2004.11_Xml in Kde with Kxml Editor.pdf

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KTools

XML on KDE

Since it was first introduced, Extensible Markup Language (XML) has been

acclaimed as a revolution in the IT landscape. Visionaries even predicted the

end of HTML and conventional web design. Some of the hype has subsided, but

XML is stronger than ever. XML is not only for web design; it is also an impor-

tant format for sharing data between applications. This article shows how to

create and edit XML files using KDE’s KXML Editor.

BY STEPHAN LAMPRECHT

(kxmleditor), which is included in the

KDE tool set.

tools, and as the name suggests, it is

designed for the KDE desktop environ-

ment.

KXML offers many useful options but

the following features receive special

notice on the KXML home page:

•drag and drop editing and clipboard

support;

• DOM Level 2 Qt library parser;

•KParts technology support;

• DCOP technology support. support;

• support for editing KOffice compressed

files.

If your distribution does not include

KXML Editor, the current version is avail-

able at [4].

format for exchanging data.

Linux users access XML files

every day to complete their daily work.

OpenOffice, for instance, uses XML to

store information. KDE help also uses

XML. Even a program like TuxCards [2],

the Linux cue card application, uses the

XML file format. And XML is also used

as an extensible markup language for

web design. Despite XML’s affinity for

automation, you may occasionally have

to take the old-fashioned approach of

editing an XML file line by line with a

text-based editor. Of course, you can

always fire up vi, but an editor designed

especially for XML offers many advan-

tages over an ordinary text editor. This

article examines the KXML Editor tool

Do You Speak XML?

This article does not offer enough room

for a full discussion of the XML format,

so I’ll assume you have some familiarity

with XML. (In case you’re interested,

you’ll find more on XML at [3].) The

important thing to remember is that an

XML file is hierarchical, and an editing

tool that represents the relationships

among the elements in the file helps the

user manage the complexity of this

structured data.

To create or edit an XML file, all you

really need is a simple editor, however, it

is extremely difficult to read large, nested

documents using an ordinary text editing

tool. It makes far more sense to use spe-

cial tools. KXML Editor is one of these

Creating the Basic Structure

When first launched, KXML Editor

comes up with a well-organized work-

space (Figure 1). The first thing you need

to do is select File /

Ve rsion&Encoding to

define the basic char-

acteristics of the file.

Specify the XML ver-

sion and character set

in the dialog that then

appears.

The next step is to

start adding XML ele-

ments to the XML file.

You can select:

Insert / Element

to add an element. In

the dialog box that

appears (Figure 2),

KTools

In this column we present tools, month by

month, which have proven to be especially

useful when working under KDE, solve a

problem which otherwise is deliberately

ignored, or are just some of the nicer things

in life, which – once discovered – you would

not want to do without.

Figure 1: The KXML workspace. Your view of the workspace may vary

depending on which version of KXML Editor you are using.

November 2004

www.linux-magazine.com

Creating XML files with KDE’s KXML Editor

X ML [1] is a simple and powerful

KTools

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ating multiple elements at the

same level in your structure,

you can copy the elements. To

copy an element, click the ele-

ment with your mouse, press

[Ctrl-C] to copy the element to

the clipboard, and then [Ctrl-

V] to insert the element at the

new location where you

would like to place the copy.

If an element called <pho-

nenumber> has an attribute

called type , you can define the attribute

by first selecting an element, then choos-

ing Insert / Attribute in the menu to open

the input windows. Type a name for the

attribute in the Qualified Name

line, and then add a Value>

(Figure 3).

Yo u n o w have an empty struc-

ture but not a document. To

create a document, you need to

add content to the elements you

have defined. To do so, select an

element and then select Insert /

Te x t or Insert / CData in the

menu. The elements in a XML

file are all parsed, with the exception of

elements tagged as CData .

Figure 2: The Insert Element dialog box.

Well-Formed Documents

The KXML Editor makes it easy to create

so-called well-formed XML documents

by making sure you keep to the XML lan-

guage rules. There is no need to pay

attention to the positioning of individual

characters. This said, the software has

no way of ensuring that a document will

be recognized as valid by an XML parser.

The parser needs the Document Type

Definition (DTD) to be able to do this.

Check out [3] for a HOWTO and help on

creating definition files.

you could then type addresses for Local

Name , for example. Click on OK to add

the element to the file.

To add a sub-element to an existing

element, first select the element in the

tree view on the left side of the screen.

Then either right click the element to

drop down the context menu and select

Element , or use the Insert / Element

menu item. Both approaches open the

same dialog. You can then assign a Local

Name to the element and specify its posi-

tion in the tree.

You can repeat this procedure to build

up a document structure. If you are cre-

■

Figure 3: Each element can have attributes. The attributes

are defined in this dialog.

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