Relax NG

Posted on 22 February, 2008 by karussell

For my open source timetabling application (gstpl) I want to create a file format. There are some standard timetabling formats, but none of them is easy and general.

I decided to use a schema to validate the created xml file. Checking the well-formedness is easy, but for validation you need to define a grammer, i.e.define what tags (and attributes) should be possible and which combinations.

There are three main schema types: DTD, XML Schema and Relax NG (.dtd, .xsd and .rng/.rnc). The first one is not so powerful, so perhaps it is better to use XML Schema. There are a lot of editors like “NetBeans XML” which can handle the validation of XML Schema and even the schema creation from within the editor. There is a graphical editor available:

For Relax NG I didn’t find such a good and free editor easily for linux, although I could write alot faster with Relax NG. E.g. in XML Schema you need:

<xs:element name=”Header”>
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence> …

In Relax NG you only need one line:

And attributes are handled compareable to elements – in this way you can define e.g. that either a tag ‘test’ or an element ‘test’ should exist:

</choice>

I found no way to define it in XML Schema.

Now here are some editors:

XML Copy Editor RelaxNG editing and validation (no support for compact style)
Etna (only xml editor where you ensure that the created xml is valid against some given schemas)
nXML addon for emacs

some (extern) validators:

jing compact and xml style
rnv only compact style
relax ng + XML Schema via Sun Multi-Schema XML Validator (MSV), select msv.20080213.zip
relax ng with embedded schematron constraints via MSV, select relames.20060319.zip.

some (extern) conversation tools:

via MSV (select rngconv.20060319.zip) you can create a relax ng file from various schemas types.
trang (could even create a schema from a given example xml – I didn’t tried it)
relaxer is a compiler to generate various artifacts from a schema (download version 1.0), could even create a schema from a given example xml – it works!! A lot more intersting features are provided.

some tools:

via MSV (select xmlgen.20060319.zip) you can create xml files from various schemas types. To have some test instances of the created schema.
XML Schema Datatypes implementation via MSV (select xsdlib.20060319.zip) to use XML Schema Part 2

So after creating my schema in relax ng (this was really faster then with XML Schema) I can convert it into XML Schema. Then NetBeans offers a JAXB Binding (schema to java code) for XML Schemas:

(You have to install the whole netbeans – I think the xml + soa stuff??)

Lizenztext und Benutzername | Custom License-text and User-name for NetBeans

Posted on 7 February, 2008 by karussell

Ich habs endlich hinbekommen: jede neue Datei trägt meinen Name als @author und meine eigene Lizenz im Dateikopf.

(For the english version see below)

Eigener Lizenztext

Zuerst müsst ihr den Lizenztext z.B. nach /home/user/quell/license-lgpl.txt kopieren. Der Name dieser Datei ist dabei wichtig.

Als nächstes in der projekt-spezifischen Datei nbproject/project.properties

project.license=lgpl

einfügen. Z.B. innerhalb NetBeans: Einfach euer Projekt in der Dateiansicht ‘File’ öffnen.

Jetzt müssen wir NetBeans noch sagen wo die Datei license-lgpl.txt steckt:

Wähle in Tools->Templates den Knoten ‘Licenses’ aus und

suche mittels ‘Add..’ die vorher kreierte Datei /home/user/quell/license-lgpl.txt.

Diese sollte dann unter Licenses hinzugefügt worden sein.

Nun einfach mittels Rechtsklick auf ein Java Paket ausprobieren:

New->Java Interface auswählen und ‘Constraint’ eingeben.

Veränderter Benutzername

Dies ist ein Trick von Geertjan. Die User.properties öffnen:

in Tools->Templates->User Configuration Properties->User.properties

Dort einfach einfügen

user=Peter Karich, peat_hal ‘at’ users ‘dot’ sourceforge ‘dot’ net

English Translation

I have solved the problem in the latest NetBeans 6.1: every new file has my name as a value for the @author attribute and my own license text as header.

Your own license text

First of all you have to copy your license text e.g. to /home/user/quell/license-lgpl.txt. The name of this file is important.

As a next step go into the project specific file nbproject/project.properties and add

project.license=lgpl

E.g. with the files window within NetBeans.

Now you have to specify that you want to use this file as license text:

Go to Tools->Templates and choose ‘Licenses’ then search via ‘Add..’ the previously created file /home/user/quell/license-lgpl.txt.

To test it right click on a java package and choose:

New->Java Interface auswählen; then type ‘Constraint’ and you should see the license header.

Here is an example of an adapted apache header:

<#if licenseFirst??>
${licenseFirst}
</#if>
${licensePrefix}This file is part of the TimeFinder project.
${licensePrefix}Visit http://www.timefinder.de for more information.
${licensePrefix}Copyright ${date?date?string(“yyyy”)} the original author or authors.
${licensePrefix}
${licensePrefix}Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the “License”);
${licensePrefix}you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
${licensePrefix}You may obtain a copy of the License at
${licensePrefix}
${licensePrefix} http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
${licensePrefix}
${licensePrefix}Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
${licensePrefix}distributed under the License is distributed on an “AS IS” BASIS,
${licensePrefix}WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
${licensePrefix}See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
${licensePrefix}limitations under the License.
<#if licenseLast??>
${licenseLast}
</#if>