Build Highly Productive Authoring Interfaces
Associate sophisticated authoring behaviors with XML elements, allowing users of XMetaL Author or XMAX to work in a familiar and productive word-processor like interface. Extend the unique Resource Manager component in XMetaL Author with integrations into external systems, such as workflow, content management, and other enterprise applications. Style the authoring interface with standard CSS to aid readability and navigation, and define custom menus, toolbars, and keyboard macros to maximise author productivity and usability.
Jump-Start Development
XMetaL Developer’s smart customisation generator moves your team into the realm of value-add innovation sooner by automatically generating customisation files for XMetaL Author and XMAX. Use these files as a head start for deeper customisation, or leverage sample applications and scripts as a starting point for development.
Tailor the Development Platform
Personalise the entire XMetaL Developer environment to complement unique preferences and work style. Enable (or disable) features to focus and simplify the workspace, style sheet editor, script editors, and the entire framework, and set the script language, toolbars and interfaces to suit diverse programming approaches and roles.
Faster Development Productivity
XMetaL Developer ships with hundreds of documented methods, properties and events available for XMetaL programming interfaces. Work with your favorite scripting languages while leveraging Microsoft Visual Studio’s script and schema/DTD editing facilities, proactively validating syntax, flagging code errors and allowing developers to test scripts on-the-fly.
Code and Debug On-the-Fly
Further reducing the number of steps required for common tasks, XMetaL lets you seamlessly debug customisation files for XMetaL Author or XMAX from inside the Developer environment. Update a display style or macro file and it’s automatically updated on the fly without reloading or restarting.
Minimise Training
XMetaL Developer integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Visual Studio, a widely deployed and highly refined IDE. If you’re familiar with Visual Basic, you will be productive almost immediately in the familiar XMetaL Developer IDE, and productivity-enhancing conveniences such as Intellisense and drag-and-drop GUI creation take usability further.
Shorten the Learning Curve with Guided Workflow
To shorten the productivity curve and encourage sound scripting principles, use one of many wizards to guide you step-by-step through key tasks. For example, the Open Project wizard automatically creates all the necessary files in a default project once an XML Schema has been defined.
Leverage Enterprise Information
Enable authors to submit complex queries (such as table joins) that import enterprise database information into their documents, structured as CALS or HTML tables or as semantically tagged XML. Create interactive interfaces to dynamic database information with a sophisticated forms toolkit with powerful, drag-and-drop capabilities and a data source control.
Monitor and Validate
XMetaL Developer checks for external file updates —for example, changes to schemas and external entities automatically reflect in a project as they occur.
Promote Standards-Based Excellence
With unmatched flexibility, load W3C XML Schema, XML or SGML DTDs—choose the schema language that best meets your needs. Reliably script sophisticated manipulations for your XML content with a standards-compliant Document Object Model (DOM) implementation.
XMetaL Developer is available in two edtions. XMetaL Developer contains 1 license for XMetaL Author DITA Edition. XMetaL Developer Enterprise Edition contains 1 license for XMetaL Author Enterprise Editions. Both editions include 1 license for XMetaL XMAX.
Operating system:
- Windows 2000 or Windows XP Professional
One of the following development environments:
- Microsoft Visual Studio or other single development language
release, such as VB
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2003 or other single development
language release
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition, Professional
Edition, Tools For Office or Team System. Note: the free Visual
Studio Express is not supported. Please contact XMetaL
technical support to obtain a product patch for VS 2005.