XMetaL 3

asp:review

XMetaL 3

Create and manage SGML and XML docs.

By Mike Riley

XMetaL 3 is SoftQuad's solution to creating and managingStandard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) and XML documents. Although it'scertainly not a shabby solution in its own right, its expensive per-clientsolution for providing an easy-to-use front end to XML-structured documentssimply doesn't match the extensive capabilities offered by its similarly pricedcompetitors.

Figure 1. Using a word processing interface, XMetaL 3 hides thecomplexity of XML document management from the user.

At its core, XMetaL 3 seems to be designed around thecorrect notion that people prefer to spend their time creating content, not thecontextual tags that surround that content. And because of the success andubiquity of Microsoft Word in the corporate environment, users are familiaralready with Word's paradigm of dealing with electronic documents. Finally,that same corporate space often struggles with standardizing the format ofthese documents, especially in light of the multiple publishing output optionsavailable in today's Internet-enabled world.

Legacy content management systems, including those basedon SGML such as Documentum, need an easier way to flow their content storesinto and out of their systems. XMetaL 3's easy-to-use interface providescontent and rudimentary document structure creators with the ability to authorand manage XML documents without learning the intricate details of W3C XMLfamily acronyms. Unfortunately, it hides these intricacies too well, anddevelopers considering XMetaL 3 for XML applications will find it eitherobtuse, incomplete, or lacking rudimentary features provided by alternativecommercial solutions.

For example, although XMetaL 3 can read XML schema files,its implementation feels bolted on and inflexible. So authors can't effectivelyuse XMetaL 3 to author XML schemas because the program doesn't provide an easyway to work with and export XML schemas, even though these schemas themselvesare made up of XML. Instead of taking the lead in making XML schema documentseasy to create and use, XMetaL 3 instead falls back on the antiquated,cumbersome DTD model instead. The program's DTD tools are a holdover fromprevious versions when the XML schema wasn't even a spark in someone's neuron -the world has changed, and past solutions that don't effortlessly address thesechanges will be left behind.

Another example of poor developer support is XMetaL 3'sinability to create a database from a well formed XML document's contents.Although you can import an ODBC data source into a structured XML document andsave any changes made to that content back into the same database, the lack ofdatabase creation is a painful omission. Perhaps SoftQuad's intention is to havedevelopers create proprietary XMetaL 3 form interfaces to data sources usingXMetaL 3's included Form Layout Tool. These forms, driven by Microsoft'sWindows Scripting Host (WSH) engine, can interpret any language supported byWSH such as Jscript, VBScript, and even PerlScript. The Form Layout Tool hasthe look and feel of Microsoft's VBA Form toolkit and is simple to use. Ofcourse, any form authored using XMetaL 3's Form Layout Tool must have XMetaL 3installed on the client machine to execute. Thus, its inclusion is more likethe forms engine in Microsoft Access by providing developers with the abilityto hide program complexities behind simple form interfaces. SoftQuad once againcould have taken the lead with its Form Layout Tool by providing an option fora direct tap into Microsoft's .NET-oriented Windows Forms. Instead, the programseems to struggle to meet the minimum requirements of XML editing.

One XML technology that XMetaL 3 really could have takenthe lead in was with the creation of eXtensible StyLesheet Transformation(XSLT) documents. Given the program's visual interface and intent to mask XMLdocument creation complexity, no program on the market today has theease-of-use document style editing tools found in good desktop publishingprograms. SoftQuad elected not to weave GUI-based XSLT editing into its visualinterface even though its application is best suited for this type of designactivity. This is a seriously missed marketing opportunity. Without thisfeature, XMetaL 3 is more or less relegated to the status of an expensiveMicrosoft Word-like processor program for XML documents. This interpretation issolidified by the inclusion of a spell checker and thesaurus, features normallyfound in word processing programs. Additionally, document changes can betracked, accepted or rejected by others. XMetaL 3 also supports Web DistributedAuthoring and Versioning (WebDAV), making this workflow feature more accessibleto collaborating teams using the program on the Windows 2000 or higher platform.

Figure 2. XMetaL 3 provides a Form Layout Tool for developers seeking tosimplify interfaces to XML documents even further.

More problems persist. The visual XML tag view, althoughquite helpful when working with small XML documents, bogs down the programsignificantly when working with any XML document larger than 500k. The screenrefresh is painfully slow, particularly when resizing the view window, even ona 1 GHz or faster machine. Advertised new features are unintentionally hiddenor not easily implemented. For example, XMetaL 3's ability to preview XMLdocuments into HTML or PDF documents isn't provided as a one-click menu item onthe View menu. Instead, users must first install Adobe Acrobat Reader, with WebBrowser Integration, Sun Java Runtime Engine, and the Apache Project'sFormatting Object Processor. Following this, you must create an XML-to-PDFmacro manually through a cumbersome setup process. You must expend the sameeffort to implement "Save As PDF" and "Print As PDF" functions. This isn't afeature - it's a chore.

SoftQuad has made efforts to extend its APIs to COM andJava-centric developers. Many facets of the application's DOM traversingabilities are enabled programmatically in its COM automation server and Javalibraries. SoftQuad proudly advertises that its Java libraries do not require aCOM wrapper, but considering that XMetaL 3 is available only for the Windowsplatform, this COM independence seems hardly necessary. And because the programwas written primarily as an end user XML content-processing tool and not adeveloper tool, its shipping templates are tailored for content-rich XMLstructured data. Template libraries for the numerous other XML vocabulariessuch as BizTalk, Mathematical Markup Language (MathML), and Simple ObjectAccess Protocol (SOAP) envelopes are missing, though the program does let youinclude user-authored XML templates into the template gallery. It is alsounable to save edited documents out to any other format besides SGML or XML.Unless you go through the trouble of writing your own macros to export to otherfile formats such as RTF or even plain text (that is, the XML document minusthe XML tags), XMetaL 3 doesn't offer that option.

The program isn't a complete wash. It certainly makesrudimentary, content-rich XML document creation and editing easy, more so thanany other XML editing or word processing program available on the market today,and its macro recording and content manipulation abilities are successfullymodeled after popular word processing software packages. Maybe that's why itsCanadian neighbor Corel Corp. acquired SoftQuad in March 2002. Unless theprogram is re-architected from the ground up to exceed the capabilities of itscompetitors, the guts of XMetaL 3 probably will be absorbed into Corel's officesuite of applications. Thus, for users who prefer WordPerfect over MicrosoftWord or are looking for an easy package to conduit into their legacy SGMLsystems, XMetaL 3 might provide an answer, albeit an expensive one. For therest of us who are dealing with managing the churn of exponential XMLcomplexities programmatically in the corporate computing environment, check outmy review of an alternative XML editing solution (XMLSpy 4.1 Suite)

Mike Rileyis a chief scientist with RR Donnelley, one of North America's largestprinters. He participates in the company's emerging technology strategies usinga wide variety of distributed network technologies. E-mail him at mailto:[email protected].

asp:factfile

XMetaL 3 is best used for small, content-centric, pure XMLfile front-end editing. It should not to be considered for XML applicationdevelopment.

SoftQuad Software

1600Carling Ave.

Ottawa,Ontario

Canada

K1Z 8R7

Phone:(613) 728-8200

E-mail:mailto:[email protected]

Web Site:http://www.softquad.com

Price:US$495

Rating: