August 2006 - Posts

• Go To XML Schema Definition

  The XML Editor in SharpDevelop 2.1 now has Go To XML Schema Definition support. Open an XML document that uses a schema into SharpDevelop, move the cursor to the element or attribute, then either right click and select the menu option Goto Definition or press Ctrl+Enter. The schema will then be opened and the cursor will be positioned on the matching element or attribute definition. Features Go to element definition. Go to attribute definition. Go to attribute, element, attribute group and group references. Go to referenced simple type, complex type. Go To Element Definition Move the cursor so it is on the element name inside its starting tag. Right click and select Goto Definition or press Ctrl+Enter. The schema will then be opened and the cursor moved to the element definition. Go To Attribute Definition Move the cursor so it is inside or next to an attribute. Go to definition takes you to the attribute definition. Go To Element Reference Inside the schema itself, move the cursor inside the ref attribute's value. Go to definition takes you to the referenced element. Similarly you can click inside the ref attribute value for the elements xs:group, xs:attributeGroup, and xs:attribute, and go to their corresponding definitions. Go To Element Type Inside the schema, move the cursor inside the type attribute's value. Go to definition takes you to the corresponding complex type. Go To Attribute Type Inside the schema again, move the cursor inside the type attribute's value. Go to definition takes you to the type definition. Navigating Back and Forward Used in conjunction with the new Navigate Back and Navigate Forward toolbar buttons, added by David Alpert, you can quickly jump back and forth around the schema. Limitations It only works with schemas that SharpDevelop is aware of. These can configured by selecting Options from the Tools menu, then selecting the Text Editor category and then XML Schemas. SharpDevelop does not currently pick up any changes made to a schema without being restarted. Posted Aug 09 2006, 09:14 PM by MattWard with 4 comment(s) Filed under: XmlEditor

• XPath Queries

  SharpDevelop 2.1 now has an XPath Query window where you can run an XPath query on the active XML document and the matched nodes will be highlighted. Features Shows a list of XML nodes matched by the XPath query. Highlights the matched XML nodes in the XML Editor. Namespaces supported. Running an XPath Query Open an XML document in SharpDevelop. For this walkthrough I am going to use the following WiX document. <?xml version="1.0"?> <Wix xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2003/01/wi"> <Product Id="21BF5D59-D3AD-46FC-97B2-A3DD23A5BE20" Name="Your Application" Language="1033" Version="1.0.0.0" Manufacturer="Your Company"> <Package Id="8874187C-94B0-4DB4-9B73-E4D635680BA3" Description="#Description" Comments="Comments" InstallerVersion="200" Compressed="yes"/> <Property Id="AcceptLicense">No</Property> <Property Id="Button_Back">&lt; &amp;Back</Property> <Property Id="Button_Next">&amp;Next &gt;</Property> <Property Id="Button_Finish">&amp;Finish</Property> <Property Id="Button_OK">OK</Property> <Property Id="Button_Cancel">Cancel</Property> <Property Id="Button_Exit">&amp;Exit</Property> </Product> </Wix> From the View menu, select Tools and then select XPath Query. This opens the XPath Query window. If your XML document has any namespaces that you need to refer to in the XPath query you can add them to the Namespaces tab. In the image below the WiX namespace has been entered along with a prefix. The prefix cannot be an empty string even for an XML document that does not use explicitly use a namespace prefix (e.g. like the WiX document we are currently using). Type in your query into the XPath text box and then either click the Query button or press the return key to execute the query and show the results. The results are displayed as a list in the XPath Query window and the corresponding nodes in the XML document are highlighted. Double clicking a row in the Results list will jump to the corresponding XML line and sets focus back to the XML Editor. Single clicking a row will cause the XML Editor to scroll to the matched node. If the XPath you typed in has an error this information is displayed in the Results list when you try to execute the query. Any errors in the XML document are also displayed in the Results list when you attempt to execute the query. To remove the highlighting in the XML document, right click the document and select Hide XPath Results. Visual Studio If you want to do same thing in Visual Studio 2005 then take a look at XPathmania created by Don Demsak. Posted Aug 05 2006, 02:44 PM by MattWard with 13 comment(s) Filed under: XmlEditor