I want to browse and edit some XML tagged content: the jQuery API documentation, a 170KB XML file. I’m not interested here in XML language features. I just want to access the content in a tree / grid view and be able to edit it without much effort.
I wandered around the Internet looking for alternatives, and here are my findings.
EditPlus 2.20
I use to use EditPlus for editing text files, because it loads fast and although it is a basic script editor it has syntax coloring and many interesting features, like search and replace using regular expressions.
I found: shareware (30 USD); no entities rendering; newlines preserved; no pretty format; editing an element’s attributes and content is basic; no tree view; no grid view.
Microsoft Word 2003
This was just a try I gave to my preferred doc editor. I recently discovered that the HTML output is now considerably better than it was before, with a perfect rendering in Internet Explorer. So I thought that maybe I could find what I was after.
I found: shopware (229 USD); entities rendering; newlines not preserved; cristal clear pretty format (boxed tags); editing an element’s attributes is not practical (via a modal dialog box via the contextual menu); editing an element’s content is very easy; element’s block doesn’t collapse; no tree view; no grid view; structure protected.
Peter’s XML Editor
This is a free piece of software, with some of the features I need, just a bit old-looking.
I found: freeware; entities rendering (only in tree view); newlines preserved (in source and tree view); very good pretty format (bold tags); element’s block doesn’t collapse; tree view available (not related to source view); no children count; presentation of attributes and content is almost practical (both pairs the tree structure, but content is not shown until a text leaf is reached); editing an element’s attributes is not practical (via a modal dialog box via a double-click, within a fixed size layout); editing an element’s content is not practical (via a modal dialog box via a double click, but in an expandable layout); dialog boxes open slower for elements at the end of the tree; no grid view; drag and drop in the tree view is a buggy feature.
EditiX 5.0
This is a professional looking shareware, with many many features, and a 30 days trial period.
I found: shareware (39 USD for home users); no entities rendering; newlines preserved; good pretty format (contextually highlighted tags); element’s block doesn’t collapse; tree view available (related to source view); children count; presentation of content limited to source view; editing an element’s attributes and content is practical; no grid view; drag and drop in the tree view is available (but something weird can happen, for example a move needs to be undone twice).
Aptana
This is a beautiful sofware for developing Javascript programs, highly configurable.
I found: opensource; no entities rendering; newlines preserved; no pretty format; element’s block collapses; tree view available (related to source view, but not from it); no children count; presentation of attributes and content limited to source view; editing an element’s attributes and content is practical; no grid view; no drag and drop in the tree view; Lexeme tooltip very annoying (cannot be disabled).
Altova XMLSpy
This is the new XMLSpy Editor, features packed, free to home users.
I found: shopware (399 EUR) / free to home users (licensing via register and activate); no entities rendering; newlines preserved; pretty format available; element’s block doesn’t collapse; no tree view; grid view available (related to source view; not available to home users); children count available; presentation of attributes and content is almost practical (at each level, children are rows of a grid and their attributes and contents are columns); shape of cells is almost practical (can be adapted via a button, but it’s reset to default fixed size when changing view); editing an element’s attributes and content is practical (via a double-click, within an expandable cell); drag and drop in the grid view is available.
Microsoft XML Notepad 2006
The best for what I was after. Free, fast, functional.
I found: freeware; entities rendering; newlines preserved; no source view; tree view available; no children count (what a pity!); presentation of attributes and content is very practical (both pairs the tree structure, and content is shown a step before a text leaf is reached); editing an element’s attributes and content is very practical (via a single-click if selected, within an expandable cell); drag and drop in the tree view is available.