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Learn about all the additional capabilities you’ll get by upgrading from an older version to XMLSpy® 2012!

Click on the version you’re using now, then scroll up to see the major new features added in each later release. When you upgrade, you’ll gain immediate access to all this added functionality.

XMLSpy is available in Enterprise and Professional Editions. For a comprehensive list of XMLSpy features, visit the XMLSpy Edition Comparison.

Click your current XMLSpy version in this list, then scroll back up to see what was added in later releases:

• XMLSpy® 2012 (October 19, 2011)
• XMLSpy® 2011 release 3 (June 8, 2011)
• XMLSpy® 2011 release 2 (February 16, 2011)
• XMLSpy® 2011 (September 8, 2010)
• XMLSpy® 2010 release 3 (May 5, 2010)
• XMLSpy® 2010 release 2 (February 16, 2010)
• XMLSpy® 2010 (October 28, 2009)
• XMLSpy® 2009 (February 3, 2009)
• XMLSpy® 2008 release 2 (April 29, 2008)
• XMLSpy® 2008 (September 12, 2007)
• XMLSpy® 2007 release 3 (May 30, 2007)
• XMLSpy® 2007 (October 24, 2006)
• XMLSpy® 2006 release 3 (June 1, 2006)
• XMLSpy® 2006 (October 3, 2005)
• XMLSpy® 2005 (October 3, 2004)
• XMLSpy® 2004 release 4 (May 17, 2004)
• XMLSpy® 2004 release 3 (October 28, 2003)
• XMLSpy® 2004 (September 2, 2003)
• XMLSpy® 5 release 4 (April 7, 2003)
• XMLSpy® 5 release 3 (January 22, 2003)
• XMLSpy® 5 (September 16, 2002)
• XMLSpy® 4.4 (May 29, 2002)
• XMLSpy® 4.3 (February 11, 2002)
• XMLSpy® 4.2 (December 10, 2001)

XMLSpy® 2012 (October 19, 2011)

• HTML5 support    - adds to support for editing HTML4 & XHTML with context sensitive entry helpers, code completion, etc.
• CSS3 support   - editing support for this most recent version of the stylesheet language
• JDBC database driver support    - adds to support for ODBC and ADO
• New Java API   - completely new, native Java API for automating XMLSpy functionality (a COM API is also available)
• New samples for API use   - codes samples showing how to utilize the XMLSpy APIs in your preferred environment
• Find in project   - easily locate files in large or complex XMLSpy Projects

See the What’s New page for a more detailed description of the new features of XMLSpy® 2012 and the latest releases of Altova’s other award-winning development tools!

XMLSpy® 2011 release 3 (June 8, 2011)

• Digital signatures for XML documents   - adds security measures to XML file transmission
• PXF support in Authentic view   - enables truly portable XML forms
• Support for .NET 4.0 scripting    - updates support to include latest .NET version
• Ability to add additional .NET assemblies for scripting   - easily add assemblies in addition to those provided by default
• New spell checker with improved dictionary support   - provides support for more languages & language peculiarities
• Support for Internet Explorer® 9 in Browser View   - support updated to include latest version from Microsoft®
• Shortcut for selecting entire XML element   - ctrl-shift-e

XMLSpy® 2011 release 2 (February 16, 2011)

• Embedding external files in XML    - embed external files, e.g., images, directly in XML documents
• Customizable documentation generation   - customize XSD, WSDL, or XBRL documentation generation via StyleVision templates
• Enhancements to chart creation functionality   - candlestick charts, chart overlays, background images, and more
• Sorting of elements and types in schema view   - sort some or all schema components alphabetically with one click
• Refactoring support for XML Schemas   - easily locate and rename all instances of a global element/type across referenced schemas
• Intelligent support for changing element types and base types   - preserve compatible facets when changing the type of an existing element or base type

XMLSpy® 2011 (September 8, 2010)

• Chart creation   - instant generation of eye-catching charts to display numeric XML data
• Validation of SOAP messages against WSDL files  - validates SOAP messages against SOAP spec, and associated WSDL definition, including referenced XML Schemas
• Schema Flattener   - writes all the dependent files that are included in a schema into one file
• Schema Subset Creation   - creates a smaller schema from a subset of selected elements and types

XMLSpy® 2010 release 3 (May 5, 2010)

• Ability to validate naming and coding conventions   - allows for validation of naming and coding conventions outside of the capabilities of XML Schema
• User-defined sample values for XML instance generation   - enables users to add arbitrary sample data for truly randomized XML instance generation
• Support for Visual Studio 2010  

XMLSpy® 2010 release 2 (February 16, 2010)

• 64-bit version    - for use with 64-bit operating systems
• Optimizations for working with large files     - optimizations for loading very large files in Text View and speed increases for common operations (e.g., paste) in Grid View
• XML Schema-based validation up to 3 times faster in Text View   
• SharePoint® Server support    - allows reading and writing to SharePoint Server with full checkout / undo checkout / check-in capabilities
• HTTPS support for SOAP requests & SOAP debugging   - HTTPS is now supported for SOAP request creation and SOAP debugging
• Support for Linux in generated C++ code   - Autogenerated C++ code may be compiled and run on Linux

XMLSpy® 2010 (October 28, 2009)

• WSDL 2.0 editing and conversion   - allows you to choose which version to work with or even convert from 1.1 to 2.0
• XBRL documentation generation  - autogenerate comprehensive XBRL documentation in HTML, RTF, or Word
• XBRL Taxonomy Wizard  - an easy-to-understand way to get a jump start creating a new extension taxonomy
• Printing graphical XBRL View   - prints the graphical XBRL representation as displayed in XBRL View
• Find in XBRL, XBRL sorting  - helpful tools to locate XBRL elements and organize/navigate large files
• JSON editor    - edit JSON files in Text View or Grid View
• JSON <=> XML conversion    - easily convert between JSON and XML files when building Web 2.0 applications
• New scripting environment and forms editor   - multiple enhancements for creating forms, event handlers, macros, and more
• Compatibility with Windows 7  

XMLSpy® 2009 (February 3, 2009)

• Support for XBRL 2.1 and XBRL Dimensions 1.0   - lets you view, edit, and validate XBRL documents
• XBRL Taxonomy Editor  - allows you to view, extend, and edit XBRL taxonomies in a graphical view with intelligent XBRL taxonomy editing functionality
• XPath auto-completion   - provides valid XPath functions, as well as element and attribute names from the associated schema and XML instance(s) when composing XPath expressions
• Native support for additional databases   - including PostgreSQL 8, SQL Server 2008, Oracle 11g
• Expanded source control system support     - provides enhanced support for a large variety of popular source control and versioning systems
• Extensions for identity constraints editing in Schema View   - provides enhanced visual cues and options for editing identity constraints in XML Schema view
• Support for the XSLT extension altova:evaluate   - new function that takes an XPath expression as its argument and returns the output of the evaluated expression
• Support for Apache FOP 0.95   - for performing XSL:FO transformations

XMLSpy® 2008 release 2 (April 29, 2008)

• Very large file support   - allows you to open and work with files that are about 4-5 times larger than those supported in the past*
• Detailed find & replace in XML Schema editor   - allows you to perform detailed find and replace operations within single schemas and across complex multi-file schemas with ease
• Enhanced XSLT details in Info Window   - for viewing and configuring information such as instance and schema associations, quickly organizing related files into projects and ZIP archives, and more
• New XSL Outline entry helper window   - provides information about templates and functions in XSLT stylesheets that can be searched, navigated, sorted, modified, and more
• Support for Java, C#, JavaScript, and VBScript in XSLT 1.0/2.0 engines   - allows editing, debugging, and profiling of advanced stylesheets that contain these types of program code
• Support for SOAP 1.2 - adds to existing support for SOAP 1.1 in the WSDL editor, SOAP client, and SOAP debugger
• Project generation for Visual Studio 2008 - when generating C++ or C# code
• Visual Studio integration extended to include Visual Studio 2008   - adds to support for previous versions

Best of Connections 2007 Altova XMLSpy received the Best of Connections 2007 award in the Office category. Click here for the full story.

XMLSpy has won many additional awards, compliments, and honors since its inception.

*Reduced memory-consumption of up to 75-80% measured in internal tests at Altova with XML files ranging from 10MB to 200MB in size, comparing XMLSpy 2008r2 with XMLSpy 2008sp1. Your results may differ.

XMLSpy® 2008 (September 12, 2007)

• Support for working with XML in Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 files  – allows users to open PPTX files, edit the data, add new files and folders, remove files, and so on.
• Data editing support in the Database Query window   – now allows users to edit database data inside the window, then commit changes back to the database.
• Support for XPath evaluation in multiple files   – supports calculating the results of XPath expressions across multiple files simultaneously.
• Support for XInclude and XPointer   – allows users to easily build large XML instances from multiple smaller documents.
• Two-step XSL:FO transformation   – allows developers to complete XSL:FO transformations from XML to PDF in two steps, enabling the use of more advanced XSLT engines.
• One-click comment in/out   – allows users to easily add and remove comments using the right-click menu.
• Entry helpers in text and grid views extended to include annotations  
• Speed and memory enhancements  

Best of Microsoft Tech Ed 2007 Altova XMLSpy was named as a winner of the Best of Tech Ed Awards 2007 in the Developer Tools and Technologies category by Penton Media’s Windows IT Pro, SQL Server Magazine and Office and Sharepoint Pro.com. Click here for the full list of winners.

XMLSpy has won numerous awards, honors, and compliments since its inception.

Scroll up to see the major features added in more recent releases.

XMLSpy® 2007 release 3 (May 30, 2007)

• Support for working with XML data in Microsoft Office 2007 files and other zipped archives  – XMLSpy can now extract, edit, and transform XML data saved in the Open XML standard used by Microsoft Office 2007.
• A new database query window   – allowing users to easily connect to all major databases, view the structure of their databases, and query them from within XMLSpy using SQL or SQL/XML.
• Executing XQuery documents against databases (currently IBM DB2)   – allowing users to query XML content in DB2 9 accurately, efficiently, and on a granular level.
• Support for IBM’s DB2 XQuery extensions   – deep integration with IBM DB2 pureXML provides the optimal XML / data server solution for accessing, utilizing, and storing XML content.
• XML Schema registration in IBM DB2 databases  – for DB2 validation of XML data in database columns.
• Enhanced XML Schema documentation   – with the ability to save files in rich text format (RTF) and create diagrams in enhanced meta-file (EMF) format – a vector graphics format with enhanced zooming and printing capabilities.
• Enhanced WSDL documentation  – extending the functionality listed above for XML Schema documentation to WSDL documentation.
• Comprehensive CSS editing support   – a full featured CSS editor with syntax coloring, context-sensitive entry helper windows and drop-down menus, and screen tips.
• Redesigned and optimized code generation 
• Support for XSLT 1.0 profiling (adds to XSLT 2.0 and XQuery support) 
• Extended OASIS catalog support  

Scroll up to see the major features added in more recent releases.

XMLSpy® 2007 (October 24, 2006)

• A completely redesigned graphical WSDL editor  – making it even easier to design WSDL documents graphically, using drag and drop functionality and helpful context-sensitive entry-helper windows and menus.
• Performance optimizations   – including a 50% reduction in the memory footprint required for validation and doubled speed when loading and parsing files. These optimizations will make your work in XMLSpy even faster and more efficient.
• Dynamic new XPath Analyzer window that stores multiple expressions and results   – instead of a dialog that has to be opened and closed, the XPath Analyzer is displayed in a window that is always available while you’re working.
• Find-in-files window with support for find & replace across multiple files and projects   – you can run case-sensitive searches on partial or whole words or search using regular expressions. Search results are displayed for each file with line and column numbers, and clicking on any individual search result opens the associated file with the search item highlighted.
• Support for January 23, 2007 XSLT 2.0, XPath 2.0, and XQuery standards   – providing numerous advanced capabilities to transform, access, and query XML data in a standardized and interoperable manner. Altova previously supported draft versions of the specifications.
• Improved generation of XML instances from XML Schemas / DTDs and vice versa  
• Tighter Visual Studio integration  
• Support for embedding XMLSpy in your applications via ActiveX control  
• Enhanced Eclipse integration, supporting Eclipse SDK 3.2  

Scroll up to see the major features added in more recent releases.

XMLSpy® 2006 release 3 (June 1, 2006)

• New XSLT 2.0 and XQuery Profilers – monitors XSLT 2.0 or XQuery code as it runs and records how long each process takes. Developers can promptly see which parts of the code take the longest time to process and optimize it more easily by focusing on problem areas. Helps create more efficient and robust XSLT and XQuery code quickly.
• Enhanced Error Handling – presenting detailed messages about each error in a new validation window, including hyperlinks to errors and relevant troubleshooting information. Makes project management and problem resolution considerably faster and more effective.
• Introduced tracepoints in XSLT debugger – allowing you to trace the output of any instruction node to verify that your XSLT code is producing the desired output. This feature helps developers perfect their XSLT code more efficiently than ever before.
• Improved Restriction Handling for XML Schema Development – simplifying the process of deriving by restriction to create new complex types. The XMLSpy graphical schema editor makes the process easier and prevents users from creating illegal or invalid restrictions.

Scroll up to see the major features added in more recent releases.

2006 SQL Server Magazine Editors' Choice Awards Among many honors, XMLSpy® 2006was named a platinum winner in the XML category of the 2006 SQL Server Magazine Editors’ Choice Awards. Platinum and gold winners were chosen in 17 categories based on the product’s strategic importance to the market, its competitive advantages, and the value to the customer. “The Editors’ Choice Awards allows editors and writers to give our perspective on the products we find exceptional,” said Karen Forster, Editorial and Strategy Director. “We’re excited to have the opportunity to connect readers with the third-party vendors who serve them and to acknowledge excellence.” Click here for the full story.

XMLSpy has won numerous awards, honors, and compliments since its inception.

Scroll up to see the major features added in more recent releases.

XMLSpy® 2006 (October 3, 2005)

• Enhanced Standards Support – updated XSLT 2.0, XPath 2.0, and XQuery support in compliance with the latest World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Working Drafts released on September 15, 2005.
• Introduced schema-awareness in XSLT 2.0 and XQuery Engines – allowing developers to harness the full power of XSLT 2.0 and XQuery in their applications by providing mechanisms for error isolation, simplified debugging, increased functionality, and enhanced code performance.
• Updated Microsoft® Visual Studio®.NET Integration – provides full integration with the Visual Studio.NET 2005, giving developers access to all of XMLSpy’s advanced features and views directly from within the Visual Studio.NET 2005 development environment.
• Updated Eclipse Integration – enables full integration with version 3.1 of the Eclipse development environment, allowing seamless access to all XMLSpy features and views directly from within Eclipse 3.1.

Scroll up to see the major features added in more recent releases.

XMLSpy® 2005 (October 3, 2004)

• Advanced Standards Compliance – provided unsurpassed compliance with, and validation against current industry standards, making it one of the most conformant DTD/Schema implementations available.
• XSLT 2.0 Support – offers full editing, visual transformation, stylesheet design, and debugging capabilities of the powerful new XSLT 2.0 standard for transforming and formatting XML content.
• XPath 2.0 Support – facilitates building, testing, and evaluating of XPath 2.0 expressions, which are used for locating and processing content within an XML document’s logical hierarchy.
• XQuery Support – delivered native support of the new XQuery 1.0 specification for extracting information from XML documents and databases. Development, editing, debugging, and execution capabilities are all provided.
• SchemaAgent – embodied a compelling new paradigm for modeling and managing complex schemas and their components in workgroups via a powerful, client/server-based, visual tool.
• Introduced Eclipse Integration – enabled full integration with the then-current version of the Eclipse application development environment, allowing seamless access to all XMLSpy® 2005 features and views directly from within Eclipse.
• XSLT 2.0, XPath 2.0, and XQuery 1.0 support – with these important specifications, developers can write less complex and convoluted code, thereby reducing errors and increasing productivity. Furthermore, increased programming functionality and strong data typing enable greater data processing capabilities and contributing significantly to improved code quality and reusability.

CRN Test Center Product of the Year Award 2005 Among its awards, Altova XMLSpy® 2005 was named Best Development Tool in the CRN Test Center Product of the Year Awards. "Hands down, Altova's XML Suite 2005 provides the best XML development tools for system integration," wrote the CRN Test Center staff, specifically honoring Altova XMLSpy as the Suite's flagship product, and citing its advanced Web services and XML Schema development capabilities. Click here for the full story.

XMLSpy has won many other kudos, compliments, and awards since its inception.

Scroll up to see the major features added in more recent releases.

XMLSpy® 2004 release 4 (May 17, 2004)

• Introduced new advanced text view – provides context-sensitive entry helpers, line numbering, book marking, source folding, indentation guides, detailed find and replace functionality, and significantly increased performance.
• Extended database import/export functionality – interacts directly with the most popular relational databases, including Microsoft Access, SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, Sybase, and IBM DB2.
• Improved XML-aware file differencing and merging – enables the user to intelligently compare the XML content, considering variations in formatting, namespaces, attribute order, etc., and then merge the selected changes.

Scroll up to see the major features added in more recent releases.

XMLSpy® 2004 release 3 (October 28, 2003)

• Visual Studio – improved integration with Microsoft's Visual Studio versions 2002 and 2003.
• Enhanced Options for XML Differencing – allowing specification of file extensions for directory compare.
• Improved Schema Editor – displays the model of a redefined XML schema complex type.
• Further support for XPATH 2.0 – additional functionality implemented to support then-current W3C Working Draft.

SQL Server Magazine 2004 Readers' Choice Awards As well as many other kudos, XMLSpy® 2004 was selected as the winner of the first annual SQL Server Magazine Readers' Choice Awards in the Best XML Development Tool category. “By voting for their favorite products, like Altova XMLSpy, our readers have rewarded excellence in the SQL Server market,” said Kathy Blomstrom, Editor. Click here for the story.

Continuously acclaimed since its inception, XMLSpy has won many other kudos, compliments, and prizes.

Scroll up to see the major features added in more recent releases.

XMLSpy® 2004 (September 2, 2003)

• Microsoft Visual Studio® .NET® Integration – introduced an added convenience, enabling Microsoft Developers to use XMLSpy directly within their preferred editing environment.
• XML Differencing – introduced visual comparison of files and directories in a highly configurable, XML-aware manner, taking into account namespaces and other variables.
• XPath 2.0 Analyzer – supported a then-current beta implementation of the W3C's XPath 2.0 working draft of May, 2003.
• Completely re-implemented Database Utilities – introduced native support for Oracle databases, auto-generation of Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle 9i XML Schema extensions, and generation of XML Schemas according to SQL/XML standard.

Scroll up to see the major features added in more recent releases.

XMLSpy® 5 release 4 (April 7, 2003)

• Enhanced WebDAV Support – introduced support for DeltaV, an extension to the WebDAV protocol which enables check-in/check-out functionality when used in conjunction with a WebDAV server, thus allowing users to collaboratively edit and manage XML files located on remote web-servers.
• Stylesheet Designer Enhancements – introduced support for direct usage of global templates, support for conditional statements in Stylesheet Designer, as well as support for PDF Header/Footer/Cover pages, thus allowing for more customized template layouts and content outputs.
• Enhanced Code Generation – introduced support for output code which uses Xerces (a popular XML parser), Standard Template Library (STL), and additional support of XML Schema simple types in Java/C# code generation.

Software Development Magazine Jolt Productivity Awards 2003 XMLSpy® 5 Enterprise Edition won a 2003 Jolt Productivity Award in the Languages and Development Environments category.

XMLSpy has won many other awards, compliments, and honors since its inception.

Scroll up to see the major features added in more recent releases.

XMLSpy® 5 release 3 (January 22, 2003)

• Improved Support for building Microsoft .NET applications – introduced support for Microsoft C# code generation to accelerate application development on the Microsoft .NET platform. The generated code used System.XML, the then-current Microsoft .NET Application Program Interface (API) for programmatically accessing XML documents.
• Enhanced support for Oracle XML DB – introduced numerous data editing and server administration features for Oracle XML DB. New features enabled developers to easily perform common operations on data managed by XML DB including: List XML Schemas, Load a Schema from a list, Save New or Delete XML Schema to Oracle XML DB, Register an XML Schema with Oracle XML DB, Execute Query using Oracle9i's DBURI, Browse, Open, Edit and Save XML documents stored in Oracle XML DB via WebDAV.
• Additional Web Services Support – a new Web Service Description Language (WSDL) Documentation generation utility made it easier for Web service developers to document and publish a Web service interface in a Microsoft Word or HTML output file.
• PDF support for Document Publishing – XMLSpy's stylesheet designer introduced visual editing and generation of eXtensible Stylesheet Language Formatting Object (XSL:FO) code, enabling XML content to be rendered into PDF file format. With a single stylesheet design, developers could preview the output of a stylesheet transformation in either PDF or HTML.
• Java Integration Support – introduced a Java API, enabling easier customization and integration of the XMLSpy development environment for system integrators who want to control and use XMLSpy functionality from Java-based programs. XMLSpy previously supported integration via a COM based interface.

Scroll up to see the major features added in more recent releases.

XMLSpy® 5 (September 16, 2002)

• XSLT Debugging – introduced a built-in XSLT debugger, allowing developers to incrementally step through an XSLT transformation process and set breakpoints on either the XSLT stylesheet or the XML input document, inspect variables, check the call stack, analyze node-sets, and more.
• WSDL Editing – XMLSpy® 5 Enterprise Edition introduced a new Web Service Description Language (WSDL) editor, allowing users to edit, visualize, and validate WSDL files.
• Code Generation – XMLSpy® 5 Enterprise Edition introduced Java and C++ code generation capabilities, enabling XMLSpy to act as a software modeling and prototyping tool. Built-in code generation frees software developers from the mundane tasks of writing low level infrastructure code, accelerating project development.

Scroll up to see the major features added in more recent releases.

XMLSpy® 4.4 (May 29, 2002)

• DocBook Editing Support – introduced support for CALS and HTML tables, enabling DocBook editing. DocBook is the popular XML content model for describing books, articles, and other prose documents such as technical documentation.
• Web Standards Conformance – with then-current open industry consortiums such as the Web Services Interoperability Organization.
• Multi-language spell-checker – with support for English (British, US, Canadian), German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Dutch, Swedish, and other languages. In addition, separate English language medical and legal dictionaries were introduced.

Scroll up to see the major features added in more recent releases.

XMLSpy® 4.3 (February 11, 2002)

• Introduced World’s First SOAP Debugger – test and debug web services based on Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP).
• Supported Microsoft SQL Server 2000 SQLXML – graphical editing of XML Schemas which use Microsoft SQLXML schema extensions.

PC Magazine Editors' Choice June 30, 2002 Granting XMLSpy® 4.3 the top five out of five score, PC Magazine wrote, "XMLSpy earns high marks for a feature-rich yet easy-to-use environment, and we recommend it for XML application developers, schema designers, and XSL style sheet creators. Its well-designed user interface far surpasses those of the environments in the other products we reviewed."

XMLSpy has won many additional awards, compliments, and honors since its inception.

Scroll up to see the major features added in more recent releases.

XMLSpy® 4.2 (December 10, 2001)

• Supported then-current XML technologies, including Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP).
• Introduced support for Microsoft XML parser technologies (MSXML4).

Scroll up to see the major features added in more recent releases.

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