• 2025

    26.1
    Version 26.1 - March 25, 2024

  • 2024

    26.0
    Version 26.0 - October 11, 2023
  • 25.1
    Version 25.1 - March 16, 2023

  • 2023

    25.0
    Version 25.0 - October 13, 2022
  • 24.1
    Version 24.1 - March 7, 2022

  • 2022

    24.0
    Version 24.1.0 - March 7, 2022
    Version 24.1 - March 7, 2022
    Version 24.0.0 - October 18, 2021
    Version 24.0 - October 18, 2021
  • 23.1
    Version 23.1 - March 4, 2021

  • 2021

    23.0
    Version 23.1.1 - July 12, 2021
    Version 23.1.0 - March 4, 2021
    Version 23.1 - March 4, 2021
    Version 23.0.0 - November 19, 2020
    Version 23.0 - November 19, 2020
  • 22.1
    Version 22.1 - May 19, 2020
  • 22.0
    Version 22.1.0 - May 19, 2020
    Version 22.1 - May 19, 2020
    Version 22.0.0 - February 12, 2020
    Version 22.0 - February 12, 2020

  • 2020

    21.1
    Version 21.1 - May 23, 2019
  • 21.0
    Version 21.1.1 - October 24, 2019
    Version 21.1.0 - May 23, 2019
    Version 21.1 - May 23, 2019
    Version 21.0.0 - February 22, 2019
    Version 21.0 - February 22, 2019

  • 2019

    20.1
    Version 20.1 - June 15, 2018
  • 20.0
    Version 20.1.0 - June 15, 2018
    Version 20.1 - June 15, 2018
    Version 20.0.0 - March 16, 2018
    Version 20.0 - March 16, 2018

  • 2018

  • 19.0
    Version 19.1.0 - September 29, 2017
    Version 19.1 - September 29, 2017
    Version 19.0.0 - April 5, 2017
    Version 19.0 - April 5, 2017

  • 2017

  • 18.0
    Version 18.1.0 - October 18, 2016
    Version 18.1 - October 18, 2016
    Version 18.0.1 - August 9, 2016
    Version 18.0.0 - April 21, 2016
    Version 18.0 - April 21, 2016

  • 2016

  • 17.0
    Version 17.1 - October 20, 2015
    Version 17.0 - May 5, 2015

  • 2015

  • 16.0
    Version 16.1 - October 7, 2014
    Version 16.0 - May 20, 2014

  • 2014

  • 15.0
    Version 15.2 - January 22, 2014
    Version 15.1 - October 7, 2013
    Version 15.0 - June 7, 2013

  • 2013

  • 14.0
    Version 14.2 - February 13, 2013
    Version 14.1 - October 19, 2012
    Version 14.0 - June 27, 2012

  • 2012

  • 13.0
    Version 13.2 - January 12, 2012
    Version 13.1 - October 26, 2011
    Version 13.0 - August 29, 2011

  • 2011

    12.0
    Version 12.2 - May 19, 2011
    Version 12.1 - January 12, 2011
    Version 12.0 - September 14, 2010

  • 2010

  • 11.0
    Version 11.2 - March 16, 2010
    Version 11.1 - December 17, 2009
    Version 11.0 - October 9, 2009

  • 2009

    10.0
    Version 10.3 - June 29, 2009
    Version 10.2 - April 15, 2009
    Version 10.1 - February 25, 2009
    Version 10.0 - October 23, 2008

  • 2008

  • 9.0
    Version 9.3 - July 2, 2008
    Version 9.2 - May 9, 2008
    Version 9.1 - December 18, 2007
    Version 9.0 - November 2, 2007

What's New in Oxygen XML Author 26.0

October 11, 2023

Related version: 26.1    

Oxygen XML Author version 26 introduces the exciting new Oxygen AI Positron Assistant, an add-on that provides a powerful tool to help writers increase their productivity by performing repetitive tasks, reviewing grammar, generating structure and text, or proposing changes to improve readability. It always keeps the writer in control, offering a visual diff comparison to help quickly understand what changed and the ability to continue the chat with the AI to refine the proposals.

There are several productivity boosting features and user experience enhancements for DITA authors and more customization options for DITA publishers along with the update to version 4.1.1 of the bundled DITA-OT distribution. It is now possible to generate comparison results as documents containing change tracking highlights to allow the changes to be rendered visually in the resulting documents, making it easy to review, accept, or reject them.

WebHelp publishers can look forward to some exciting advanced search features that were implemented in conjunction with the upcoming release of Oxygen Feedback 4.0. Oxygen Feedback is a modern comment management platform that allows your community to easily interact with and provide feedback on your content and it has been specifically designed to seamlessly integrate with Oxygen XML WebHelp. The advanced search features will be available once Oxygen Feedback 4.0 is released.

Some of our popular add-ons were updated such as Git Client, Batch Documents Converter, and OpenAPI Documentation Generator. As always, this release also provides various important component updates, bug fixes, and security enhancements.

There are changes in:

Oxygen AI Positron Assistant
DITA Authoring
DITA Publishing
Author
XML Refactoring
File Comparison
Markdown
Add-on Updates
Scripting
Other
Component Updates
API

Oxygen AI Positron Assistant

Unlock the Potential of AI with the Oxygen AI Positron Assistant add-on

Oxygen now offers the Oxygen AI Positron Assistant add-on, a powerful tool designed to enhance the productivity of writers by providing support for using AI-generated content with the Oxygen AI Positron service. Once the AI Positron Assistant add-on is installed, you gain access to two invaluable side views: the AI Positron Assistant and the AI Positron Chat. The AI Positron Assistant side-view offers a comprehensive interface for all AI actions and options, empowering you to leverage the full capabilities of AI technology. Meanwhile, the AI Positron Chat side-view presents real-time progress updates and results after triggering an action.

AI Positron Actions

The AI Positron Assistant side-view and various menus contain a variety of AI-powered actions. For example, actions are available to provide helpful hints for your next writing steps, enhance the readability of your content, correct grammar errors, generate a short description or index terms, convert passive voice phrases to active, translate content, create marketing-related material, or even restructure parts of your document. Additional custom actions can also be configured in the add-on's preferences page.

AI Positron Actions

AI Chat View

The AI Positron Chat allows you to conveniently track the progress and view the results of triggered actions, along with the responses received from the AI platform. With actions available to insert the response within the document, preview the response insertion, or copy the response to the clipboard, you have complete control over the AI-generated content before it is incorporated into your document. Additionally, you can further refine the responses by sending messages directly to the AI Positron platform. It also supports storing favorite prompts and utilizing variables that expand to the selected content or the entire document, you can edit previously sent prompts, and a History drop-down allows you to revisit previous conversations and continue where you left off.
AI Chat View

Validation Fixes

When validation problems are displayed in Oxygen's Results pane, you can right-click on a problem and use the AI Positron Fix action to request assistance from the Oxygen AI Positron platform to resolve the issue. It will propose content in the AI Positron Chat view that can be used to solve the problem.
Validation Fixes

AI Positron Preferences

The Oxygen AI Positron Assistant preferences page (Options > Preferences > Plugins) provides options for configuring custom actions and defining a context used in each action and chat request. This ensures that the AI-generated content is more relevant and aligned with your requirements, enhancing the overall quality of the responses. Additionally, the preferences page includes an option to cache identical requests. This feature works by sending fewer requests to the AI server, resulting in a faster and more efficient process.

Change Default Model

The Oxygen AI Positron Assistant preferences page has an option for changing the default model (GPT 3.5 or GPT 4) to use for the chat view and for actions that do not explicitly specify a model.

Custom AI Actions

In the Oxygen AI Positron Assistant preferences page, you can define a reference to a folder that contains custom actions, which can be easily created using Oxygen's new file wizard. The benefit of this feature is that it provides you with a seamless way to create, organize, and manage your custom actions to effectively leverage the power of AI technology within Oxygen.

Custom Schematron Rules

The add-on contributes two XPath extension functions [ai:transform-content(instruction, content) and ai:verify-content(instruction, content)] that can be used from custom Schematron schemas or XML Refactoring actions to rephrase content or to perform validation checks on existing content.

Record Examples for a Set of Instructions

This newest version introduces a valuable feature in the Oxygen AI Positron Assistant. Located in the top left corner, you will find the Record button that enables you to provide a set of instructions and record a collection of examples directly in the editing area to assist the AI in better understanding the given instructions. This allows you to save the final result in two useful ways: as a favorite prompt in the AI Positron Chat side-view that you can easily access and reuse it in future interactions with the AI Positron Assistant; or as an AI Positron action for you to streamline repetitive tasks and automate certain actions.
Record Examples for a Set of Instructions

DITA Authoring

Apply Colors and Styles from DITAVAL Files When Editing

You can use a DITAVAL filter file to flag specific content with colors and styles. Now you can automatically apply those colors and styles to render the content in the editor by enabling a new setting called Automatically apply colors and styles from DITAVAL files referenced in the Main Files folder. You can find this setting in the preferences page: Editor > Edit Modes > Author > Profiling/Conditional Text > Colors and Styles. When enabled and DITAVAL filter files are referenced within the Main Files folder in the Project view, those colors and styles will be applied when the Show Profiling Colors and Styles option from the Profiling / Conditional Text toolbar drop-down in Author mode is also enabled.
Apply Colors and Styles from DITAVAL Files When Editing

Create New DITA Topic from a Selection of Content

This feature greatly simplifies the process of extracting and organizing parts of a document into separate topics, making your editing experience more efficient and streamlined. When editing a DITA topic in Author mode, you now have access to a new action called Extract Topic From Selection. You can find this action both in the contextual menu and in the main DITA menu allowing you to effortlessly create a new DITA topic from a selection within the current topic.

Create New DITA Topic from a Selection of Content

Improved Support for Non-ASCII File Names and IDs

Several improvements and bug fixes have been implemented to enhance the editing experience for DITA projects that include file names and IDs containing non-ASCII characters (such as Japanese or Chinese). One notable improvement is that when creating new DITA topics using the various available methods, Oxygen can now generate file names and IDs that contain non-ASCII characters (for such cases, the non-ASCII characters were previously omitted, resulting in DITA topics with confusing names). This ensures that your project can accurately represent and handle content in various languages.

Chinese Translations for Static Text Labels

Static text labels that are presented in the visual DITA editor (such as the labels for notes: Tip, Warning, Important, etc.) are translated into Chinese if the xml:lang attribute is set to zh-CN in the topic's root element. Previously, Chinese translations were not supported for the static text. With this update, users can now enjoy a fully localized experience, allowing for easier understanding and navigation of the visual editor.

Distinct Icons for References to Glossary Items in DITA Maps Manager

The DITA Maps Manager now presents distinct icons for references to glossentry and glossgroup topics. Previously, those types of topics shared the same icon with other types of topics, so this enhancement makes it easier to distinguish them, improving visual clarity and streamlining the management of DITA maps.

DITA Publishing

Bundled DITA-OT Updated to Version 4.1.1

The bundled DITA-OT distribution was updated to version 4.1.1, which contains:

  • The latest grammar files for the upcoming DITA 2.0.
  • The latest grammar files for the upcoming LightWeight DITA standard.
  • A new PDF (XSL-FO based) theme plugin (com.elovirta.pdf).
  • Improvements and bug fixes for the org.lwdita Markdown conversion plugin.
  • Lots of other small improvements and bug fixes.

"Insert Label" Editing Action Added to Assist with Finding Related Topics in WebHelp Responsive Output

The WebHelp Responsive output recognizes a special label keyword in topics to provide support for finding all the topics marked with the same label. By assigning a label to related topics, it allows the user to quickly locate and navigate relevant content, improving the experience of users interacting with your documentation. To support this functionality, a new Insert Label action is available in both the Insert submenu within the DITA menu and the contextual menu when editing DITA topics in Author mode. This action allows you to easily insert the special label keyword in the prolog of the DITA topic. For more details, see User Guide Topic: How to Add Searchable Labels in WebHelp Output.
Search or Filter Topics by Labels

Support for XPath Expressions in SVG Templates for CSS-based PDF

You can now leverage XPath expressions to dynamically populate and modify elements in your SVG templates, resulting in more personalized and tailored PDF outputs. SVG files with the file extension .template.svg are considered by the CSS-based PDF transformations to be SVG templates and by default, the XPath expressions that have a format of ${expression} in the SVG template files will be replaced with the value that corresponds to that expression. This behaviour is controlled by the expand.xpath.in.svg.templates parameter. For more details, see User Manual: SVG Templates.
Support for XPath Expressions in SVG Templates for CSS-based PDF

Semantic Search

A Semantic search is a data searching technique that delivers more accurate results by understanding the real intent behind the search and providing an enhanced user experience. Oxygen XML WebHelp now supports semantic searches to help produce more relevant search results. This feature requires an integration with the OpenAI platform by specifying an API key.

Faceted Search

A Faceted search allows users to refine their search results by applying multiple filters that correspond to different properties or "facets" of the information being sought. WebHelp users can select one or more of these facets, and the search engine will return only the results that match all selected facets. For more details, see User Guide Topic: How to Configure Faceted Search in WebHelp Output.
Faceted Search

Advanced Search Queries

Oxygen XML WebHelp integrates the Oxygen Feedback Search Engine, which supports advanced query syntax that allows users to create more complex, flexible, and useful queries to help make the search results more precise. Some examples of these supported advanced queries include phrase searches, regular expression searches, and proximity searches.
Advanced Search Queries

Author

Tracked Changes are More Visible When Renaming Elements

When renaming an XML element in the Author visual editing mode with change tracking enabled, the change is now tracked as an element deletion followed by the newly renamed element insertion. This enhancement provides a more accurate representation of the changes made during the renaming process.
Improved Support for Non-ASCII File Names and IDs

Combine Multiple Content Completion Rules in the Configuration File

Content Completion Configuration (cc_config.xml) files provide a simple and efficient way to configure the content completion proposals Oxygen offers to users for a specific document type. By default, when defining rules in a content completion configuration file, if multiple rules match a certain element context, then only the first one that matches is applied. Now it is possible to combine multiple rules by setting the merge="true" attribute on the rules that match a single element context. This allows for a more intuitive and flexible way of specifying the content completion behavior via content completion configuration files.

XML Refactoring

Default Resources Filter Pattern in XML Refactoring Actions

Some refactoring actions can be applied on specific documents, thus providing a way to select only those documents. A new optional filesFilter attribute can be used in the descriptor file when creating custom refactoring operations to specify a default resources filter by using a file pattern or list of file patterns separated by a comma (e.g. filesFilter="*.dita, *.xml" will select only the files with either .dita or .xml extensions).

File Comparison

Merge Documents with Change Tracking Highlights

A new Merge Documents with Change Tracking Highlights action is available in the Tools menu. It can be used to merge two XML files (based on a 2-way mode comparison). All the files involved in the process are merged by saving the visual comparison results as a separate document with highlighted tracked changes that can later be reviewed and accepted or rejected. For more details, see User Guide Topic: Merge Documents with Change Tracking Highlights.
Merge Documents with Change Tracking Highlights

Merge Directories with Change Tracking Highlights

A new Merge Directories with Change Tracking Highlights action is available in the Tools menu. It can be used to merge two directories (based on a 2-way mode comparison). All pairs of modified XML files involved in the process are merged by saving the visual comparison results as documents with highlighted tracked changes that can later be reviewed, with the option to accept or reject these changes. For more details, see User Guide Topic: Merge Directories with Change Tracking Highlights.
Merge Directories with Change Tracking Highlights

Save Comparison as New Document with Tracked Changes

The file comparison tool has a new action in the File menu called Save Comparison as Document with Tracked Changes. This action allows you to merge two compared documents based on the differences detected and save the results as a specified file that includes the special change tracking marks. You can load the resulting file in Oxygen's Author mode so you can conveniently accept or reject the changes, ensuring accurate and efficient collaboration on your documents.

Markdown

Syntax Highlights Improved for Markdown Files With LaTeX Equations

The syntax highlights were improved for Markdown content, making it easier for you to work with LaTeX equations within your Markdown files, allowing for more efficient editing and seamless integration of mathematical expressions.

Add-on Updates

A variety of add-ons are available that can be used to extend the functionality of Oxygen.

OpenAPI Documentation Generator Improvements

The following improvements were added to the OpenAPI Documentation Generator add-on:
  • An option was added to transform the OpenAPI content into DITA or PDF output.
  • The examples element is now rendered when transforming to HTML output.
  • A detailed warning message is now displayed when the transformation’s target file has unsaved changes.

Git Client Improvements

Various improvements were made to the Git Client add-on:
  • Large File Support (LFS) is now integrated. This means that if you have installed LFS and specified which extensions represent large or binary files that should be uploaded through LFS, they will be automatically detected and handled correctly.
  • When you clone a repository, the Git Client automatically detects and opens Oxygen project files. This feature simplifies the process of working with Oxygen projects that are stored in a Git repository.
  • The project detection mechanism was improved when opening a new repository in the Staging view.
  • When checking out a branch, submodules in parent repositories are now checked out at the index defined in the parent repository. This ensures that the submodules reflect the actual state of the parent repository at that time.
  • The integrated JGit library was upgraded to version 6.7.
  • Various messages in the user interface were improved.
  • Various bug fixes were implemented. For example, an issue was fixed where untracked files were not being restored from a stash.

For a complete list of updates added in the Git Client, see https://github.com/oxygenxml/oxygen-git-plugin/releases.

Batch Documents Converter Improvements

Several enhancements were made to the Batch Documents Converter add-on, including corrections for the OpenAPI to DITA, Word to HTML/DITA, Confluence to DITA conversions, and updates to its components.

Scripting

The All Platforms distribution of Oxygen is bundled with a scripts sub-folder that contains scripts for automating and running various utilities from a command line interface. To run any of these scripts, you need to purchase a scripting license.

Merge Files with Change Tracking Highlights

A new Merge Files with Change Tracking Highlights script is available. It can be used to merge two XML files (based on a 2-way mode comparison) with highlighted tracked changes that can be later reviewed and accepted or rejected. For more details, see User Guide Topic: Merge Files with Change Tracking Highlights Script.

Merge Directories with Change Tracking Highlights

A new Merge Directories with Change Tracking Highlights script is available. It can be used to merge two directories (based on a 2-way mode comparison) with highlighted tracked changes. All pairs of modified XML files involved in the process are merged by saving the visual comparison results as documents with tracked changes highlighted that can be later reviewed and accepted or rejected. For more details, see User Guide Topic: Merge Directories with Change Tracking Highlights Script.

New option for Compare Directories script

A new option has been added to the Compare Directories script. With the inclusion of the (-enx XPathExprToExcludeNodes) option, users can now exclude specific nodes from the comparison using XPath expressions. For more details, see User Guide Topic: Compare Directories Script.

XPath Expressions Supported in Generate HTML Report for Directory Comparison Tool

An XPath expression specified in the Ignore nodes by XPath text field (in the Options > Preferences > Diff > Files Comparison preferences page) is now taken into account if you opt to generate additional file comparison reports.

Other

Application Now Uses Trusted Root Certificates From the Windows Certificate Store

By default, the application now uses the trusted root certificates from the Windows certificate store to improve coverage for HTTPS certificate validation in corporate environments. To trust a certification, the root certificate needs to be imported into the Windows Trusted Root certificate store. After importing the certificate, you should be able to connect without seeing certificate errors.

Component Updates

Java 17

Oxygen (desktop and Eclipse plugin) now requires a minimum version of Java Virtual Machine 17 to run.

OpenJDK 17.0.8

Upgraded the bundled version of OpenJDK in our installation kits to provide the latest Java Runtime Environment, now at version 17.0.8.

Apache Batik 1.17

Updated the Apache Batik toolkit to version 1.17.

Apache FOP 2.9

Updated the Apache FOP library to version 2.9.

Apache Xalan-Java 2.7.3

Updated the Apache Xalan XSLT processor to version 2.7.3.

Calabash 1.5.7-120

Updated the XProc Calabash engine to version 1.5.7-120.

DITA-OT 4.1.1

Updated the bundled DITA Open Toolkit to version 4.1.1.

Eclipse 4.29

Updated the Eclipse plugin to support version 4.29. Note that starting with version 4.28, the Eclipse IDE requires Java 17 or higher.

EPUBCheck 5.1.0

Updated the EPUBCheck tool used to validate EPUB resources to version 5.1.0.

Jackson 2.15.0

Updated the Jackson JSON libraries to version 2.15.0.

macOS 14 (Sonoma)

Oxygen 26 has been fully tested on macOS 14 (Sonoma) and it is now officially supported.

Oxygen License Server Supports Windows Server 2022

The Oxygen License Server now supports Windows Server 2022.

Oxygen License Server Bundles Eclipse Adoptium Temurin 17

The Oxygen License Server installers now bundle Eclipse Adoptium Temurin 17

SnakeYAML 2.2

Updated the SnakeYAML library to version 2.2.

TEI Schemas 4.6.0

Updated the bundled TEI schemas to version 4.6.0.

TEI Stylesheets 7.55.0

Updated the bundled TEI XSLT stylesheets to version 7.55.0.

Berkeley DB XML Support Removed

The previously deprecated support for the Berkeley DB XML database connection has now been removed.

Deprecated Support for DocBook WebHelp Classic

The DocBook WebHelp Classic transformation scenario has been marked as deprecated and may be removed in a future major version.

API

Open Preview Changes in Files Dialog

A new API method (openPreviewDialog) was added in the ro.sync.exml.workspace.api.standalone.DiffAndMergeTools API. It can be used to display a dialog box that shows a preview of the changes between the original and modified versions of the resources.

Merge Changes between Two Files

A new API method (openMergeApplication) was added in the ro.sync.exml.workspace.api.standalone.DiffAndMergeTools API. It can be used to display a dialog box that shows differences between two files and you can save changes.

Display Warning Message

A new API method (showWarningDialog) was added in the ro.sync.exml.workspace.api.WorkspaceUtilities API. It can be used to display a warning message dialog box.

Products

Features

Shop

Resources

Support

Company

© 2002-2024 SyncRO Soft SRL. All rights reserved.

This website was created & generated with <oXygen/>®XML Editor