Altova recently released the 2004 version of XMLSPY and introduced a new product, MapForce 2004. This new version includes several updates and features that will assist with Web services development while also providing a graphical XML mapping tool for data transformation.

XMLSPY Visual Studio .NET Integration
One of the biggest new features in XMLSPY is an add-on that integrates into Microsoft Visual Studio .NET. This utility provides full XMLSPY functionality within the Visual Studio .NET environment. XML Schemas, XSL Stylesheets, WSDL files, among others, are all fully editable using the familiar XMLSPY tools from within the .NET IDE. Figure 1 shows a screenshot of the WSDL editor from within the Visual Studio .NET IDE.

XML Differencing
A powerful new feature of XMLSPY is the differencing engine. Useful in a wide array of scenarios, the differencing engine extends the concept of file comparison utilities to incorporate awareness of the unique characteristics of XML. For example, namespace prefixes may be changed within XML documents. The XMLSPY differencing engine, when configured to do so, will ignore prefixes. Therefore, two documents with different namespace prefixes representing an instance of the same XML Schema will be shown to match if the other characteristics of the document match.

XMLSPY IDE Enhancements
Several enhancements to the XMLSPY IDE have also been included to help the Web services developer. Use of XPath often factors heavily into Web services development; XMLSPY provides a beta implementation of the W3C’s XPath 2.0 specification based on the May 2003 working draft. When testing XPath statements, the developer may select between the 2.0 beta and 1.0 specifications.

When developing WSDL specifications for Web services, the data passed in and out of the service is often described as an XML Schema. XMLSPY provides a code-generation utility that builds code to manipulate instance documents of XML Schemas. The utility will generate Java code based on JAXP, C++ code based on MSXML4 or Xerces, and C# code. The user interface of XMLSPY has changed slightly to make it easier to navigate between the various views of documents. As seen in Figure 1, below the main document window are buttons that correspond to the five views in which a document may be shown. These document buttons replace the toolbar items in previous versions.

XML Database Support
XMLSPY 2004 provides full support for Microsoft SQL Server XML extensions, Oracle XML DB extensions, and the Tamino Schema extensions for the Tamino Server. Each option adds namespace declarations for the respective server vendors to the XML Schema document currently loaded. Once enabled, additional tabs are visible in the Details Entry helper component of the GUI that includes the available database-specific elements.

MapForce 2004
A new sister product of XMLSPY 2004 is MapForce 2004. MapForce, as the name implies, is a graphical mapping tool for transforming XML documents from one schema definition to another. It provides a graphical interface in which transformations are built using drag-and-drop operations. Once the mapping is complete, MapForce may be used to output an XSL Stylesheet, Java source code, C# source code, or C++ source code that in turn may be used in custom applications to perform data transformation.

Summary
XMLSPY continues to be an excellent tool for the XML and Web services developer. The new features and enhancements of the 2004 version release add to its extensive portfolio of functionality. Complementing the 2004 release is the MapForce product. Its ability to create data transformation logic graphically and produce code in multiple languages is a powerful addition to the Altova product suite.

Company Info
Altova Inc.
900 Cummings Center
Suite 314 T
Beverly, MA 01915-6181
978 816-1600
E-mail: us-sales@altova.com
sales@altova.com

Requirements
Supports Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP, and Server 2003; has been tested successfully on Red Hat Linux 8.0 using Wine 20030115; MacOS X using Virtual PC 6