XMetaL 4

asp:review

XMetaL 4

By Michael Riley

If you recall my review of the previous release of XMetaLyou'll note that I am a bit more upbeat about Corel's newest release of theproduct. Although not every deficiency has been addressed in this fourthversion, it comes closer to appealing both to the user and developer audiences.Recognizing that both populations are unique in their daily execution of theproduct, XMetaL 4 is decoupled into Author, ActiveX, Developer, and theserver-based XMetaL Central components. The Developer edition includes allthese pieces as well as ActiveX, Java, and Visual Studio .NET examples.

XMetaL Author is the prominent business-user front-endeditor that retains its interface from the previous release. Shortcomings inthe older version, such as lack of XML Schema support, thankfully have beenrectified in the Author version. Other incremental improvements including easymacro recording, improved CALS and HTML table editing, CSS editing views, XSLediting, full Unicode support, and WebDAV support also have been integratedinto the product. Like previous versions, Author emulates Microsoft Word in itsunobtrusive and straightforward approach to collecting and formatting userdata. The package includes support for revision marks, color coding,highlighting, font manipulation, tag aliasing (which is the ability totranslate or expand element names within the same language and is useful for multilanguagedocument and schema constructions), spellchecking, and a thesaurus that useseither Word or Corel's WordPerfect keyboard and menu conventions.

XMetaL Developer is the IDE portion of the product thatuses COM and Java connectors to help customize and integrate Author intosophisticated Content Management Systems (CMS) back ends such as Documentum andInterwoven. Developer includes the ActiveX components that extend Author'sfeature set into legacy COM languages as well as bridge into Visual Studio.NET's environment via project templates. These templates actually run asCSS-enabled forms within the VS .NET IDE and can provide additionalschema-specific customization of document elements via Developer'sCustomization dialog box.

One minor annoyance with any externally instantiatedapplication using Author's ActiveX controls is an OLE automation-like holdoverfrom the past: Author launches by default and remains visible whenever itsActiveX objects are created, often adding additional clutter and confusion onthe desktop. Naturally, this means you can't deploy custom solutions withoutensuring a fully installed licensed copy of Author is running on the client'ssystem. What makes up for this detraction is the fact that the controls exposemore than 300 interfaces to Author's library of functions, giving considerableflexibility to most developers' custom solutions. The COM objects also havebeen designed to support the Windows Scripting Host (WSH) for rapid prototypingor scripted macro-building needs. And because Developer provides hooks into theVS .NET environment, you can debug these scripts easily within the .NET IDE.

To help complete the XML integration puzzle, Corel alsoseparately offers XMetaL Central. Central is an XML server-side manager thatfacilitates the deployment, maintenance, and version control ofXMetaL-customized applications using SOAP as the primary distribution protocol.The manager is exposed via a browser-based console that exposes functionalitybased on user authentication levels (administrator and/or developerprivileges), and it provides author rights for document and package assets.Packages can contain program preferences, macros, DTDs, schemas, and otherfiles, and you can create, modify, or delete it easily. Thus, if the XMetaLDeveloper product is adopted aggressively in an enterprise scenario, Central ispractically a shoo-in; Central is to Developer what Visual SourceSafe is toVisual Studio.

Although Corel certainly has stepped up to the plate inthe game for XML document management supremacy within the corporate arena, itarrives at a time when Microsoft's own interpretation might quickly squelch thestatic electricity Corel is hoping to generate. XML-native features such asInfoPath in the next version of Office coupled with Sharepoint potentiallycould match and, in some instances, exceed what Corel's approach offers. Andbecause XMetaL 4 Developer is still a Windows-native application, it falters onwhat could have been an advantage in the battle for XML structured documentsupremacy in the corporate environment. With that caveat, I recommend Corel'scurrent version to those developers seeking a proven, relatively stableincumbent that either must make a decision today or have migrated already toCorel's  previous XMetaL product(formerly by SoftQuad). For those who still have a few more months to debate, Irecommend waiting for Microsoft's next release of Office Developer to see ifit's worth upgrading your user base to Microsoft's interpretation of the XMLdocument world.

Rating:

Price: US$999

http://www.corel.com/xmetal