What's New in oXygen XML Author 18.1
Related Versions:
18.018.1
October 18, 2016
Although
oXygen XML Author version 18.1 is a maintenance release that focuses on
performance and usability improvements, it also adds a variety of powerful new
features, making it similar to a major release.
Audio and video content in DITA is now fully supported. oXygen XML Author 18.1
allows you to insert media objects, play audio, and display video directly in the
Author visual editing mode and includes updates to the publishing
workflow to handle video and audio objects in the output.
A new Markdown editor allows you to easily write, preview, and convert Markdown
content into HTML or DITA and you can use Markdown-encoded topics in DITA maps. When
validating a DITA map, oXygen is also able to validate Markdown documents and
transform them in the publishing stage.
Checking for and merging changes is made easier with the new 3-way directories
comparison tool and the addition of more syntax-aware diff algorithms.
You can publish the tracked changes and comments made in DITA documents to PDF
output, thus allowing you to have the review information that is captured in
oXygen also available as PDF.
The responsive WebHelp system received numerous updates, including new skins,
support for expanding/collapsing components (sections, tables, etc.), automatic
image scaling, support for DITA 1.3-specific context sensitive help information, and
control over what is indexed for searches.
As usual, oXygen also added many new API and component updates for this
release.
There are changes in:
oXygen XML Web Author
Action to Insert References to Reusable Content in DITA
The Reuse Content action was added to the DITA toolbar
and it provides a mechanism for reusing content fragments. It opens a dialog box
that allows you to select the content you want to reuse and inserts it as a
content reference (conref), or if the target topic has a
defined key, it is inserted as a content key reference
(conkeyref).
Video and Audio Media Objects are Rendered in Web Author
Video and audio media objects are rendered by the oXygen XML Web
Author directly in the editing area, with inline players that allow you to play
the video or audio content.
Filtering and Better Rendering of Review Panel Information
The Review panel allows you to quickly find specific changes or
comments by filtering the presented entries on content, author name, type of
change or a date range. Replies to comment are indented and grouped together so
you can easily understand the flow of the discussion.
Control Display of Review Information
When a document contains track change information, you can choose if
that is visible or not. By choosing to see the final form of the document, you
will not see any track changes in the document but these are still recorded and
they will be available when needed, for example when someone wants to
accept/reject the changes made to the document.
Improved GitHub Connector
oXygen XML Web Author provides a default connector for Git with
specific GitHub support. In case when you do not have permissions to commit to a
repository using your current account, the updated connector allows you to
loggin using a different account that has permissions to that repository and
then commit your changes. Of course you can always fork the repository under
your account and commit there.
Contextual Actions on Breadcrumb
The breadcrumb offering the current element hierarchy up to the root
offers now a contextual menu allowing you to easily rename, cut or copy an
entire element.
Support for a Backup License Server
You can configure a backup license server in the oXygen XML web
author which will be used automatically if the main license server does not
work.
Improved JS API
The client side JS API was improved with new functions which allow for
manipulating the DOM and the selection.
Web Author is Now Compatible with Chrome Version 53
A problem that was preventing Web Author from loading in Chrome 53 has
been solved. All functionality has been tested and it now works properly in this
version of Chrome.
Updated JRE and Tomcat in the Installation Kit
The oXygen XML Web Author installation kit comes with JRE and
Tomcat and these were updated to version 1.8_102 for the JRE and 8.5.4 for
Tomcat.
Visual XML Editing
New Form Controls for Rendering and Playing Video and Audio Media
Convert Paragraphs to List Items and Change List Item Type
When editing DITA, DocBook, XHTML, or TEI documents, you can easily
convert selected paragraphs to list items by using the various Insert
List Item actions on the toolbar. You can also change selected list
items to another type (for example, change an unordered list to an ordered
list).
Convert Selected Content to a Table
When editing DITA, DocBook, XHTML, or TEI documents, you can easily
convert selected paragraphs, lists, and inline content into a table by using the
Insert Table actions on the toolbar. It opens a dialog box
that allows you to configure the table and inserts the selected content in the
first column and first row after the header.
Smart Paste Handles Internal Links in Office Documents
The Smart Paste feature has been improved to preserve
links to other parts of the same document, when pasting content from Office
documents into Author mode. Links are converted to cross references
for the particular document type that you are working with.
Improvements to Paste Strategies in Tables
The strategies for the behavior of the paste mechanism when pasting
content in table cells has been improved. Now, copied cells are pasted while
preserving their initial order and spacing. For more information, see
Copy/Cut and Paste in Tables.
DITA
Support for Video and Audio Media Objects
oXygen now includes actions to easily
insert
video or audio content within DITA topics. The oXygen visual editing
Author mode
will not only display the media content, but also allow you to play it in-place.
On the publishing side, oXygen comes with a DITA-OT plugin that will enable
the multimedia content to appear in HTML and PDF output.
Embed Video and Audio Media in DITA to WebHelp Output
You can insert references to video and audio media resources (such as
YouTube videos) in your DITA topics and publish them to WebHelp output. The
embedded video and audio objects can be played directly in all HTML5-based
outputs, including WebHelp systems.
New Action for Duplicating Topics
There is now a new contextual menu action in the DITA Maps Manager view
called Duplicate that creates a copy of the selected topic and
inserts it as a sibling. It is helpful for quickly creating a new DITA topic
that is similar to an existing topic.
Lightweight DITA Improvements
The Lightweight DITA DTDs were updated for DITA 1.3. Also, you can now
use the new Insert Media action to insert references to
video or audio resources when editing Lightweight DITA documents.
Tracked Changes and Comments Can Be Displayed in PDF Output
Validate and Check for Completeness Command Line Tool
Markdown Editor
New Markdown Editor
oXygen now includes a built-in Markdown editor that allows you to
write and edit documents using Markdown and then converts the syntax to HTML or
DITA. The specialized multi-pane editor includes a preview panel to help you
visualize the final output. The editor includes a variety of helpful actions,
automatic validation, syntax highlighting to make it easier to read and write,
and specialized syntax rules that combine popular features from several
specifications.
Convert Markdown Documents to DITA Topics
The Markdown editing support includes unique features that allow you to
create Markdown documents directly in DITA maps (from the DITA Maps Manager) and
the transformation process will convert them the same as other DITA topics. You
can also use a new action (in the DITA Maps Manager) to manually convert
Markdown documents to DITA topics.
Comparison Tools
Directory Comparison: Support for Three-Way Directory Comparison
A new feature was added that allows you to perform three-way
comparisons on directories to help you identify and merge changes between
multiple modifications of the same directory structure. It is especially helpful
for teams that have multiple authors contributing documents to the same
directory system. It offers information about conflicts and changes, and
includes actions to easily merge, accept, overwrite, or ignore changes to the
directory system.
File Comparison: More Accurate Second Level Comparisons on XML Nodes
When using the
XML Fast and
XML
Accurate algorithms for two-way or three-way comparisons, the
second level comparison is now processed using a
syntax-aware comparison that splits the files or
fragments into sequences of tokens and computes the differences between them. This
results in a more accurate second level comparison.
File Comparison: Improvements to the Format and Indent Action
The Format and Indent action in the File Comparison
tool now works on more file types. You can now use the action on the following
types of files: XQuery, CSS,
JavaScript, JSON, RNC,
XSD, RNG, NVDL,
XML, ANT, DITAMap,
WSDL, SVG, Schematron,
XProc, XSL, and
HTML.
Content Completion
Improved Content Completion Configuration Support
oXygen allows you to set a configuration file to
control the content completion proposals for elements presented in
the Content Completion Assistant. Now, you can identify more precisely the
elements you want to control, by being able to set conditions that include
attributes and attribute values.
Improved Content Completion for XPath and XQuery
The Content Completion Assistant for XPath and XQuery was updated to
take into account the latest additions in XPath 3.0 and XQuery 3.0. For example,
new functions are now offered through content completion, such as
empty-sequence, document-node,
item, comment,
namespace-node, and processing-instruction
- just to name a few.
WebHelp
New Skins Added to the WebHelp Responsive System
Some creative new skins were added to the WebHelp Responsive system for
both tree and tile variants of the templates.
For example, there are new skins called Aqua Marine,
Ashes, Hightech, and Sky that were added to the
growing list of predefined skins.
Added Expand/Collapse Functionality in the WebHelp Responsive Output
The HTML content generated for the DITA sections, tables, topics, or
other components is now collapsible or expandable, allowing you to easily
navigate through the DITA topic content.
XSLT Extension Points for the DITA-OT WebHelp Plugin
The DITA-OT WebHelp plugin exposes two
XSLT extension points that allow you to override the XSLT stylesheets
that generates the WebHelp HTML pages. This allows you to customize the WebHelp
output without changing the resources within the WebHelp plugin.
Context Sensitive WebHelp was Updated for DITA 1.3
The Context Sensitive WebHelp system was updated to support the new
changes from DITA 1.3 specifications. For example, you can now associate a topic
with an application by using the @appid and
@appname attributes available on the
resourceid element.
New Template Components Were Added for WebHelp Responsive DITA Output
The WebHelp Responsive template mechanism received two new components.
One for
related links and another for
child links. This improvement allows you to hide or move these
components anywhere in the layout.
Exclude Content from the WebHelp Search Indexer
The WebHelp Search Indexer can now be customized to
exclude topics from the indexing process through various methods. You
can do so by using a WebHelp transformation parameter or in the DITA map by
setting the
@search attribute to "no".
Images are Automatically Scaled in WebHelp Responsive Output
Improvements were made to image rendering in the output of WebHelp
Responsive layouts. The width of images in topic pages now automatically adapt
to the size of the screen.
API
A detailed list of all changes to the Java API can be found
here.
Start File Comparison Tool in 3-Way Mode
Start 3-Way Directory Comparison Merge Tool
The new
StandalonePluginWorkspace.openMergeApplication method allows you to open a
Merge application for comparing directories in a three-way mode. It
helps you identify and merge changes between multiple modifications of the same directory
structure.
Control Titles Computation in the DITA Maps Manager
Retrieve an Icon to be Displayed for a File Type
The
ImageUtilitiesSpecificProvider interface allows you to load an image
from a specified URL or to retrieve an icon for a particular URL file type that
can be used in your custom local or remote resources explorer
view.
Provide Set of Attributes Defined on Each Key
The
KeyDefinitionInfo.setAttribute(String, String) API method allows the key
definition manager implementer to also provide the set of attributes which were defined on
a key definition, set of attributes which may be used by the application to filter the
list of proposed keys in various ways.
Listener for Replace All in Files Operations
The
PluginWorkspace.addBatchOperationsListener() API method can be used to add a
listener for
Replace All in Files operations in standalone distributions
of oXygen. The listener is notified when the operation starts, before and after each
resource is modified and after the operation ends and can be used by CMS plugin
implementers to automatically lock/unlock resources.
Internationalization Support for Plugins
If a plugin has an
i18n folder with a specific
translation.xml configuration file containing translations in various
languages, the
StandalonePluginWorkspace.getResourceBundle() API method provides access to
translations of messages in the current language set in the application.
Create Editing Component to Use in Your Own Custom Container
Filter Drop-Down Menu Items in Eclipse
Import Custom Options File While Resetting All Other Options
Customize Actions in the Review View
Customize Contextual Menu for the Outline View
Customize Contextual Menu of the Breadcrumb
Register Custom Editor Variables
Filter Attributes in Insert Reference and Edit Properties Dialog
Boxes
A new method,
AuthorAttributesDisplayFilter.shouldFilterAttribute(CIElement, String, int), and
a new value,
SOURCE_INSERT_REFERENCE, were added to the
AuthorAttributesDisplayFilter API to allow for the filtering of
attributes in the
Insert Reference dialog box. The
SOURCE_EDIT_PROPERTIES value was also added to allow you to filter
attributes in the
Edit Properties dialog box.
Execute a Command Line Operation
Customize Attributes in Edit Properties and Insert Reference Dialog
Box
Create Custom Form Controls Based on JavaFX
You can now use JavaFX components in your custom form controls. The new
saHeavyFormControlClassName parameter implements the
ro.sync.ecss.extensions.api.editor.InplaceHeavyEditor interface and
allows for more complex form controls (such as JavaFX-based form
controls).
Other
Saxon 9.7 Add-on Includes an Action to Compile Stylesheets
The Saxon 9.7 add-on includes an action on the toolbar that allows you
to compile stylesheets and it can then be used with the new
Saxon-JS - the JavaScript version of Saxon that provides
XSLT 3.0 support in web browsers.
Debugging Output Views Are Now Dockable
The output views in the Debugger are now dockable to
allow for a more convenient debugging experience. For example, you can now move
certain views to a second screen so that the main debugging area is not as
crowded and more information can be displayed.
Japanese Content Now Supported in Open/Find Resource Mechanism
The Open/Find Resource mechanism now supports Japanese
content and other languages. You can specify the content language in the
Open/Find Resource preferences page and the search engine
will use stop words and analyzers tuned for that specific
language.
Support Added for BITS Documents
Support was added for BITS (Book Interchange Tag Suite) documents in
the JATS (NISO Journal Article Tag Suite) framework. This includes an
NLM Book 2.0 new document template and BITS 2.0 XSD
schemas.
Improvements to the XLIFF Editing Experience
Various improvements have been added for editing XLIFF documents. For
example, in Author mode you can now select between different styles
to see various views of the XLIFF documents. Also, oXygen now supports
setting the @approved attribute on trans-unit
elements to make it easier to proofread translations directly in
Author mode.
New Shortcuts to Move XML Nodes Up or Down in Text Mode
New shortcuts were added to move XML elements or XSLT variables up or
down in Text mode. Ctrl + Alt + Up
(Command + Alt + Up on OS X) moves the node
up one line while Ctrl + Alt + Down
(Command + Alt + Down on OS X) moves the
node down one line.
Use Saxon XSLT Java Extensions When Validating XML Documents Against
Schematron
Now you can use Java extensions when validating Schematron, XSD/RNG
with embedded Schematron, XML documents against Schematron, or XML documents
against XSD/RNG with embedded Schematron. When creating a validation unit, the
extensions can be added by using a new Extensions
button.
Component Updates
Saxon Add-on Updated to 9.7.0.8
The Saxon 9.7 add-on now comes bundled with version
9.7.0.8.
Eclipse 4.6
The Eclipse plugin version of oXygen works now also with Eclipse
version 4.6.
DITA For Publishers Plugins Updated to 1.0.0RC25
The DITA For Publishers Open Toolkit plugins (used to generate EPUB
output and convert MS Word documents to DITA) have been updated to version
1.0.0RC25.
DITA OT 2.3.3
oXygen now comes bundled with DITA OT version 2.3.3.
Rhino Library Updated to 1.7.7.1
The Mozilla Rhino library was updated to version 1.7.7.1.
Calabash 1.1.9-96
The bundled Calabash XProc engine has been updated to version
1.1.9-96.
