Home > Products > Symphonia > XML Tools

XML Tools

The Symphonia XML tools provide an easy to use interface for developers to XML-enable their applications quickly and effortlessly.

Developers can take an existing Schema or DTD and import it into the Symphonia tools, or a schema can be created "from scratch" using the "easy to use" drag and drop interface of the XML Designer. The XML Designer can then either generate Java Classes or directly generate an ActiveX control that implements the interface for the XML documents.

What are the Advantages of using generated Objects?

• Forget about having to use the XML DOM directly
  
• Quickly generate an XML document
  
• Code IntelliSense is available on Document elements and attributes
  
• Using an ActiveX object or Java classes is less prone to error than using a DOM
  
• Code using the ActiveX object or Java classes is much easier to read than DOM code
  

Here's how Symphonia 3 XML works

XML Message Designer

XML Message Designer is an easy to use interface for designing XML documents.The user can define the structures of Elements, Attributes and Documents.You can use XML Message Designer to create your own XML definition or you can import another developers Schema or DTD. The following illustration identifies each part of the Message Designer window after a definition file has been loaded.

What is an 'XML' ActiveX Object?

An XML ActiveX object is an object representation of a Schema or a DTD. You can use the ActiveX object from a program to create XML documents.

How do I generate the XML ActiveX Objects?

Orion System's XML ActiveX objects are generated using Orion's 'XML Message Designer'. You can create or import a schema in XML Message designer, then generate the ActiveX object for that schema. The figure below shows the generation of an ActiveX Object.

When you've created your XML ActiveX Object, then choose your development language and continue with your application:

• VB
  
• Delphi
  
• Visual C++
  

Generating XML Schemas

A Schema is a representation in XML of the definition that you have created. If you want to publish the XML definition that you have created you will want to generate either a Schema or a DTD. When you have defined (or imported) your schema using XML Message Designer, you may edit it as neccesary, and then either export the schema to a W3C schema or DTD. Because the process is so similar we only describe generating Schemas. Its really just as simple as saving a file. Simply press the Generate Schema button...

...and choose the filename and location for your new Schema and press the OK button. Voila.... XML Message Designer will output the schema to that file.

Video Tutorial

Download the XML Tools video tutorial here.