Altova XMLSpy and MapForce JSON tools have long supported JSON and JSON5 for editing as well as data mapping and conversion. As new JSON formats arise in response to real-world usage, the support in these tools is expanding.
This article will help explain the advantages of two newer formats – JSON Comments and JSON Lines – and show how to use them in XMLSpy and MapForce.
I was recently talking with one of our Support Engineers about common questions he receives from customers. One that comes up a lot is schema generation, specifically, “How can I generate an XSD from XML?” The answer, of course, is to use your favorite XML editor. XMLSpy will generate a valid XSD from a DTD, a relational database structure, a JSON Schema, and of course, an XML instance.
But what many customers are surprised to learn is that the XML editor will also create an XML Schema based on a group of related XML files – and this is a common requirement. Let’s take a look at how it works.
Prior to starting at Altova I had zero experience with both XPath and XQuery. The first task I was presented with was to train myself on both query languages as quickly as possible and produce a concise video that would serve as an XPath tutorial and XQuery tutorial. It was important to develop a thorough understanding of their features and capabilities because both languages are integral to app development in MobileTogether and querying data in XMLSpy. I started with a strong background in SQL, learning XPath and XQuery by building queries first in SQL, and then determining how to replicate them in both query languages.
If you’ve worked with XML in XMLSpy you’ve likely utilized XML Grid View to get a graphical representation of your XML document’s structure. This visual representation of the document’s hierarchical structure makes it immediately easier to understand and edit the content.
In the latest version of the XML editor, XML Grid looks a little different – in fact, it’s been completely rebuilt from scratch to offer even more unique functionality for editing, querying, calculating, and sharing XML data.
In the latest release of Altova desktop developer tools and server software products, we’re introducing a completely rebuilt XML Grid View, support for XSLT3 for XML data mapping, statistics and charts for monitoring FlowForce Server, and much more. Let’s take a look at the highlights of Altova Software Version 2021 Release 2.
Web and web services developers often need to send HTTP requests – whether for testing APIs, testing REST and SOAP web services, or managing web sites.
XMLSpy makes it easy to send and receive HTTP requests directly in the XML and JSON editor during development with its HTTP Window and WADL/WSDL Import Wizard, a great time-saving tool for debugging web services.
In Version 2020, Altova introduced an entirely new approach to JSON editing in XMLSpy called JSON Grid View. This visual JSON editor offers a graphical representation of the JSON document structure that is immediately easier to understand and work with than the corresponding JSON code in a text editor, especially for long, complex documents with multiple nested levels of arrays and objects.
With each release we improve upon the list of unique editing tools in JSON Grid. Let’s take a look at some important updates announced in Version 2021, which was released in October of 2020.
