[ANN] Version 26 of the Oxygen XML Editor is Now Available!

[Alin Belu <alin_belu@sync.ro>]

Hi everyone,

We are proud to announce that Oxygen XML Editor/Author version 26 is now available!

Listing below some new features which may be useful for our DocBook users:

Author
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* When renaming an XML element in the Author visual editing mode with change tracking enabled, the change is now tracked as an element deletion followed by the newly renamed element insertion. This enhancement provides a more accurate representation of the changes made during the renaming process.

* Content Completion Configuration (cc_config.xml) files provide a simple and efficient way to configure the content completion proposals Oxygen offers to users for a specific document type. By default, when defining rules in a content completion configuration file, if multiple rules match a certain element context, then only the first one that matches is applied. Now it is possible to combine multiple rules by setting the merge="true" attribute on the rules that match a single element context. This allows for a more intuitive and flexible way of specifying the content completion behavior via content completion configuration files.
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XSLT / XQuery / XPath
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* XSLT and XQuery Transformation and Debugging Updated to Use Saxon Version 12.3.

* Saxon added more extension functions and instructions in the Saxon namespace, as well as experimental implementations for version 4.0 extensions. These functions are now supported and included in the list of proposals of the content completion assistant. Some examples include: fn:all(), fn:all-different(), fn:all-equal(), fn:characters(), fn:contains-sequence(), fn:ends-with-sequence(), fn:expanded-QName(), fn:foot(), fn:deep-equal(), fn:parse-uri(), fn:xdm-to-json(), and many more. For details, see https://www.saxonica.com/documentation12/index.html#!functions/saxon.

* The saxon:evaluate(), saxon:eval(), and saxon:_expression_() extension functions have been dropped, but the same effects (and more) can be achieved using the xsl:evaluate standard XSLT 3.0 instruction. Also, the saxon:parse-html() extension function is now synonymous for fn:parse-html() (a new function proposed for XPath 4.0). If you use any of these functions you will need to update your code before using Saxon 12.3.

* XPath 4.0 syntax extensions are now fully supported.

* When using the Extract Function action (found in the contextual menu's Refactoring submenu) to extract XSLT functions, XPath expressions are rebuilt based on the current context. The context is passed as a parameter in the newly created function. This ensures that the extracted functions seamlessly integrate into the existing code, providing a more efficient and reliable development process.

* Two new AI functions are now available in the content completion proposals for XSLT, XQuery, XPath, and Schematron. The ai:transform-content(instruction, content) function can be used to rephrase content and the ai:verify-content(instruction, content) function can be used to perform validation checks on the existing content. These extension functions are added by the Oxygen AI Positron Assistant plugin, enabling the use of AI-based processing from XPath expressions.

XML Refactoring
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* Some refactoring actions can be applied on specific documents, thus providing a way to select only those documents. A new optional filesFilter attribute can be used in the descriptor file when creating custom refactoring operations to specify a default resources filter by using a file pattern or list of file patterns separated by a comma (e.g. filesFilter="*.dita, *.xml" will select only the files with either .dita or .xml extensions).

File Comparison
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* A new Merge Documents with Change Tracking Highlights action is available in the Tools menu. It can be used to merge two XML files (based on a 2-way mode comparison). All the files involved in the process are merged by saving the visual comparison results as a separate document with highlighted tracked changes that can later be reviewed and accepted or rejected.

* A new Merge Directories with Change Tracking Highlights action is available in the Tools menu. It can be used to merge two directories (based on a 2-way mode comparison). All pairs of modified XML files involved in the process are merged by saving the visual comparison results as documents with highlighted tracked changes that can later be reviewed, with the option to accept or reject these changes.

* The file comparison tool has a new action in the File menu called Save Comparison as Document with Tracked Changes. This action allows you to merge two compared documents based on the differences detected and save the results as a specified file that includes the special change tracking marks. You can load the resulting file in Oxygen's Author mode so you can conveniently accept or reject the changes, ensuring accurate and efficient collaboration on your documents.

Oxygen AI Positron Assistant
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One of the most anticipated and innovative additions in Oxygen 26 is the Oxygen AI Positron Assistant, an add-on that provides a powerful tool to help writers use AI-generated content to enhance their overall productivity while keeping them in full control of the changes made to the documents, allowing them to see exactly what is modified using the powerful visual XML-aware diff comparison tool provided by Oxygen.

Users benefit from a set of fine-tuned predefined actions that enable them to:
Â* Generate content such as DITA topics, document fragments, short descriptions, and index terms.
Â* Improve existing content in terms of grammar, readability, and the use of active voice.
Â* Get various insights to understand how readable the content is and how it responds to questions.
Â* Translate to various languages while preserving the XML structure.
Â* Write better marketing messages with support for generating press releases, marketing posts, or applying marketing frameworks.

Users can define their own custom AI actions or favorite prompts and easily share them with other project members.

Oxygen AI Positron Assistant offers intelligent support to help resolve document validation problems with an innovative variant of a quick-fix called AI-fix that asks the AI engine to find a solution for a validation problem and applies its suggestion.

For complex and repetitive tasks that the AI may not be able to accurately complete without assistance, it is possible to record a set of instructions for the AI to follow and the final result can be saved as a custom AI action or as a favorite prompt.

Furthermore, the AI functionality is made available via two XPath AI functions that enable the use of AI from any language that uses XPath expressions such as XSLT, XQuery, and Schematron. For example, it is possible to create XSLT-based XML refactoring actions that can batch process multiple documents, applying AI functionality on them, or to define Schematron Quick-Fixes that utilize the AI functions.

Git Client Add-on Updates
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* Various improvements were made to the Git Client add-on:
Â- Large File Support (LFS) is now integrated. This means that if you have installed LFS and specified which extensions represent large or binary files that should be uploaded through LFS, they will be automatically detected and handled correctly.
Â- When you clone a repository, the Git Client automatically detects and opens Oxygen project files. This feature simplifies the process of working with Oxygen projects that are stored in a Git repository.
Â- The project detection mechanism was improved when opening a new repository in the Staging view.
Â- When checking out a branch, submodules in parent repositories are now checked out at the index defined in the parent repository. This ensures that the submodules reflect the actual state of the parent repository at that time.
Â- The integrated JGit library was upgraded to version 6.7.
Â- Various messages in the user interface were improved.
Â- Various bug fixes were implemented. For example, an issue was fixed where untracked files were not being restored from a stash.


This short video highlights the most important additions to Oxygen XML Editor version 26: https://youtu.be/fWvqYpGtJmw

For the complete list of features, go to https://www.oxygenxml.com/xml_editor/whats_new.html

We hope you will enjoy Oxygen 26 as much as we enjoyed developing it.
As always, thank you for your support and feedback is welcome!

Best regards,
Alin

-- 
Alin Belu
Oxygen XML Editor