bundled with the installation kits for providing
the Java Runtime Environment was updated to version 17.0.10 from Eclipse Adoptium.
JSON-Java Package 20240205
Updated the JSON-Java (org.json) package to version 20240205.
Apache Lucene 9.7.0
Updated the Apache Lucene libraries used for indexing content for the
Open/Find Resource functionality to version 9.7.0.
Apache POI 5.2.5
Updated the Apache POI libraries used for various conversions from MS Excel to
version 5.2.5.
Apache Commons IO 2.15.0
Updated the Apache Commons IO utilities library to version
2.15.0.
Zendesk Access 0.24.1
Updated the zendesk-java-client library used for publishing
DITA XML content to Zendesk to version 0.24.1.
Logback Classic 1.4.14
Updated the logback-classic library to version
1.4.14.
Logback Core 1.4.14
Updated the logback-core library to version
1.4.14.
Deprecated/Removed Components
EAD, KML, StratML Frameworks Moved to Oxygen XML GitHub Organization
The frameworks for editing EAD, KML, and StratML documents are now available as
separate projects in the Oxygen XML GitHub organization.
Deprecated Support for Tree Editor
The support for the Tree Editor (Tools->Tree Editor) has been
officially deprecated and will be removed in a future major release.
Deprecated Support for WSDL
The support for editing WSDL files and for the WSDL SOAP Analyser has been officially deprecated
and will be removed in a future major release.
Deprecated Support for FTP/SFTP
The support for using FTP and SFTP connections has been officially deprecated
and will be removed in a future major release.
Deprecated Support for Databases
The support for connecting to Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, Postgres, MySQL,
IBM DB2, and Marklogic databases has been officially deprecated and will be removed in a
future major release.
Deprecated Support for Xalan and XSLTProc
The support for using the Xalan and XSLTProc XSLT processors has been officially deprecated
and will be removed in a future major release.
Support Removed for XSV and SQC Custom Validation Engines
The support for using the XSV (XML Schema Validator) and SQC (Schema Quality
Checker from IBM) custom validation engines has been removed.
API
Create an Editor Component for a Certain Content Type
The
StandalonePluginWorkspace.createEditorComponentProvider API
now allows you to create an editing component that can be used in custom side views by
passing an extra content type parameter. This means you can create editing components to
edit HTML5 or JSON content.Create a Text Area with Syntax Highlights
The new
OxygenUIComponentsFactory.createTextArea(String contentType, boolean
highlightCurrentLine) API method allows you to create a text area with
syntax highlights for a certain content type and it also controls whether or not the
current line should be highlighted. One example of a use case is that it enabled undo/redo
events to be selected when editing a chat message in the AI Positron Assistant.Access Batch Operations Listener for 3rd-Party Plugins
The newly added
PluginWorkspace.getBatchOperationsListenersAccess() API
method can be used by third-party plugins to notify other plugins when a batch operation
that modifies multiple resources is in progress.Reload Content of a Document
The
WSEditor.reload() API method now allows for the content of an
opened document to be reloaded from the original URL location (whether it is a local or
remote location). Reload Content of a Document if Change is Detected on Local Disk
The new
WSEditor.reloadIfChangeOnDiskDetected() API method can be
used to reload the content of an opened document from the local disk if the content on
disk has changed in the meantime. Merge Documents or Directories with Change Tracking Highlights
The newly added
AuthorDiffChangeTrackingMergerFactory.AuthorDiffChangeTrackingMergerFactory()
API can be used for merging a pair of compared XML documents or directories and the
resulting merged document will contain highlighted tracked changes. The class provides 2
methods: createChangeTrackingMergePerformer() for merging documents, and
createDirectoryChangeTrackingMergePerformer() for merging
directories.