Microsoft XML Notepad -- Release Notes

Beta 1
Updated: August 13, 1998

This document provides complementary or late-breaking information about XML Notepad to supplement the documentation.

Contents:

1. Installation Requirements:
   1.1 Internet Explorer 4.01 SP1 or later is required
2. Internet Explorer 4.0/5.0 DOM Issues
   2.1 Element/attribute tag name case issues
   2.2 Well-formed XML source issues
   2.3 Tag name short representation
   2.4 Validation issues
3. Known Bugs:
   3.1 Uninstall doesn't remove icons from the Start Menu
   3.2 Namespaces are stripped out on loading
   3.3 Invalid XML namespace declaration can result in GPF
   3.4 End-of-line characters are visible in my "View Source" window

1. Installation Requirements

1.1 Internet Explorer 4.01 SP1 or later is required

Internet Explorer 4.01 with Service Pack 1 or later is necessary to run XML Notepad. If you have Internet Explorer 5 installed, you will be able to take advantage of features offered in both Internet Explorer 4.0 as well as 5.0. See section 2 for more information on Document Object Model (DOM)-related issues.

Note: You do not need to have Internet Explorer 4.0 or 5.0 set as your default browser for XML Notepad to run.

2. Internet Explorer 4.0/5.0 DOM Issues

Note: If you have Internet Explorer 5 installed, you can force XML Notepad to revert to the Internet Explorer 4.0 DOM by cancelling the selection of the "Use IE5 DOM on existing XML Documents" option from the Tools/Option menu.

2.1 Element/attribute tag name case issues

If you are using XML Notepad on a system that has Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01 with Service Pack 1 installed, all element and attribute tag names will be converted to uppercase on loading a file. On saving a file, all tag names are saved as displayed.

If you are using XML Notepad on a system that has Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 installed, case sensitivity is maintained on loading and saving a file.

2.2 Well-formed XML source

Under both the Internet Explorer 4.0 and 5.0 DOMs, a file has to be well formed if it is to be saved. The most common cause of a file not being well formed is a missing element or attribute name, or invalid characters in the tag name. XML Notepad will point you to the source of non-conformance when you attempt to save a document.

2.3 Shortcut tag names

If you are running XML Notepad under the Internet Explorer 4.0 DOM, you can open files that are neither well formed nor valid. The Internet Explorer 4.0 DOM lets you end XML tags with </> rather than </elementname>. Files with shortcuts are converted into well-formed XML on loading under the Internet Explorer 4.0 DOM. Opening and saving a file that uses shortcut tag names will result in a well-formed XML file.

Tag name shortcuts are not allowed in the XML 1.0 standard. Under the Internet Explorer 5 DOM, files with shortcuts cannot be opened.

2.4 Validation issues

Under the Internet Explorer 4.0 DOM, DTD validation is unavailable.

Under the Internet Explorer 5 DOM:

DTD (Document Type Definition) validation occurs on loading a file. Since validation only occurs on loading a file (and not on save), it is possible to open a valid XML file, make non-DTD-conforming changes and then get an error on opening the file.
If the XML source does not conform to the DTD, a dialog pointing to the source of non-conformance will appear.
If the DTD is invalid, an error dialog will appear pointing to the source of non-conformance.

3. Known Bugs

3.1 Uninstall doesn't remove icons from the Start Menu

3.2 Namespaces are stripped out from element tags on loading

If you are using namespace declarations in your XML file, under the Internet Explorer 5 DOM, the namespace prefix for each tag is stripped out on loading; this can cause problems if you are using namespaces in your script. Under the Internet Explorer 4.0 DOM, namespaces are preserved (although validation does not occur.)

3.3 Invalid XML namespace declaration can result in GPF

If your XML namespaces declaration is invalid (e.g., using two valid namespace declarations that overlap the same tag, for example: "<old:title>Sir<new:title>"), this will result in a general-protection fault.

3.4 End-of-line characters are visible in my "View Source" window

If you are using Internet Explorer 4.0 with Service Pack 1, you may notice that extraneous block characters are displayed at the end of every line. These characters do not affect your data in any way. However, if you would like to avoid seeing the characters, you will need to upgrade to Internet Explorer 5 Developer Preview Release.

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