XML editor: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 17:30, 15 October 2023

Revision as of 02:50, 21 April 2024

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An '''XML editor''' is a [[markup language]] editor with added functionality to facilitate the [[editing]] of [[XML]]. This can be done using a [[plain text]] [[text editor|editor]], with all the code visible, but XML editors have added facilities like [[word completion|tag completion]] and menus and buttons for tasks that are common in XML editing, based on data supplied with [[document type definition]] (DTD) or the XML tree.

There are also [[List of XML editors|graphical XML editors]] that hide the code in the background and present the content to the user in a more user-friendly format, approximating the [[Rendering (computer graphics)|rendered]] version or editing forms. This is helpful for situations where people who are not fluent in XML code need to enter information in XML based documents such as time sheets and expenditure reports. And even if the user is familiar with XML, use of such editors, which take care of syntax details, is often faster and more convenient.

==Functionality beyond syntax highlighting==

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==WYSIWYG editors==

WYSIWYG editors let people edit files directly with the tags represented by some form of graphical viewing rather than bare XML code. Often, WYSIWYG editors attempt to emulate the end result of some transform or [[CSS]] stylesheet application. This emulation may or may not be possible, depending on the transformation from XML into the end result.

Naive use of a WYSIWYG editor can lead to the creation of documents that do not have the intrinsic semantics of the particular XML language. This comes about if the user is focused on trying to achieve a certain visual presentation with the editor, rather than using the WYSIWYG to make editing the document easier. For instance, someone creating a [[web page]] could use an H2 element (meaning: second level title) instead of H1 (meaning: first level title) because it looks smaller on their current WYSIWYG editor. Such an author is making a choice based on the apparent visual representation, but a visitor to the author's web page can offer a very different rendering in their [[Web browser|browser]].

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However, as long as the underlying meaning of the document is understood by the author, and the author does not make decisions based on the exact look in the WYSIWYG editor, such an editor can be of value to the writer. It is generally much easier to read a document that is being rendered in some fashion than it is to read the raw XML code. Also, editing can be much more intuitive, as the WYSIWYG editor can use tools similar to many word processing applications. Some WYSIWYG editors even allow the user to use a DTD or Schema and define their own user interface for editing.

Usually WYSIWYG editors support CSS but not XSLT, because XSLT transformations can be very complex, and guessing what the user meant when changing the end result can be impossible. The WYSIWYG editors that do support XSLT, such as [[Syntext Serna]], will therefore apply changes directly to the original XML, while updating the view by running the XSLT for every change.

[[File:Xml editor table.png|editing an XML file in a WYSIWYG editor]]