Edit online

Vale Linter for Markdown and HTML Validation Add-on

The Vale Validation add-on runs the Vale linter over the currently edited file and presents the validation errors in the results area at the bottom of the application. A Linter is a tool that automatically verifies specific rules against your code or documentation. This is useful for enforcing a style guide or for catching commonly mistaken branding issues.

Quick Installation

You can drag the following Install button and drop it into the main editor in Oxygen to quickly initiate the installation process:

Install

Manual Installation

To manually install this add-on, follow this procedure:

  1. Go to Help > Install new add-ons to open an add-on selection dialog box.
  2. Enter or paste https://www.oxygenxml.com/InstData/Addons/default/updateSite.xml in the Show add-ons from field or select it from the drop-down menu.
    Note: If you have issues connecting to the default update site, you can download the add-on package, unzip it, then use the Browse for local files action in the Install new add-ons dialog box to locate the downloaded addon.xml file.
  3. Select the Vale Linter for Markdown and HTML Validation add-on and click Next.
  4. Read the end-user license agreement. Then select the I accept all terms of the end-user license agreement option and click Finish.
  5. Restart the application.

Setup the Oxygen Vale Validation

To set up the Vale validation, follow this procedure:
  1. Download and unzip the proper Vale executable for your OS. On Linux and macOS, you must give executable permission to the Vale executable. You can do this by opening a console in the Vale directory and running:

    chmod u+x vale
  2. Go to Options > Preferences > Plugins > Oxygen Vale Validation and specify the path to the previously downloaded Vale executable.
  3. In the same preferences page, you can also specify a path to a Vale configuration file (.vale.ini). Vale automatically detects this file by looking 6 levels up in the current file's ancestor directories, but you can also impose one.

Vale Styles

Vale uses collections of individual YAML files (or "rules") to enforce particular writing constructs. These collections are referred to as styles and are organized in a nested folder structure at a user-specified location. The .vale.ini file is where you will control most of Vale's behavior, including which files to lint and how to lint them. Vale automatically detects .vale.ini, but you can also specify the path to .vale.ini from the plugin's preferences page (Options > Preferences > Plugins > Oxygen Vale Validation).

Third-party Styles

Vale has a growing selection of pre-made styles available for download from its style library.

Validation

After setting up the Vale executable, creating or downloading Vale styles, and specifying the path to .vale.ini, the add-on will intercept the and Manual Validation and contribute errors and warning obtained by running Vale validation over the current file. The errors and warnings are highlighted in the editor.
Note: Although Vale supports multiple file formats, the Vale Validation add-on currently only supports Markdown (*.md files) and HTML files.