Form-based xml editor

[Filipe Correia]

Dear XMLers,

I'm looking for an XML editor, that hides everything about XML coding
from the user.
What I have in mind is an editor to which one would provide a DTD or
XSD file. It would, based on that information, provide the user with a
form to produce compliant XML documents.

Any pointers to software that does this are deeply appreciated!

Thank you,
Filipe Correia

 

[Mukul Gandhi]

I think searching a generic tool for this would be difficult (which
can display a HTML form for any possible XML Schema).

The challenge in this task is mapping the flat HTML namespace to the
hierarchical XML namespace.

but you can try searching for such a tool.

Cheers,
Mukul

 

[Peter Flynn]

Dear XMLers,

I'm looking for an XML editor, that hides everything about XML coding
from the user.
What I have in mind is an editor to which one would provide a DTD or
XSD file. It would, based on that information, provide the user with a
form to produce compliant XML documents.

I am assuming from what you write that your DTDs and Schemas do not use
subelements in mixed content (eg as in HTML paragraphs), as there is no
simple way to generate a forms-type interface for those classes of
document where subelement markup can nest arbitrarily deep.

Microsoft's InfoPath appears to do what you want, but I found it
extraordinarily cumbersome to set up. It appears really to be intended
for incorporating into a much broader system, where it is called
automatically on other actions, not for standalone or individual usage.

Otherwise have a look at the editors summarised in "Choosing an XML
editor" (based on a report by Thijs van den Broek) at
http://ahds.ac.uk/creating/information-papers/xml-editors/

The best attempt at a forms-based editor interface was the long-obsolete
InContext, which I reviewed in my book on SGML/XML tools[1] (not to be
confused with the Adobe web product of the same name, AFAIK). At the
risk of annoying my publishers I have snipped out those pages at
http://silmaril.ie/books/extracts/InContext.pdf in case anyone is
interested.

1. Understanding SGML and XML Tools, Kluwer, 1998. 0792381696

///Peter

 

[Filipe Correia]

Please have a look at the XMLmind XML Editor (XXE):

   http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/

Thank you, i will look into it.

I have been exploring Xample, and am finding it very promising
(although, I confess, I was expecting something more user friendly)
http://www.felixgolubov.com/XMLEditor/

Any further suggestion will be deeply appreciated!

Thanks,
Filipe Correia