CS190 Requirements Document
Colin Hartnett


PROJECT TITLE

XIDE: XML Integrated Development Environment


BACKGROUND

There exist many integrated development environments for common program
languages that make large projects with many interdependent files easy to
manage. Currently, there is no full-featured noncommericial Linux IDE for
XML (Extensible Markup Language). Many specialized XML text editors exist,
but there is no editor that incorporates file editing, project management,
and testing features.


USERS

XIDE is useful for any developers working with large, interconnected
XML-based projects.


BASIC DESCRIPTION

XIDE will provide a multiwindowed environment in which to edit XML documents
and  XML DTDs. There will be a graphical representation of the active
document's tree, a project management feature that provides a means to group
XML documents together, a console for executing XPath (addressing) commands,
and a means of applying XSLT transformations and quickly viewing the results.
XML documents could be validated inline against a DTD, XML Schema, or RELAX
document.


REQUIREMENTS

* indicates essential
+ indicates important, but not essential
- indicates low priority

Text editor
* Basic syntax highlighting
* Smart indenting
* Auto tag completion (user can disable)
+ Unlimited undo
+ Advanced syntax highlighting based on active DTD or XML Schema
+ User-definable macros for tag insertion
- Unicode support

Project management
* Group multiple files together into a project
* Saveable project files (in XML format)
* Display files sorted by:
  name
  DTD/Schema
  default root namespace
  actual file structure
  date modified

GUI
* "Unlimited" open files
* More than one document visible on the same screen
* Collapsable representation of projects
+ Collapsable representation of the active document's parse tree
+ Lists of elements and entities from the current DTD
  - Grey out elements that are not permissible at the current cursor position
  - Visually indicate required elements at current cursor position
  - If cursor is inside element tag, list element's attributes
    - Visually indicate required attributes
    - Indicate content permissible in attributes
+ Window giving information on the current element including:
  name
  datatype
  enum values
  occurence (required/implied/optional)
  annotation
- Support for easily specifying DTD/Schemas (Wizard-like)
- Automatically generate a DTD from the current document

Testing
* Console to execute XPath
  * XML representation of results
  + Graphical, collapsable tree representation
* XSLT transformations
* DTD validation
+ XML Schema validation
- RELAX validation
- Realtime validation (i.e., some sort of indicator that shows whether the
  current document is or is not validated at all times)
  - Should only attempt to validate when document is well-formed
  - Error right away when an invalid element, entity, or attribute is entered
- Step-by-step XSLT debugging