XML and Java: XML Editors in Java

While there are many XML editors, this section highlights only those written in Java. For a longer list of XML editors in all languages, see the XML Editors section of WDVL's XML Software Guide which includes tools such as SoftQuad's XMetaL, Microsoft's XML Notepad, and the HCRC Language Technology Group's XED. Other good non-Java-specific XML editor lists include XML.COM's Authoring Tools and XML Editors from XMLSOFTWARE.COM.

Prices of XML editors vary considerably, depending upon their level of DTD support and SGML conversion. For example, Near & Far Designer is $1395 list, ADEPT Editor is $1350 and FrameMaker+SGML 5.5 is $1995. Less comprehensive editors are priced much lower, such as XML Pro for $150. Some are free, such as Visual XML (below).

ADEPT Editor

ArborText was an early adopter of XML and co-authored several W3C submissions with Microsoft. The ADEPT Editor is actually a mature SGML editor which has been modified to handle XML, although in both cases, a DTD is required. "ADEPT Editor provides the most robust SGML and XML capabilities for creating, maintaining, and accessing your information." The editor runs on a Window-based PCs and UNIX-based workstation. "....Based on SGML and XML, Arbortext's ADEPT Editor software offers organizations more than just another way to create documents. With ADEPT Editor, you can capture knowledge in a format that's easily reusable, easily automated, and easily shared across hardware platforms and on multiple media-paper, online, the Web, and CD-ROM." ADEPT's Willow technology enables users to integrate ADEPT with document management systems. ADEPT Editor can use any valid SGML or XML DTD. This is a sophisticated, complex and highly customizable product, not intended for casual use.

Note: "Purchase of one copy of Document Architect is required with the purchase of one or more copies of ADEPT-Editor." Document Architect enables developers to write, compile, and test SGML DTDs and stylesheets. See also the Technical Note: XML support in ADEPT 7, Introducing ADEPT 8, and the ADEPT Series page.

XML Styler

"ArborText's XML Styler is a tool for creating and modifying XSL stylesheets. Its graphical user interface makes developing and altering XSL stylesheets quick and easy, eliminating the need to work with the many syntactic and structural details of XSL directly."

"Note: This version of XML Styler is based on the original XML proposal given to the W3C by ArborText, Microsoft and Inso Corporation. This tool does not reflect the draft as it currently stands and, because the XSL specification is still being finalized, ArborText does not have plans to upgrade XML Styler to the current version of the draft at this time."

EditTIME

URL: http://www.timelux.lu/EditTIME3/EditTIME.htm

While is it not certain that EditTIME is written in Java, it has an API of 200 functions which are accessible from Java (and other languages). "EditTIME provides the user with an efficient tool for processing SGML-documents, XML-documents and usual text data. The processed SGML-documents can be made up of arbitrary combinations of declaration, prolog and instance. On the other hand, the XML processor can handle XML-instances with an optional prolog. The workbench handles the transfer/communication between applications via the clipboard, versatile read/write specifications and an API for many programming languages. The clipboard supports Unicode as standard encoding but also an additional entity mechanism for exporting characters that are not available in the target character set....EditTIME puts the user at the command of an integrated transformation process for both XML and SGML documents. This allows the user to generate multiple outputs in one single pass. Multiple style sheets, with different purposes, can be attached to one single document....Java applets, VB-script and Java-script are fully supported by the XSL style sheets of EditTIME."

Xpose

According to Intravenous Communications, "Xpose is a platform-independent XML editor with features as interesting to XML novices as to experts. Xpose provides users with a graphically intuitive way to build well-formed XML documents - correctly, efficiently and quickly." Some interesting aspects include: graphical DTD display, restricts adding and editing of features according to the DTD, and can be extended to include custom element editors (in Java). Xpose can also be included as a component in other applications by downloading Intravenous's developer's toolkit, which includes an API and JavaBean. Xpose is beta software which can be downloaded for free.

Visual XML

URL: http://www.pierlou.com/visxml/

XML and Java: The Perfect Pair: Part 3: Editors and Parsers
XML and Java: The Perfect Pair: Part 3: Editors and Parsers
XML and Java: XML Parsers in Java