Presents your 
XML E-NEWSLETTER for November 27, 2002

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EDIT YOUR XML DOCUMENTS WITH XERLIN

What do you use to edit your XML documents? Most developers seem to use
either their favorite text editor or an extremely robust XML suite. 
Both tools can get the job done, but they don't fit all needs. Xerlin is a
lightweight, open source XML editor tool that sits somewhere between 
the basic text editor and the all-in-one XML suite.

REASONABLY SIMPLE

One of the nice aspects of Xerlin is that it's simple to use. The main
focus of Xerlin is to allow you to load an XML document and make 
changes to it while validating against a document type definition (DTD). 
In the "old" days, you might have loaded the XML document into Internet 
Explorer to view it nicely laid out, and then used your text editor to make 
changes to values.

Once the XML document is loaded, you can expand and collapse document
nodes by clicking a common tree widget. You can edit the value of the
element as well as the value of the element's attributes.

Creating new XML documents is also simple. When you create a new
document, Xerlin asks you for a DTD to validate the document against. 
The reason for this is two-fold:

* To allow Xerlin to perform DTD validation.

* To allow Xerlin to provide you with a list of elements you can add to
the document.

When you create the new document, you select the root element from the
DTD. You can then add elements according to the rules within the DTD. 
This eliminates the need to have both the DTD and the XML document open at
the same time and spares you from trying to remember which elements go where.

Xerlin has an advanced feature called libraries. A library is
essentially a collection of XML nodes that you can store and use later. 
To use it, you simply create a new library and then drag nodes from documents 
into the library toolbar, or drag nodes from the library to your document. 
Like many of the other features of Xerlin, this one requires you to use DTDs
throughout your documents to maintain integrity.

SEVERAL DRAWBACKS

There are a lot of things I like about Xerlin, but I'm not convinced
that using it to create an XML document from scratch is better or 
faster.
I'm pretty sure I can type much faster than I can click to create new
elements, and in the saved time, I can always validate the document 
against a DTD.

I'm also not sure that I like the limited DTD-centric view of 
documents.
Developers seem to see a lot of schemas because of their validation
advantages over DTDs.

Also, it appears the attributes are available only if you are using a
DTD; otherwise, they don't show up. In addition, the Preferences dialog 
is reasonably cryptic and difficult to use without a reference.

Overall, Xerlin is a nice little XML editor. For all its flaws, it still
manages to provide some basic capabilities that can be frustrating with
a different tool. You can find out more about Xerlin and download it at
the Xerlin Web site. http://www.xerlin.org/

Brian Schaffner is a senior consultant for Fujitsu Consulting. He
provides architecture, design, and development support for Fujitsu's 
Telcom360 group.

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