May 2005
HTML and XML Tools
This meeting was a discussion of HTML and XML tools. View these documents for the links, plus a new link provided by Dick Walker for XML.
HTML Tools
Alleycode
This is a simple to use editor for HTML.
Good Points :
Good help built in
Can be linked to an FTP site
Tool bar makes entering HMTL easy as you don’t need to be an expert on the codes you might want
Project manager
Other Points :
Not WSIWYG, but the Synchro View does display the HTML on double click.
Function keys used to view in a browser, F11 for default browser, F9 for Firefox, F12 for IE and others.
Link : www.alleycode.com
Selida
Selida is Greek for ‘page’. It is a WSIWYG edittor, and is simple to use. Based on IE technology, it requires IE 6.
Good Points :
Easy to enter HTML. There are different editing modes – Design mode, HTML Mode, or Split mode, with both HTML and WSIWYG updating as text is typed.
Codes are easy to add : Ctrl F1 gives a list, or type in < and the list of tags is displayed. Autocomplete available, with end tag shown.
Easy to add the end tag : Ctrl-F2 will automatically work out which end tag is required. This works most of the time. It can take a few seconds if the tag it needs to match is a fair way from where the end tag will be.
HTML Error Checker available, which can be used without being connected to the web.
Full HTML 4 Documentation is included in the Help
Web page templates
Not so Good Points :
If Word is installed on the PC, tries to install components every time you start it up.
Link : www.amaryllis.8m.com
Nvu
Nvu, pronounced N-view, provides more than HTML editing. It is suitable for web design, with ftp copying options built into the product.
Points
Easy to enter HTML. Different modes are Normal (similar to Design in Selida), HTML Source, HTML Tags and a Preview mode to view the result
Tool bars make formatting easy in Normal mode
Intuitive to use
Site Manager
Real time Spelling checker
Web publishing
Link: www.nvu.com
XML Tools
XStyler
XStyler is for creating XSL files and testing XML files against them.
It is fairly simple to use, providing you know XML pretty well, as the error messages are less than helpful for a beginner.
Auto-parser that shows errors as you type.
HTML Output window
Look for XStyler in your Search engine. There are a number of sites from which it can be downloaded.
Jan’s XSLTPad
This is also an editor for XSL and XML files. Checks the transformation and displays the HTML when valid.
Fairly simple to use, providing you know XML pretty well, as the error messages are less than helpful for a beginner.
Help is pretty scanty, and instructions for downloading the Microsoft XML Parser SDK are out of date.
Indenting of the code in the XSL code is highly indented which makes it difficult to read and edit.
This utility is written in Delphi. Jan has a number of utilities, and Delphi components.
Link : http://jansfreeware.com
XslDebugger
This tool is used for debugging XSL files. It also has an XPath processing page.
The Debugger links to editors, but does not edit itself. Allows stepping through XSL and XML files to find errors.
Simple to load the files
Gives a full explanation of the error. Further documentation / knowledge is probably required to understand the explanation.
Editing using linked editors for XSL and XML
Can debug files step by step. Highlighting shows selected elements.
View HTML in browser.
www.xsldebugger.net
XSD Tools
Peter’s XML Editor
XML editor with a tree view.
One of many sites found with Google : http://www.iol.ie/~pxe/index.html
Architag XRay XML Editor
Checks for Well-formed and validates against Schema
Validate can be Real-time, lazy, off or 5 seconds
Tells you where the error is, but can be cryptic about what the error is
Link documents into workspaces
Good Help
Link for updates : http://architag.com/xray
AND another link provided by Dick Walker
A WYSIWYG XSL tool which has a new free version (it was XSLMaker).
www.dotxsl.com