XML Console Quick Tour

Welcome

To help you become familiar with XML Console we have included this step-by-step exercise to create a simple project. You will learn how to navigate the product and take advantage of some of XML Console's features. For more information about XML Console, consult the Help Index.

The Example

In this example, you will build a sample XML Console project. You will select schemas, instance documents, and directories to be included in the project. You will validate them, view the validation report, and view comprehensive HTML schema documentation. Finally, you will convert the schemas to a different dialect.

For your reference, a complete version of this project (quicktour.esc) is included in the Samples directory.

Getting Started

• Launch XML Console. From the Welcome Screen (Figure A), select "Create Project."

Figure A - Welcome to Extensibility XML Console

This will open the application. An empty Untitled window will appear so you can begin the project editing process.

• Choose Add File to open a Windows dialog box and go to the XML Console directory (default C:\Program Files\Extensibility\XC10). Open the Samples directory. Select quicktour.dtd and click Open.

• Quicktour.dtd is now included in your project. Notice that it has a question mark in the Valid column. This icon means that the schema has not yet been validated. Select quicktour.dtd and click on the Validate icon. A white star appears in the Valid column. The white star means that quicktour.dtd is a valid schema.

• Choose Add File again and add invalid.xml from the same directory. Validate it. The red star means that invalid.xml is an invalid instance document.

• Choose Add Directory to open a Java dialog box in which you can search for a directory.

• Go to the XML Console directory (default C:\Progam Files\Extensibility\XC10), and open the Samples directory. Click once on the SamplesDir directory to select it. Make sure that the Recurse checkbox is checked (this is the default setting).

• Click on Open to add the SamplesDir directory to the project. Because the SamplesDir directory is recursive, XML Console will search through all its subdirectories and retrieve every schema and instance document it finds.

• Double-click on the word SamplesDir or click once on the plus sign to expand the directory, revealing 11 DTD files.

• Select the SamplesDir directory and click Validate.

Figure B - quicktour.esc

Congratulations! You have completed the project. Save it by clicking on the File menu, choosing the Save menu option, and saving as quicktour.esc. Now we will explore some of the features of XML Console.

Reviewing the Project

Click on the Report icon to open the Report pane. The Report pane has two tabs, one showing valid files and one showing invalid files.  The invalid files report includes the number of errors associated with each file along with a description of the error(s).  

Figure C - XML Console Project Report - invalid.xml

Click once on an invalid file to display the list of errors associated with that file in the Error pane. 

To edit a file from the Project Report pane, double-click on the file name. XML Console will open it in the appropriate editor based on the file type.

For valid files, the Project Report pane simply provides a list of file names and paths.

Figure D - XML Console Project Report - valid files

To export a Project Report to HTML to be viewed in your preferred web browser, click on Save report. To print the HTML report, click on Print.

SchemaDOC

XML Console provides SchemaDOC launches a web browser to provide in-depth documentation for schema files having an extension of .XDR, .XSD, .SOX, or .DTD.  To get a feel for SchemaDOC's presentation, select the SMIL.dtd file and click on the SchemaDOC icon on the toolbar. You will see that SchemaDOC offers a visual inventory and detailed description of each of the schema's components (Figure E). SchemaDOC also summarizes component statistics and gives contextual as well as complete source code listings. SchemaDOC is saved as an HTML file in the same directory as the schema.

Figure E - SchemaDOC - excerpt from smil.htm

Batch Conversion

One of XML Console's most useful features is batch conversion of schemas from one dialect to another. We will convert the DTD files in SamplesDir to XDR files located in a separate directory and add those XDR files to quicktour.esc.

Note: When XML Console converts a schema, first it makes a copy of the schema, then it converts that copy. The original schema remains unchanged.

Select the SamplesDir directory and click on the Conversion icon. This will open the XML Console Conversion pane.

Figure F - XML Console conversion pane

Select XDR from the drop-down list of schema dialects. We will save the XDR schemas in another directory, so click on Browse to open a Java window in which to search for a directory. Go to the Samples directory and select Converted. Finally, click the radio button beside "Add new files to this project."Click OK to convert the files.

Once the files have been converted and added to quicktour.esc, expand and validate the Converted folder.

Figure G - quicktour.esc after conversion

Save as quicktour.esc. A copy of this project file can be found in the Samples directory. of XML Console.

Conclusion

We hope that this example has helped you get up to speed with XML Console and showed you some of its most important features. To help you learn more about XML Console's advanced features the product contains detailed help resources available from the help index.

Thank you for choosing XML Console from Extensibility.

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