Tag Archive for: XSLT

How to Debug XSLT and XQuery


Nothing’s more frustrating than getting unintended results from an XSLT or XQuery transformation and having to spend hours tracking down the issue – especially if you’ve inherited the project from another developer or haven’t looked at the code in a few months.  Of course, XMLSpy has long included an XSLT debugger and XQuery debugger for setting break points and stepping through transformations to identify problems.

For a more interactive debugging process, XMLSpy also includes XSLT/XQuery back-mapping.

With back-mapping enabled, you can simply click on or hover over the portion of your output document you want to zero in on, and XMLSpy will immediately highlight the source XML and XSLT or XQuery instruction that is responsible. Let’s see how it works.

Debug XSLT with back-mapping

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Examine, Edit, and Validate .x3d Files


The .x3d file format is an ISO/IEC xml-based standard for representing 3d images. Also known as X3D, .x3d files originated as a way to represent 3D images for computer graphics. Over time applications grew from virtual reality (VRML), to CAD design, architectural rendering, 3D printing, medical and anatomical imaging, representation of molecular chemical structures, human animation, and more.

The Web3D Consortium maintains the X3D standard, with XML Schemas documented here. Current versions include definitions of more than 250 XML elements, over 100 simple types, 70 complex types, and more than 40 defined node groups.

It takes that much complexity to accurately describe anything from a precisely manufactured machine part to a richly textured virtual environment, especially considering lighting, texture, and point of view! XMLSpy, the world’s most popular tool for modeling, editing, transforming, and debugging XML and JSON related technologies, supports .x3d files. XMLSpy offers standards-based tools for anyone who may need to examine, exchange, consume, or validate .x3d files. Let’s look at some examples.

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How to Speed Up Your XSLT – Automatically


Once you’ve written XSLT code to produce HTML or some other output, optimizing it to deliver the fastest execution is tricky business. Even with the powerful XSLT profiler in XMLSpy, a developer is required to have expert-level XSLT skills to test and fix the bottlenecks that the XSLT profiler identifies. Is the problem in an XPath expression? Is it an XSLT instruction? This can be a frustrating and time consuming task.

To help alleviate this issue and bring the power of XSLT to developers of all skill levels, XMLSpy also includes the XSL Speed Optimizer, which provides fixes to remove bottlenecks automatically, to immediately speed up your XSLT execution – it’s a revolutionary approach to optimizing XSLT performance.

Learn about XSL Speed Optimizer

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3 Ways XML Text View Just Got Better


Though XMLSpy includes a helpful Grid View for visual editing, Text View remains the most popular pane for developers using the XML editor. Intelligent XML editing functionality helps make the job easier, and we’re continuously adding functionality to the XMLSpy Text View to facilitate this.

Let’s look at some new functionality XML developers will have at their disposal starting with Release 3 of XMLSpy 2017.

XML developer

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New XSLT Back-mapping Headlines Altova Release


It’s time for the latest release of Altova desktop developer tools and server software products, and this one introduces numerous innovative features across the product line, including a brand-new version of MapForce Server called MapForce Server Accelerator Edition for even faster processing of data integration jobs.

Let’s take a look at the highlights of Version 2017 Release 3.

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How to Get Server Processing Speeds Inside your IDE


Nothing interrupts the flow of development like waiting for a collection of files to transform – yet this step is unavoidable when writing, testing, and debugging XSLT and XQuery code.

In addition to offering the XSL Speed Optimizer, we’ve worked hard over the years to make sure the processor in XMLSpy is as fast as possible. As quick as it is today, it’s still limited to a single core execution on the CPU in your development machine – well, not any more.

 

Servers

 

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Starting Business Reports from Word


So much content these days is in the form of Microsoft Word documents. Word is where content or report creators often begin, and it has great tools for designing layouts and including images, tables and hyperlinks, and so on. What Word lacks though, is the ability to publish dynamic content or publish multiple versions of that content using the same template in an automated way, and that’s where Altova StyleVision comes in.

StyleVision is a unique product that is often difficult to describe because it does so much. Whether you want to auto-generate an XSLT stylesheet based on a visual design, create multi-channel business reports from dynamic XML or database data, or build user-friendly enterprise forms, StyleVision has you covered.

Starting with StyleVision 2016 Release 2, you can begin your StyleVision design based on an existing Word doc. Let’s take a look at why this saves an incredible amount of time, giving report and form designers the best of both worlds.

Designing a business report

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New JSON Schema Editor and Data Mapping Debugger Debut in Altova Version 2016


We are excited to announce details of the latest release of Altova MissionKit desktop developer tools and server software products. Version 2016 includes full Windows 10 compatibility and updated relational database support across the product line, and it also introduces some new features that you simply will not find anywhere else.

XMLSpy 2016 includes the first full featured, enterprise-grade graphical JSON Schema editor. MapForce, our data integration tool, now includes a data mapping debugger that will revolutionize the way you define and test data mapping projects. Let’s take a closer look at these new features.

 

Altova Version 2016

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Altova’s Latest Release Sets the Performance Bar Even Higher


Release 2 of Altova MissionKit desktop developer and server software products is now available for downloading. This release packs a punch, delivering enhancements that boost performance by two or even three times, as well as updated standards support – and a revolutionary new approach to speeding up XSLT execution called XSL Speed Optimizer.

 

Altova Software Version 2014r2

Let’s take a look at some of these new features in depth.

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Announcing RaptorXML, the Hyper-fast XML and XBRL Server


  clip_image001We are very excited to be at the XBRL 26 Conference in Dublin, Ireland today to announce a brand new server product in the Altova family of XML and XBRL tools! Altova RaptorXML is a hyper-fast XML and XBRL validation and processing server. It’s Altova’s third-generation XML and XBRL engine, built completely from scratch to help organizations efficiently validate, process, transform, and query the vast and ever-increasing amounts XML and XBRL data being generated as a result of XBRL compliance regulations and myriad other big data trends. RaptorXML is written to be highly scalable for today’s multi-CPU and multi- core computers and servers. This, along with high performance code optimizations and an extremely low memory footprint, has helped make RaptorXML a lightning-fast XML and XBRL server that can meet the demands of today’s data processing applications. Simply put: we architected RaptorXML to combine the performance benefits afforded by modern parallel computing environments with strict compliance to the latest versions of all relevant XML and XBRL standards. RaptorXML includes support for the very latest versions of all relevant standards and has been submitted to rigorous regression and conformance testing. The server will be available in two versions, both of which are available for Windows, Linux, and MacOS platforms. RaptorXML Server supports validation and processing of:

  • XML 1.0 & 1.1
  • XInclude 1.0
  • Xlink 1.0
  • XML Schema 1.0 & 1.1
  • XPath 1.0, 2.0 & 3.0
  • XSLT 1.0, 2.0 & 3.0 (subset)
  • XQuery 1.0 & 3.0
  • And more

RaptorXML+XBRL Server supports all the features of RaptorXML Server, with the addition of processing and validating the XBRL family of standards:

  • XBRL 2.1
  • XBRL Dimensions
  • XBRL Formula 1.0
  • XBRL Functions
  • XBRL Definition Links

Developers creating solutions using Altova MissionKit XML development and XBRL development tools will be able to power their server applications with RaptorXML for hyper-performance, increased throughput, and efficient memory utilization, giving them the opportunity to validate and process large amounts of XML or XBRL data cost-effectively.  Check out the complete list of supported XML and XBRL standards and more details on this groundbreaking new server product. RaptorXML will be available to download and purchase in May. clip_image003

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Transforming a Plain Layout in StyleVision


Altova Online Training’s newest course, XSLT Technology, leads the student though several transformations of XML data into new formats. Even with all the transformations performed in the class, there are some transformations that did not make it into the final edit.
In Chapter 4 of the XSLT Technology training, I walk students through the process of creating a flyer for the play “Hamlet” using StyleVision. The source content is in XML, and StyleVision autogenerates the XSL stylesheets required to render it into HTML, PDF, and Word, based on our design.

I asked the Altova Art Department to spruce up my design, and, while I did not end up using the nicer design in the training, I wanted to show how to turn my plain flyer into the Art Department’s vision.
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Let’s explore the transformation.

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New! XSLT Technology Training


We’re excited to introduce our new XSLT Technology training as the latest Altova Online Training offering. As with all our trainings, XSLT Technology is released as a free, self-paced course, available online, so students can fit it into their busy schedules.

XSLT transforms XML data into other formats, and this course will transform a beginner XML student into an advanced user. Intermediate and advanced students will gain valuable techniques to add to their XML toolkits.

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Processing the Groupon API – Part 3


Concluding the series in this post, we will apply a stylesheet to transform the XML data created from our mapping of the Groupon API into HTML. Here is an example of the XML output from the data mapping we created last time: XML produced by MapForce from the Groupon API

Assign a Stylesheet to Transform XML The Component Settings dialog for the output component of the MapForce mapping allows us to assign a stylesheet created with Altova StyleVision.

Assigning a StyleVision Stylesheet to a MapForce component
Assigning a stylesheet to the data mapping output component integrates the operations of MapForce and StyleVision, and a new series of buttons appears at the bottom of the MapForce mapping window for HTML, RTF, PDF, and Microsoft Word formats. (You must have both MapForce and StyleVision installed on your computer.) MapForce ouput formats available through a stylesheet When you click any of these output format buttons, MapForce executes the data mapping exactly as we saw in the previous post. MapForce seamlessly passes the XML output to StyleVision, where it is transformed to the selected format. MapForce then displays the formatted document in the Output window. Here is the MapForce Output window for HTML, based on the StyleVision Power Stylesheet assigned above: HTML output produced by MapForce from the Groupon API The MapForce Output menu lets you save the XML data mapping output or the HTML document formatted according to the stylesheet. How to Make a Stylesheet We designed a stylesheet for the Groupon API data mapping using Altova StyleVision, based on the XML Schema for the MapForce output component. The intuitive StyleVision interface and powerful data access and manipulation features make it easy to create attractive documents in HTML, RTF, PDF, and Microsoft Word formats from XML files. The screenshot below shows the StyleVision Design View of the Extreme Groupon stylesheet. The blue numbered circles identify the location of each design feature listed following the image. StyleVision stylesheet for the MapForce Groupon API mapping Features of the SPS file

  1. User-defined html specifies the viewport meta tag for mobile devices. This lets us design one stylesheet to generate a single HTML file for computers and mobile devices
  2. Document title with customized font, size, and color
  3. An autocalc element uses the XPath count function to count the number of deals in the XML input document and inserts the total
  4. The date timestamp is placed at the top of the document even though the date element occurs at the end of the XML input data file
  5. Images from the Altova and Groupon Web sites are referenced by hyperlinks, not as inline image data
  6. Horizontal rules set off each individual deal. For HTML documents, the rules automatically fit the browser window width
  7. Customized fonts and sizes assigned to different elements
  8. A two-column table organizes each deal description
  9. URLs in the XML file are dynamically assigned as hyperlinks for embedded images, fixed text, and dynamic data

StyleVision Power Stylesheets can combine multiple .xsd files, existing .css stylesheets, database schemas, XBRL taxonomies, and more to produce richly formatted reports that can even include automatically generated charts in various styles. You can also use StyleVision to define e-forms with data entry fields, drop down menus, radio buttons and other advanced features. Previewing Stylesheet Transformations StyleVision lets you assign a working XML file to preview your output as you design the stylesheet, and the buttons along the bottom of the Design window make it convenient to display the formatted working file as you refine your design. We saved the XML output of the MapForce mapping and assigned it as our working document. When the stylesheet was complete, the HTML Preview in StyleVision was identical to the MapForce HTML Output window shown above. To view the document on a mobile device you can either deploy the HTML as a page on a Web site or email it as an attachment. HTML version of the MapForce mapped data on a mobile device In addition to the stylesheet itself and formatted versions of the working document, StyleVision lets you save generated XSLT files to transform other XML files using your stylesheet design outside the StyleVision application. Automation Next Time In the future when you want to re-run a data mapping and refresh the HTML document with up to date data, there are two ways to automate the process:

  • You can run MapForce from a command line with parameters to name the mapping definition file and even call StyleVision to create formatted output
  • You can generate royalty-free code for the mapping in XSLT, Java, C++, or C# to combine with the XSLT code from StyleVision to build your own end-to-end application

XMLSpy, MapForce, and StyleVision are all available together in the specially priced Altova MissionKit. See for yourself how easy it is to use the MissionKit to convert data from a Web API — download a free 30-day trial!
Editor’s Note: Our original series on mapping data from the Groupon API ran in three parts you can see by clicking the links here: Part 1 of Processing the Groupon API with Altova MapForce describes how to create dynamic input by collecting data from multiple URLs. Processing the Groupon API with MapForce – Part 2 describes how we filtered data from the API and defined the output to extract only the most interesting details. Processing the Groupon API – Part 3 describes formatting the output as a single HTML document optimized for desktop and mobile devices, and reviews ways to automate repeat execution.

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Use Built-In XPath Functions


In developing one of the Altova Online Training courses, I sorted a list of books by the authors. I realized that my author field was a string of the author’s full name, so the books were sorted by the first letter of the string, or the author’s first name. It did not fit into the course to fix the sorting, but you can easily extract the last name from a string and use it for the sorting key using XPath functions. If you then use the books’ titles for a secondary sort key, you run into an issue with titles that start with “A”, “An”, or “The”. I want to use the title for the secondary sort key, but ignore a leading definite or indefinite article.Output the book list with a  sort corrected using XPath expressions Let’s take a look at how we created this XSLT code.

This article was written using XMLSpy as the platform, but the same XPath expressions can be used inside MapForce or StyleVision to achieve similar results. We can start with a simple XML book list. We have 4 books with author and title nodes. List of three books An XSLT to create a list of the books would look like this: Output the book list without a sort This will generate the following output: Unsorted Book List The books are output in the order they appear in the original data file. If we add xsl:sort to the xsl:for-each loop, we can arrange our output in other ways. Output the book list with a basic sort This will generate a sorted list, but not sorted properly. Output from XSL with Basic Sort Sorting author as a string, results in “Jules Verne” appearing ahead of “Mark Twain”. Also, “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” appears ahead of “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. We want to ignore the indefinite article, “A”, so that “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” appears ahead of “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court”. We can use XPath expressions to extract the sorting keys we want. Output the book list with a  sort corrected using XPath expressions Let’s examine the code before we look at the output. We replace “author” with “reverse(tokenize(author, ‘ ‘))[1]”. Tokenize breaks the author string into tokens using a single white space as the break point. So, “Jules Verne” is tokenized into “Jules” and “Verne”. Reverse reverses the order of the tokens to “Verne” and “Jules”. The one in square brackets chooses the first item in the list, “Verne”. This is the value that is used in for the xsl:sort function to arrange the books. This is not the perfect solution, but it works in our case. The title looks convoluted, but the logic is straightforward. The “tokenize(title,’ ‘)[1]” expression extracts the first word of the title. So, the first if test is “Is the first word of the title the word “A”? “. If it is, then we return the substring of the title that starts with its third letter, thus eliminating “A” and the space. If the first word of the title is not “A”, then we need to test it again to see if the first word of the title is “The”. If it is, we use the substring of the title starting with its fifth character, thus eliminating “The” and a space. If we fail both tests, then we just pass the title along as the sorting key. We could add another test to our code to see if the first word is “An”, but it is not needed for this data set. Executing this last XSLT, we get the following output. Output from XSL with Corrected Sort “Mark Twain” is now ahead of “Jules Verne”. “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” appears ahead of “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” and “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court”. The flaw in our approach to the author string is that we want “Jules Verne” to be treated as “Verne, Jules” for the sort, so that if we had a book by “Jimmy Verne”, the sort would treat them as different authors. Our code does not. Using “concat(reverse(tokenize(author, ‘ ‘))[1], reverse(tokenize(author, ‘ ‘))[2])” would sort “Jules Verne” and “Jimmy Verne” correctly, but this solution only will work with 2 word names. If an author had a suffix (“Martin Luther King, Jr.”) or multiple words (“George Herbert Walker Bush”), the code would fail. There are many exceptions to the general rules on alphabetizing names, and the code to allow for all variants goes far beyond the scope of this article. What we wanted to show was the ability to manipulate XML data on the fly using XPath expressions. We do not always have complete control on the format of our data sources, but using the power of XPath expressions, we can transform the data into the format that we need. A copy of the files used in these examples is available here.

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Harness the Power of Chained Transformations in MapForce


Altova MapForce includes the ability to define chained transformations. Chained transformations let you create complex mappings where the output of one mapping becomes the input to another. In other words, two or more components can be directly connected to a final target component. MapForce chained transformation example

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A Developer’s Life is Never Simple


Earlier this month in our blog post on Comparing XML Schemas we showed a realistic – but simplified – example to illustrate a slick new feature of DiffDog 2010 to compare XML Schemas and update corresponding XML data files by generating XSL transformations.
A real-life XML developer’s project is rarely as small and straightforward as the example we used. In this post we will take a look at some typical complications developers face every day and how the Altova MissionKit cuts through complexity to enhance productivity.
Longer XML Schemas and Larger Mappings
Your XML Schemas are not likely to be as short and simple as the ones in our earlier post, and you will likely want to save your work while you are mapping your XML Schema migration. DiffDog lets you save your mapping in an XML Schema comparison file that you can reload later to continue your work, or to share with a colleague.
DiffDog Save XML Schema Comparison dialog
If you need to compare two XML Schemas on a regular basis, the XML Schema Comparison Document can be a valuable time saver.
Embedded XML Schema Assignment
The screen shot below shows the XML data file from our original example with one important difference. In this version the story element includes an embedded reference to the XML Schema on line 2.
XMLSpy XML Editor view
When we transform this file with the simple XSLT we created in DiffDog, the new XML data file will not include the updated XML Schema reference. In our earlier blog post embedded XML Schema references weren’t an issue because we used the XMLSpy Project / Properties menu option to assign default XML Schemas for each folder.
If there are many XML data files to transform, and they require embedded XML Schema references, we can take advantage of an additional feature of MapForce. We can export our mapping from DiffDog to MapForce, as we did in the earlier post, and then use the Component Settings dialog for the MapForce output component to include the XML Schema reference.
MapForce Component Settings dialog
Document Your Work
Developers can lose productivity trying to retrace history when a project needs additional work months or even years after an early iteration. The MapForce Generate Documentation feature can help us avoid this frustrating experience.
MapForce will document the mapping of each element in the XML Schemas in Microsoft Word, RTF, or HTML formats. Regardless which format we choose, the resulting document is an excellent stand-alone project artifact, or it can be further edited and included in a larger report.
MapForce Generate Documentation dialog
We can even combine the MapForce mapping documentation with full descriptions of each version of the XML Schema generated with the XMLSpy XML Schema Editor documentation feature.
Source/Version Control
Source/version control systems let teams of developers work closely together on the same project without a risk of overwriting each others’ changes. Because a version of the source code is saved at each stage of the design process, it is very easy to look at or revert to an earlier version when needed.
Altova has implemented the Microsoft Source Code Control Interface (MSSCCI) v1.1 – v1.3 in XMLSpy and tested support for many popular source control systems, so we can manage the files in our XML Schema evolution project across the development enterprise. Additionally, DiffDog can be integrated with source control systems as the default comparison tool. DiffDog can even generate differences report files in a variety of formats.
See for yourself how the tools in the Altova MissionKit can cut through the complexity of your own XML, Web Services, data integration, XML publishing, XBRL, and UML modeling development projects – download a free 30-day trial!

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Comparing XML Schemas with DiffDog 2010


DiffDog 2010 includes a powerful new tool to compare XML Schemas that XML developers and others can use to update existing XML data files as XML Schemas evolve. This post takes a look at an example scenario for this feature.Before we drop into the new functionality, let’s take a quick look at two XML Schemas using the DiffDog File Compare feature. Of course, just like in previous versions, DiffDog 2010 users can compare XML Schemas as .xsd documents and display differences in a color-coded, XML-aware format.DiffDog file comparison view of XML Schemas This is a good way to identify and manage differences in XML Schemas, especially when you want to review revisions to industry-standard XML Schemas that evolve over time.What’s new in DiffDog 2010 is an additional XML Schema Differencing option that graphically displays two XML Schemas side by side, identifies identical elements automatically, and lets users map differences and generate XSL transformations to update XML data files.Here’s our first view when we open the same two XML Schemas shown in the file comparison above, using the new XML Schema Differencing feature.Initial DiffDog XML Schema Differencing view of XML Schemas The root elements of the two XML Schemas are automatically connected. We can click the Compare button in the toolbar to automatically connect identical elements in the two XML Schemas.DiffDog XML Differencing (Of course we could also select Compare XML Schemas from the right click context menu, or choose Start Comparison from the Diff and Merge menu, or press the F5 keyboard shortcut – DiffDog gives you many options to perform the same task, so you can work the way you like.)Next, we can map elements with different names in the two XML Schemas by manually connecting the pointer arrows between them. In this example most of the changes to the version of the XML Schema on the right simply give elements new names that will be more clear when the XML Schema and its data files are distributed through our enterprise.User-mapped XML Schemas in DiffDog XML Schema Differencing view When all the elements are mapped, we can generate an XSLT file to transform existing XML data files based on the XML Schema on the left to reflect revisions in the newer version on the right. This feature is designed to rescue XML developers from the tedious tasks of writing and debugging XSL transformations by hand.DiffDog Diff and Merge Menu Here is an example of an original XML data file based on the XML Schema on the left side, as viewed in Altova XMLSpy:XML data file viewed in XMLSpy The output file after applying the XSL transformation we created with DiffDog 2010 appears below. Note the substitution of the author element for writer, email for feedback, and so on.XSL output viewed in XMLSpy If there are many existing XML files that need to be transformed, the Project Management features of XMLSpy can help us automate the process. We can add external folders to an XMLSpy project.XMLSpy Project Helper Window Using the XMLSpy properties dialog for each project folder, we can assign default values to assign an XML Schema for validation, the XSL transformation, and the destination of the output.XMLSpy project folder properties dialog Now we can select the input folder in the XMLSpy Project helper window and transform all the files in it with the single-keystroke F10 shortcut.When we originally mapped the XML Schema elements in DiffDog, we left the publication element on the left side unconnected, since it had no corresponding element in the earlier version of the schema. That means when we transform XML input files using the XSLT, the resulting output will not contain the publication element. If publication is a required element, we can call on Altova MapForce for a quick solution.One of the options in DiffDog is to generate a MapForce mapping rather than XSLT. When we choose this option, MapForce launches with our DiffDog mapping already loaded as a new MapForce design, as shown below.MapForce New Design It’s easy to enhance the mapping by adding a constant as a default value for the publication element.MapForce enhanced design Now we can save an XSL file from MapForce that reuses all the element mappings we originally designed in DiffDog and adds the constant. When we apply the new XSL to transform our original XML data file, we get a result that includes the default value for the publication element.Final version of output viewed in XMLSpy This post started by describing the new XML Schema Comparison feature in DiffDog 2010. Fleshing out a simple – but typical – real-world example quickly highlighted additional tasks easily completed by taking advantage of tight integration with XMLSpy and MapForce.All three of these tools and more are available at substantial savings in the Altova MissionKit 2010, the integrated suite of XML, database, and UML tools designed to meet the diverse development and data management needs of today’s software architects and XML developers. Click here to download a free trial today!

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Just-in-Time StyleVision Training


Multiple new features and usability enhancements have been added to StyleVision® 2010 based on customer requests, and Altova Online Training has updated all StyleVision modules to help you take advantage of these improvements.   Altova Online Training The beginner and intermediate level course begins with an introduction to the StyleVision interface and functionality as well as interactive tutorials for transforming XML and database content into eye-catching HTML pages, RTF documents, PDF reports, Word 2007 (OOXML) docs, and intuitive Authentic® forms.  Module 2 builds on this foundation and provides detailed tutorials that will help you create an effective SPS file, design print output, use absolutely positioned layout modules, and create Authentic documents for users who would benefit from updating XML documents without seeing the underlying XML syntax. Module 3 introduces more advanced topics and includes step-by-step instructions on inserting auto-calculations, outputting XHTML, importing XSLT, disabling output escaping, setting DPI conversion factors, and using variables and user-defined templates and elements.  Access the free StyleVision Course now.

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New Table Design in StyleVision


v2009 brought a lot of exciting new features to StyleVision, Altova’s graphical stylesheet design tool. Some, like an all-new design for tables and XPath filtering, are welcome byproducts of our support for XBRL and XBRL Dimensions, but still have far reaching uses for working with XML and databases. Let’s take a quick look at StyleVision’s new table design to illustrate what I’m talking about. stylevision_tables If you’re already a seasoned StyleVision user, it’s probably already obvious to you that we’ve changed things up a bit. You can now very easily select entire columns or rows for editing. Rearrange, delete, add styles, and even resize using the drag and drop UI or common Windows shortcuts on your keyboard. Of course, any of the designs that you’ve created in a previous version of StyleVision will inherit this functionality as well. For any of you not familiar with StyleVision, it is an award-winning stylesheet design tool and report builder with support for XML, database, and XBRL source content. Using the drag and drop GUI and style entry helpers, you create reusable design templates for output to HTML, RTF, PDF, Word 2007 (OOXML), and Authentic e-Forms. If you chose to take advantage of the cost savings in the Altova MissionKit, you will find that you already have StyleVision on your hard drive and just need to open it up for a test drive. Visit the new features index to view all of the functionality that has been added to StyleVision since your last upgrade or download a free trial of StyleVision 2009 today!

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Producing Word 2007 (Open XML) from XML and database data


This article originally appeared on the XML Aficionado blog of Altova CEO, Alexander Falk.
The latest release 2008r2 of StyleVision gives users important new functionality for creating advanced stylesheets to publish XML and database data in Word 2007, which uses the new Open XML (OOXML) data format, as well as simpler processes for publishing the same source content in other formats. And, to further ease the transition for developers and designers working with OOXML, we have just reduced the price of StyleVision considerably. As adoption of Open XML increases, StyleVision developers will be ready with a powerful tool for publishing XML and database data in what is sure to be the most predominant end-user document format, now that Open XML has been approved as an ISO standard. Here is how the process works:

  1. Open your existing XML document or connect to an existing relational database to populate the source pane in StyleVision:
    Sources
  2. Drag & drop elements from the source pane into the design pane and apply styles to them, thereby creating a meta stylesheet for producing the desired output formatting:
    DragDrop
  3. Click on one of the preview tabs underneath the design pane to preview the output in any of the supported output formats (Open XML for Word 2007, HTML, PDF, and RTF) – all outputs are automatically created from one and the same visual design:
    OpenXMLpreview
  4. Save the generated output file(s) as well as the specific stylesheets that have been auto-generated to render your data in the desired output formats again and again…

StyleVision can access data from database tables,views, or you can directly enter a SQL SELECT statement to query only for particular data from a database. This makes StyleVision ideal for flexible database reporting, too. If you are interested in further details, you can read more about the new features of StyleVision 2008r2 here.

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