XML Editors

Question

XML Editors

I need to create and edit an XML file.

What editors are available on the Mac for XML? (I realize that any text editor will work but I'm looking for something that will create well-formed XML, hopefully something that will read a DTD and validate a document accordingly.)

Thanks.

- nello

iMac G5 20" flat screen (w/o camera), Mac OS X (10.5.5), 2 GB RAM

Posted on Oct 2, 2008 10:05 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 3, 2008 6:18 AM in response to baltwo

@baltwo

Yes, you are correct; Google has many responses to the query, "XML editor."

What I'm looking for by posting on this discussion is to get input from Mac users regarding the XML editor of choice.

If you have experience on XML editors for the Mac that you'd like to share, please post it.

Thank you.

- nello

Message was edited by: Nello Lucchesi

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Answer 2

KJK555

Level 4

2,906 points

Oct 3, 2008 5:09 AM in response to Nello Lucchesi

property list editor is included with Leo. It's not in the usual place ( /applications ) however.

Its in /Developer/Applications/Utilities (must have developer tools installed).

If you don't want to install Developer Tools, you can extract the app from the install DVD with pacifist.

Kj

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Answer 3

KJK555

Level 4

2,906 points

Oct 3, 2008 8:31 AM in response to KJK555

I checked my install DVD and it is in the /developer/applications/utilities directory.

with pacifist you can extract it to your regular /applications directory if you like though.
simply highlight the Property List Editor.app, control click it, select extract to custom location,
choose /Applications directory and let it install.

Kj

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Answer 4

Oct 3, 2008 10:49 AM in response to KJK555

@KJK555:

On my Leopard DVD, the full file path is:

/Optional Installs/XCode Tools/Packages/DeveloperTool.pkg.

Within that package, the path is:

/Applications/Utilities/Property List Editor.app

I'm sorry, but I don' see a /Developer directory on my DVD.

- nello

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Answer 5

baltwo

Level 9

62,406 points

Oct 3, 2008 11:06 AM in response to Nello Lucchesi

Clarification. If you install the entire Xcode Tools, it'll create the /Developer folder and store everything in it. Looking at an Xcode Tools installation and looking at the install disk's setup are two different things.

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Answer 6

KJK555

Level 4

2,906 points

Oct 3, 2008 11:55 AM in response to Nello Lucchesi

Everything within the developer package is going to be placed under a folder called "/Developer".

So if there is a directory in the package called "Utilities" then that directory is going to be
/Developer/Utilities by default. That is done by the installer program, But the nice thing about
pacifist is you can install an app to any folder you like as long as there are no dependencies
(on other files or programs) that will keep it from working. Property List Editor will work
properly if installed in your normal /Applications folder and pacifist will allow you to install
it in a custom location.

Kj

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Answer 7

Oct 3, 2008 7:38 PM in response to KJK555

@KJK555:

Now that I've installed and played a bit with PropertyListEditor.app...surprise: it's pretty focused on editing PLists. It doesn't seem to be a general XML editor. For example, I don't see a way to associate it with a custom DTD.

Please let me know if I'm overlooking a feature you have in mind.

Thanks.

- nello

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Answer 8

Oct 3, 2008 8:02 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

The following XML editors have been recommended to me:

ElfData XML Editor
http://www.elfdata.com/xmleditor/

EditiX
http://www.editix.com/

itelliJIDEA
http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/features/xml_editor.html
A Java IDE--something I do NOT need--with XML editing
features.

oXygen
http://oxygenxml.com
Seems like more than I need and is more than I want to spend.
But, the code completion feature sounds great.

Has anyone used these or other XML editors? Can anyone comment on which editor might best meet my need for creating XML files that are well-formed against a custom DTD?

I'm not trying to do transformations, XSLT, or anything fancy. I'm just trying to create XML files to load data into a web application. Here are examples of the files I'm trying to create:

http://pkp.sfu.ca/files/docs/importexport/apa.html
http://pkp.sfu.ca/files/docs/importexport/apb.html

Thank you.

- nello

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Answer 9

Oct 3, 2008 8:15 PM in response to Nello Lucchesi

Hi,
I would give Jedit a try. You can download it at http://www.jedit.org/. It is a free editor multi-platform Java application. I used in the past to create html and it with the right plug-in edits xml.

The XML plugin (version 2) for Jedit provides features for editing XML, HTML, JavaScript and CSS files. For XML files, it does validation against a DTD or XSD. For all languages, it displays element trees in the sidekick dockable. For XML, HTML and CSS, you get completion popups for elements, attribute, and entities.

Hope this helps.

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Answer 10

KJK555

Level 4

2,906 points

Oct 3, 2008 10:02 PM in response to Nello Lucchesi

Well it was designed mostly for that (property lists), there are lots of free editors out there.

Jedit is a good one. you can get a plugin to do DTD or XSD.
If you installed the Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 2, you will have to make a modification to
get jedit to work.

Download jedit, install it.
in finder copy the file:
/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/A/Resources/MacOS/JavaAppli cationStub
paste it to:
/Applications/jEdit.app/Contents/MacOS
#I am assuming you installed jedit in /Applications#
note: in finder you will have to control click on jedit.app and select "show package contents"
to be able to get to the /Applications/jEdit.app/Contents/MacOS directory.

delete the /Applications/jEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/jedit symlink and rename the pasted file
(JavaApplicationStub) to "jedit".

Kj

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Answer 11

KJK555

Level 4

2,906 points

Oct 3, 2008 10:28 PM in response to Nello Lucchesi

Here is a link to jedit:
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/jedit/jedit4.3pre15install.dmg

Here is link to the jedit xml plugin:
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/jedit-plugins/XML-2.0.9.zip
"The XML plugin (version 2) provides features for editing XML, HTML, JavaScript and CSS files. For XML files, it does validation against a DTD or XSD. For all languages, it displays element trees in the sidekick dockable. For XML, HTML and CSS, you get completion popups for elements, attribute, and entities."

Kj

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Answer 12

baltwo

Level 9

62,406 points

Oct 2, 2008 11:07 PM in response to Nello Lucchesi

A google search brings up a plethora of them.

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Answer 13

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

123,080 points

Oct 3, 2008 6:17 AM in response to Nello Lucchesi

http://www.eskimo.com/~pristine/webed.html

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Answer 14

Oct 3, 2008 7:47 AM in response to KJK555

@KJK555

After quite a bit os searching, I found PropertyListEditor.app. Since I struggled to find it, I thought I'd post that it is in DeveloperTools.pkg at /Utilities.

- nello

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Answer 15

KJK555

Level 4

2,906 points

Oct 3, 2008 8:09 AM in response to Nello Lucchesi

That's interesting, It is installed in /Developer/Applications/Utilities on my machine.

Kj

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