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Unprecedented XML and XSL features.
By building on a variety of existing technologies, AG101 can deliver advanced features
with proven reliability.
Foremost in its ancestory is Pollo (see pollo.sourceforge.net)
by Bruno Dumon which is responsible for AG101's user interface and XML editing capabilities.
AG101 also relies on Apache's Xalan (see xml.apache.org/xalan-j/index.html)
and Sun's Multi-Schema Validator
(see /wwws.sun.com/software/xml/developers/multischema/)
technologies.
XML Editing - AG101 has a whole range of XML editing features.
It has a number of built-in capabilities, including the ability to edit Ant, Cocoon and XML Schema files.
Also, it can edit files of a number of schema types - including DTD, XML Schema, Relax and TREX.
And, it can edit files without any schema as long as it is well-formed.
XSL Editing, Execution and Debugging - AG101 prompts for the allowed programming elements
in the current context and then shows the associated attributes for that element.
This greatly increases productivity, especially during the early part of the learning curve.
One of the big advantages of GUI development is that it can bring order to what can be very
confusing source code - levels can be collapsed or expanded as needed.
Execution of the XSL script happens within the AG101 context - meaning the VM is already loaded.
This makes the coupling between editing and execution very tight.
The most extraordinary thing about AG101 is that it includes a visual XSL debugger.
The developer can click on any source code node and execution will suspend when it reaches that point.
A separate XML document panel will show the trace stack up to that point.
Every step displays the current input source node.
Templates will display the passed parameters and their values, and select elements (apply-templates, for-each, etc.)
will show the contents of their selection.
Variables and their values show within their scope.
Clicking on any stack step will highlight the corresponding element in the source document.
Regular Expressions - AG101 comes with extensions interfacing to the ORO regular expression libraries.
It also has a simple XML-based "meta language" for defining flat file conversions to XML format.
Pipes - AG101 includes the ability to define sequences of XSL scripts that execute in a pipeline mode.
Customization - AG101 has several levels of customization.
A "plugin" can be defined for any document type. These plugins can call special actions or popup a specialized
dialog box.
It is also possible to create specialized attribute editor panels and have them displayed instead of the
standard one with certain schema data types or specific elements are encountered.
A file lookup panel is one useful example of this capability.
The availability of the source code and its open license means that the possibilities for customization are wide open.
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