About DocFlex/XML

1. Overview
2. Key Features
3. Technical Requirements
4. Editions
   • Full Edition
   • DocFlex/XML (Kit)

1.  Overview

This tool allows you to visually design the automatic generation of professional quality reports and documentation by the data obtained from your XML files. The output documents can be generated in RTF and HTML formats. The HTML can be both single-file and multi-framed documentation. The TXT (plain text) output is supported as well, which enables you to use this tool also for various XML file transformations.

Such a generation is programmed using templates, which function a lot the same as the full-blown scripting-language programs (such as XSLT scripts, for instance). However, the advantage of the template approach offered by the DocFlex Technology is that it requires very few coding of anything manually and allows designing your templates in WYSIWYG form in the terms of things you would expect to see in your output documents rather than on the level of abstract language operators. (See Creating a Sample Template flash tutorial for that matter.)

The templates are visually designed basing on the information obtained from DTD or XSD (W3C XML Schema) files mostly by using mouse and specifying properties in Template Designer dialogs. The data type information (i.e. XML elements and attributes) appears in various treeviews which are used to program the data processing in the templates.

The formatting of the generated documents is programmed by specifying formatting properties of template components (some of which can be changed simply by dragging mouse in the designer pane). Many of such properties are graphically visualized by the Template Designer.

The output generator can be both launched from the command line and invoked directly from the Template Designer's main menu which allows you to immediately see the result produced by your templates yet during designing them (no compilation or running any stand-alone interpreter are required).

2.  Key Features

• The high quality graphic Template Designer
• The templates are designed basing on the data type information obtained from DTD or XSD (W3C XML Schema) files.
• Data processing
  • Generating reports/documentation by the data obtained from XML files.
  • The ability to open and process multiple XML file and process all of them at once as a single virtual XML document.
  • A single report may contain data from multiple XML files with different structure.
  • Full support for XML namespaces.
  • Sophisticated capabilities for data querying and sorting based on an extension of XPath.
  • The ability to traverse XML documents with a network structure (using IDREF/IDREFS attributes)
• Inserting images
  • statically specified in templates
  • dynamically, obtained directly from XML documents (base64- or hex-encoded) or from arbitrary files, URLs or Java resources
  • supported image formats: GIF, PNG, JPG, WMF, BMP
• Creating hyperlinks
  • generation of an extensive network of hyperlinks interconnecting the whole documentation
  • possibility to download several frame windows from a single hyperlink at once
• Output formats
  • HTML (both plain and multi-framed)
  • RTF
  • TXT (plain text)
• Universal support for various formatting techniques
  • text formatting: fonts, colors, borders
  • paragraph formatting: margins, pagination control, borders, colors
  • border formatting: styles (solid, double, dashed, dotted), thickness, colors
  • tables: arbitrary cell layouts, borders, nested tables
  • lists: bulleted, numbered, delimited
  • document fields (RTF): page number, number of pages, TOC, etc.
  • page formatting: size, orientation, margins, headers/footers
  • formatting styles
  • rendering of embedded HTML, which means interpreting in non-HTML output formats (such as RTF) the HTML tags embedded in text data (e.g. documentation comments). Almost all HTML tags practically usable in doc-comments are supported.
• Project development
  • The possibility to call templates from one another.
  • The elaborated support of template parameters.
  • Both features enable you to reuse the same templates for different tasks as well as organize template libraries, which may help you to shorten the project development time and simplify its further updates and maintenance.
  • The open Java API which allows launching the DocFlex generator directly from your Java code, pass template parameters as well as to extend your templates with custom written Java classes. (coming soon)

3.  Technical Requirements

DocFlex/XML is a pure Java application. The Template Designer GUI is implemented entirely using Swing. Therefore, everything is supposed to work on any operating system where Java2 Runtime Environment can be installed.

Specifically, the DocFlex/XML software (all editions) available for downloads includes MS Windows BAT files and Linux shell script files that allow running DocFlex/XML on those operating systems immediately after installing it. For more details, see product README files on downloads page.

To parse XML files, DTDs and XML Schemas, DocFlex/XML uses Apache Xerces2 Java Parser version 2.9.0, whose binaries are included in the DocFlex/XML downloads. In the case of any questions concerning this library, please refer to the Apache Xerces home page: http://xerces.apache.org.

Note:

Certain heavy template applications (e.g. XSDDoc) may require considerable computational resources. To run them, you may need a powerful enough computer (e.g. with Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon processor) and at least 512 MB RAM memory.

4.  Editions

1. DocFlex/XML - Full Edition
2. DocFlex/XML (Kit) - Reduced Edition

Full Edition

1. The graphic Template Designer, which will allow you to visually design your own sophisticated documentation/report generators (by any data stored in XML files) implemented in the form of template application as well as to modify any existing ones.
2. The template interpreter / output generator, using which you can execute any template application and generated the high quality output documentation in framed multi-file HTML, single-file HTML and RTF output formats (as well as plain text files, which you can use to transform your XML data into other representations).
3. XMLDoc (“XML File Documentor”) template application that will allow you to compile any number of generic XML files into a nice looking web-ready HTML or printable RTF documentation with the optional inclusion of the namespace binding report (that shows which namespace prefixes are bound to which namRespace URIs and where).
4. XSDDoc (“XML Schema Documentation Generator”) template application, which implements a professional quality W3C XML Schema Documentation Generator able to produce both multi-framed Javadoc-like HTML and printable RTF documentation.

   Note:

   This is a commercial template application that requires separate licensing. For more details, please see Licensing / Pricing | Licensing of Templates | Commercial Template Applications.

The Limited Mode is covered by the Limited Free License. It is activated by default when no other licenses have been found. This mode allows you:

• To run the Template Designer in demo mode. You will be able to investigate any functionality, however, unable to save any your created/modified templates.
• To run XMLDoc without limitations.
• To run XSDDoc (XML Schema Documentation Generator) in limited mode.

  Note:

  If you have a license for “XSDDoc” template application, you will be able to run it also in full mode even without a special license for DocFlex/XML itself.

• To use HTML output generator without limitations.
• To use RTF output generator, however, with some features disabled.

• To use the Template Designer without limitation to created/modified templates.
• To execute custom templates created/modified under Commercial, Academic or Trial Licenses.
• To run XMLDoc without limitations.
• To run XSDDoc (XML Schema Documentation Generator) in limited mode (with some features disabled).

  Note:

  To use XSDDoc without limitations, a separate license for it is required.

• To use all output format generators (HTML, RTF, TXT) without limitations.

• You may use DocFlex/XML working in trial mode only during the limited period of time (30 days) provided by your Trial License.
• Any output documents generated in trial mode will contain special trial markers. Such documents may be used only for evaluation of this software. Any other usage is prohibited!
• Any templates created or modified (the last time) in trial mode will not work with DocFlex/XML (Kit). However, you may continue to use or modify such templates once you have installed a Commercial or Academic License for the full edition.

DocFlex/XML (Kit)

1. The template interpreter / output generator, using which you can execute the template applications included in this software as well as any custom templates created (or modified the last time) under a Commercial License.
2. XMLDoc (“XML File Documentor”) template application that will allow you to compile any number of generic XML files into a nice looking web-ready HTML or printable RTF documentation with the optional inclusion of the namespace binding report (that shows which namespace prefixes are bound to which namespace URIs and where).
3. XSDDoc (“XML Schema Documentation Generator”) template application, which implements a professional quality W3C XML Schema Documentation Generator able to produce both multi-framed Javadoc-like HTML and printable RTF documentation.

   Note:

   This is a commercial template application that requires separate licensing. For more details, please see Licensing / Pricing | Licensing of Templates | Commercial Template Applications.

The Limited Mode is covered by the Limited Free License. It is activated by default when no other licenses have been found. This mode allows you:

• To run XMLDoc without limitations.
• To run XSDDoc (XML Schema Documentation Generator) in limited mode.

  Note:

  If you have a license for “XSDDoc” template application, you will be able to run it also in full mode even without a special license for DocFlex/XML (Kit) itself.

• To use HTML output generator without limitations.
• To use RTF output generator, however, with some features disabled.

• To execute custom templates created/modified only under a Commercial License (for the full edition).
• To run XMLDoc without limitations.
• To run XSDDoc (XML Schema Documentation Generator) in limited mode (with some features disabled).

  Note:

  To use XSDDoc without limitations, a separate license for it is required.

• To use all output format generators (HTML, RTF, TXT) without limitations.

• You may use DocFlex/XML (Kit) working in trial mode only during the limited period of time (15 days) provided by your Trial License.
• Any output documents generated in trial mode will contain special trial markers. Such documents may be used only for evaluation of this software. Any other usage is prohibited!