Understanding the XMetaL Workflow
Understanding the XMetaL Workflow
Welcome to the XMetaL online tutorials!
If you are a Web developer already familiar with XML and with Microsoft's Visual Studio .NET, this is the place to start to get acquainted with the XMetaL Integrated Development Environment (IDE) architecture and workflow.
In this introductory lesson, you'll learn all about the components of the XMetaL solution and how they fit together to create a development environment in which you can become immediately productive with XML.
This lesson will take 15 minutes to complete.
The XMetaL Solution
The XMetaL product solution consists of four products:
XMetaL Developer: An XML solution development application and scripting environment.
XMetaL Author: An XML file editor, content creation environment, and data entry tool.
XMetaL - Central: A management system for the storage and distribution of project files and objects.
XMetaL for ActiveX: An ActiveX control for editing XML files.
We'll discuss each of these components in turn over the following pages.
XMetaL Developer
If you are an XML developer using XMetaL products, you will work most frequently within XMetaL Developer. Your tasks will typically include creating scripts that support XML solutions, creating forms with the XMetaL Forms Toolkit, and managing and updating project files.
XMetaL Developer is a Visual Studio .NET component, running within the VS .NET shell, and uses many of the VS .NET functions and interface elements you are already familiar with. XMetaL supports XML Schema, COM, DOM, Java API, and standard scripting languages.
The XMetaL environment is fully integrated with content infrastructure, including leading CMS integration modules and any ODBC data source.
As a developer, you will use XMetaL to create "customizations". An XMetaL customization is an instance of what Visual Studio .NET calls a "Solution". Customizations are containers for projects, project files, and project-independent files saved in the Solution Items folder within Visual Studio .NET.
You can use the VS .NET Solution Explorer to manage XMetaL projects and "objects". An XMetaL object is what Visual Studio .NET calls a project "item". XMetaL objects are project assets such as DTD files, CSS files, and macro files.
Remember: XMetaL Developer is an environment for creating "customizations", which are containers for projects and their objects.
In later lessons, we'll walk you through creating an XMetaL customization from scratch, and modifying or updating existing customizations.
XMetaL Author
XMetaL Author is a stand-alone content development application and XML editor that looks and works much like a word processor.
But don't let the simplicity fool you! XMetaL Author contains powerful built-in structuring and validation features that allow content developers to concentrate on what they're best at - writing content - and at the same time transparently create valid XML documents, with no prior knowledge of XML. XMetaL Author also incorporates the XMetaL writing tools, such as the thesaurus and spellchecker supporting 32 languages.
Author features transparent Unicode-conformant editing and display for all left-to-right languages. Native Unicode support lets business users work with multiple languages in a single document.
XMetaL Author is highly customizable, and as an XMetaL developer, one of your tasks may be to create Author templates and DTDs tailored to specific applications. Developers can also take advantage of Unicode characters in the UI when localizing XMetaL Author interfaces for a broad range of languages.
A well-designed and carefully constructed XMetaL customization will greatly improve the productivity of content developers and ensure valid XML output in even the largest and most demanding implementations across multiple languages. At the same time, it gives you, the XMetaL developer, central control over XML tagging and formatting and the authoring environment.
XMetaL for ActiveX
XMetaL for ActiveX is a system-registered ActiveX control that permits online authoring and editing of XML documents. It allows your business to provide access to XML authoring tools
You can think of XMetaL for ActiveX as a container for XML documents. It provides simple text editing functionality - such as inserting, deleting, and cutting and pasting - through a Web browser or any other ActiveX-compliant Windows application.
With some customization, XMetaL for ActiveX can perform even more complex editing operations, such as inserting and formatting elements. As a developer, you can build user interface elements such as buttons, menus, and toolbars to connect to the XMetaL API. Full support for WebDAV ensures that business users can load, edit, delete, and create files safely in a multi-user environment.
XMetaL for ActiveX must be embedded in an application, called a container application, before use. XMetaL for ActiveX supports XML Schema, DOM, and standard scripting languages.
XMetaL - Central
XMetaL - Central is a centralized system for managing XML customizations.
A typical XMetaL implementation will have several or even hundreds of content developers working remotely in XMetaL Author. The XML files they create are stored in XMetaL - Central repositories on their local machines.
An XMetaL - Central Agent application on each client computer communicates with the XMetaL - Central server, and synchronizes the local client to the latest project files and assets created by the development team.
XMetaL Central allows the development team to collect XML files from distributed authors and store and process them in a central location. It also allows the developers to control scripts, DTDs, CSS files, and other XMetaL objects from a single source, to create a unified content creation environment with a common look and feel.
Administrators and developers can work with XMetaL - Central through a web-based Console accessible through an ordinary browser.
The XMetaL - Central system brings together:
  1. A server computer, on which the XMetaL - Central Server and XMetaL - Central Console software has been installed
  2. A database, in which is stored project files and assets, and
  3. Any number of XMetaL - Central client computers, running XMetaL Author and the XMetaL - Central Agent software.
The XMetaL User Environment
There are three types of users who work with XMetaL:
  1. Administrators, who install and maintain the XMetaL - Central system and set up user accounts
  2. Developers, who create customizations and supporting applications using XMetaL Developer and XMetaL for ActiveX, and
  3. Authors, who create XML content or data files with XMetaL Author.
Users are assigned roles and privileges by the Administrator, and can be organized into groups by either Administrators or Developers.
Authors create content or perform data entry. The XML files they create are stored and processed through the XMetaL - Central object management system.
You, the XMetaL developer, are at the heart of the operation. It's your responsibility to create and maintain the structure and framework that supports the entire XML implementation.
To achieve best results and maximum productivity, we suggest you center your work within the XMetaL Developer Integrated Development Environment (IDE). XMetaL offers an integrated workspace with rich features and a fully customizable interface, and the IDE is optimized for rapid integrated debugging.
This could mean you may have to put aside some more familiar tools that by now have become old friends. But give it a try - you might well make some new friends in the process!
Continue with the next lesson: Working with XMetaL Customizations...
Last modified: Thursday, May 20, 2004 12:29:51 PM