XML editing without XML markup knowledge

[Dirk Rudolf]

I like to announce you the product X2U, avaible under
http://www.lumrix.net/x2.

X2U is an acronym for "XML to user". Existing XML editors still ignore the fact that users don't want to read XML markup. Our view is: Not users have to align to XML, but XML has to align to users.

X2U allows users tp fill out simple web forms, which are automatically derived from XML models. The XML model provides the XML structure and an interface (man-machine, machine-machine). X2U accepts an XML document, an XML Schema, a DTD (Document Type Definition) or an XML form (XForms). All you need is a web browser. Forms often restrict the contents an author wants to put in. The X2U approach is more flexible:
Simply change the XML model to customize the forms!

Check out this software ...

cu, dirk

 

[Dimitre Novatchev]

Do you also offer a similar tool for programmers, who don't know a programming language?

If your users do not have any "XML markup knowledge", how can they be sure that what your product is really editing is XML?

 

[Kimanzi Mati]

Do you also offer a similar tool for programmers, who don't know a programming language?

Good one! Other than the falacy that there exists no programmer who does not know 1+ programming languages.

If your users do not have any "XML markup knowledge", how can they be sure that what your product is really editing is XML?

You have a point here in a sense. If the user wishes to "edit XML" they should be comfortable knowing that their GUI activities are in fact producing XML. Dirk, does your tool allow them to see the XML "under the hood" so to speak?

Code generation tools (in this case generating XML) are an old idea and few have come close to producing viable options. Out of curiosity, Dirk, what makes X2U special? As in: what features does it have over other XML editors? Those others enable the user to drag and drop items onto a treeview structure, which graphically represents the XML. In those treeviews the user is not editing XML content, they're editing a treeview. Of course there is a 1-1 mapping between the treeview and the XML content "under the hood" but that is not what the user is directly dealing with. So in that sense, I would say that the user need only understand treeviews (which have been around since the early days of GUI development over a decade ago). So I am interested to learn: what exactly is the special thing that X2U offers? Put another way: If I were a potential client going to buy XMLSpy and you came to me with your product, what pitch would you make to cause me to spend my money on X2U rather than XMLSpy (other than the pricing)? Also, what do you think of Microsoft's InfoPath?

Thanks.

 

[Bob Foster]

Good one! Other than the falacy that there exists no programmer who does not know 1+ programming languages.

Fallacy? There are many C++ programmers who know <1 programming language.
;-}

As to the rest, X2U seems to be a tree editor, of which there are many examples, presented as a form.

Bob Foster