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   [XXE] XMLmind XML Editor V2.7 (long)

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XMLmind XML Editor V2.7 can be downloaded from
http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/download.shtml

======================
V2.7 (August 20, 2004)

Enhancements: (see technical details below)

   * Most enhancements are related to the support
     of images:

        + In addition to GIF, JPEG and PNG which
	 are natively supported by all Java[tm]
	 applications, XXE supports a large number
	 of image formats through the use of image
	 toolkit plug-ins.

	 The Batik plug-in for XXE adds the
	 support of SVG graphics.

	 The Jimi plug-in for XXE adds the
	 support of many formats including TIFF
	 and BMP. (TIFF support is native on Mac.
	 BMP support is native with Java[tm] 1.5.)

	 Standard Edition users: image toolkit
	 plug-ins can only be used to render
	 images on screen. They cannot be used in
	 process commands to convert on the fly
	 between different image formats.

        + If the image toolkit plug-ins provided by
	 XMLmind are not sufficient, you can write
	 your own image toolkit plug-ins in
	 Java[tm]. But, if you are not a
	 programmer, you can turn any command line
	 utility which converts images to GIF,
	 JPEG or PNG to a fully functional image
	 toolkit plug-in in just 5 minutes.

	 Examples of purely declarative, instant,
	 image toolkit plug-ins are given for EPS,
	 PDF (based on GhostScript's gs command
	 line utility), TeX Math (based on
	 TeX+dvips+GhostScript), PBM, PGM, PPM
	 (based on netpbm's pnmtopng command
	 line tool).

        + Images no longer need to be stored in
	 external files. They can now be embedded
	 in the XML document if the DTD/W3C XML
	 Schema designer finds this more
	 convenient.

	 XXE supports embedded SVG graphics as
	 well as embedded binary images (encoded
	 in base64Binary, the W3C XML Schema
	 standard data type).

	 Moreover XXE has new facilities which
	 makes it easy to add support for embedded
	 images when you need to convert the XML
	 documents to HTML, RTF, PostScript or
	 PDF. (That is, with the new XXE
	 facilities, having images embedded in the
	 XML document does not make writing XSLT
	 style sheets harder than it already is.)

        + XXE has a new advanced image viewport
	 component which allows to render images
	 on screen in a WYSIWYG fashion (this
	 needs to be specified in the CSS style
	 sheet). For example, this advanced image
	 viewport is used to render DocBook
	 imagedata element on screen exactly as
	 described in "DocBook: The Definitive
	 Guide".

     All this is showcased in two new demos:

        + XXE_install_dir/demo/docbook-image.xml is
	 a demo for authors. It is a
	 DocBook+SVG article showing how
	 imagedata and embedded SVG graphics
	 (imageobject/svg:svg) are rendered on
	 screen.

	 Conversion to HTML, to RTF (using the
	 XFC plug-in, Professional Edition
	 only) and to PostScript/PDF (using the
	 XEP plug-in, Professional Edition
	 only) works fine too.

        + XXE_install_dir/docs/configure/samples/im
	 agedemo/sample.xml is a demo for external
	 consultants and local gurus which
	 requires the sample configuration found
	 XXE_install_dir/docs/configure/samples/im
	 agedemo/ to be properly installed. It
	 shows how embedded images encoded in
	 base64Binary are rendered on screen and
	 how they can be converted to HTML, RTF,
	 PostScript and PDF.

   * A new command line utility called convertdoc
     is now bundled with XXE. It allows to execute
     XXE process commands from the command line,
     exactly as if these process commands were
     executed from XXE.

     Just like XXE, the convertdoc command line
     utility scans directories for configurations
     and XML catalogs, loads image toolkit
     plug-ins, loads FO processor plug-ins,
     supports XInclude, etc.

     Note that convertdoc Standard Edition has
     exactly the same artificial restrictions than
     XXE Standard Edition: limited support of W3C
     XML Schemas, no support of FO processor except
     XEP Trial Edition, image toolkit plug-ins
     cannot be used to convert on the fly between
     different image formats, etc.

   * User request: it is now possible use a unique
     instance of XXE to open all your XML documents
     (for example, by double-clicking on their
     icons in the file ``explorer'').

     This option is not enabled by default. Use the
     Options dialog box, General tab to enable it.
     Linux users: this option also works fine when
     used from the command line (that is, "xxe
     mydoc.xml &").

   * User request: it is now possible to change the
     base font size of XXE menus and dialog boxes.
     Use the Options dialog box, General tab to do
     this.

     Note that this orthogonal to changing the base
     font size used to display styled documents
     (Options dialog box, Style tab).

     Clarification: the font size used everywhere
     in XXE (GUI, CSS, etc) is expressed in
     ``Java[tm] points''. ``Java[tm] points'' are not
     the same as points used by the operating
     system and by non-Java applications. They are
     much smaller: 16 ``Java[tm] points'' are
     roughly equivalent to 12 real-world points on
     a 96DPI screen (1 real-world point = 1/72
     inch).

   * User request: it is now possible to change the
     language used in XXE menus and dialog boxes;
     for example, force the use of English on a
     machine where the default locale is German.
     Use the Options dialog box, General tab to do
     this.

   * In the XXE status bar, at the right of the
     message area, you'll find a new button which
     can be used to display a dialog box containing
     last messages reported by XXE.

     These messages are sorted by category. One of
     the most useful category is "Command
     Execution" which contains the messages
     reported during the execution of the last
     command. Commands such as DocBook|Convert
     Document|Convert to PDF are really verbose,
     that's why this category is so useful.

     Previously, this dialog box was only
     accessible by right-clicking in the message
     area of the status bar.

   * Installation of XXE plug-ins has been slightly
     simplified. Plus a single archive containing
     the XFC, FOP, Batik and Jimi
     plug-ins for XXE is now available for download
     in the .tar.gz or in the .zip format.

Technical details about the enhancements (for
local gurus):

   * Enhancements related to the support of images
     are implemented using the following
     components:

        + New image-viewport() CSS pseudo-function,
	 which implements an advanced image
	 viewport. Simpler image() CSS
	 pseudo-function is still supported. See
	 XMLmind XML Editor - Support of
	 Cascading Style Sheets (W3C CSS).

        + New commands setImage, extractImage,
	 resizeSVG. See XMLmind XML Editor -
	 Commands.

        + New process command child elements
	 extract and convertImage. See XMLmind XML
	 Editor - Commands.

        + New configuration element imageToolkit.
	 See XMLmind XML Editor -
          Configuration and Deployment.

   * The XInclude elements generated by XXE to
     represent modular document now conform to
     the latest W3C candidate recommendation
     (13 April 2004).

     The main change is that fragment identifiers
     must not be used in the href attribute of an
     xi:include element. For example:
     <xi:include href="VATrates.html#germany_vat"/>
     must be specified as
     <xi:include href="VATrates.html" xpointer="ger
     many_vat"/>.

     Of course, all these technical details are
     transparent for the user. However, it is
     recommended to reopen modular documents
     created using previous versions of XXE and to
     save them back to disk using XXE V2.7. This
     will ensure that the modular documents created
     using XXE are interchangeable with other
     XInclude-aware applications.

   * Added support for CSS proprietary property
     collapsed-content-align. This property
     specifies how the collapsed-content image is
     to be horizontally aligned.

   * Added option [reopenIfNewer] to command
     XXE.open. This makes a macro such as:

---------------------------------------------------------
<command name="editXMLSource">
  <macro>
    <sequence>
      <command name="XXE.save" parameter="[ifNeeded]"/>
      <command name="run" parameter='emacs "%D"'/>
      <command name="XXE.open" parameter="[reopenIfNewer]"/>
    </sequence>
  </macro>
</command>
---------------------------------------------------------
     really usable compared to previous version
     which used option [reopen].

   * Upgraded the FOP FO processor plug-in to
     FOP 0.20.5.

     Note that this version is different from the
     stock FOP 0.20.5 found at
     http://xml.apache.org/fop/. It has been
     modified by XMLmind to compile with Batik
     1.5.1. Therefore, despite substantial efforts
     from our part, we know that we have broken
     things in FOP (at least, conversion to
     PostScript when the FO document contains or
     references SVG graphics and
     strokeSVGText=false which is an option of the
     PDF renderer).

   * The DocBook-specific XSLT extensions written
     by Norman Walsh (i.e. docbook-xsl-saxon.jar)
     are now enabled in the DocBook XSL Stylesheets
     and in the Slides XSL Stylesheet.

Bug fixes:

   * Removed odd behaviors when typed text (or
     pasted text) replaced the text selection.

   * Command include didn't work properly when the
     included document module was itself modular
     through the use of XIncludes.

   * It was not possible to create or modify on a
     WebDAV server, documents with filenames
     containing spaces and non-ASCII characters.
     Note that there are still problems with Apache
     mod_dav and non-ASCII characters because the
     Java[tm] runtime and mod_dav differ in the way
     non-ASCII characters should be encoded.

Possible incompatibilities:

   * An author now needs to double-click on a image
     in order to display the dialog box which
     allows to change it. Previously, an author
     needed to right-click on the image to do the
     same thing.

     Note that now right-clicking on a embedded
     image (i.e. SVG or binary image encoded in
     base64Binary) displays a contextual Edit menu
     having additional entries such as "Save Image
     As" or "Resize SVG Graphics".

   * Plug-in archives downloaded from the
     XMLmind site must now be unzipped in
     C:\Document and Settings\user\xxe2\ (~/.xxe2/
     on Unix) or in XXE_install_dir/.
     Previously, they had to be unzipped in
     C:\Document and Settings\user\xxe2\plugin\
     (~/.xxe2/plugin/ on Unix) or in
     XXE_install_dir/plugin/.

   * The default value of new CSS property
     collapsed-content-align is auto, which means
     that the collapsed-content image must be
     horizontally aligned just like the normal
     content it represents. Previously, XXE behaved
     like if property collapsed-content-align was
     implicitly set to center.



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