Altova Inc. has released a new XML product line consisting of three easy-to-use software tools designed to facilitate and advance the adoption of XML technologies. The XMLSPY 5 tool "builds on the previous XMLSPY version by adding XSLT debugging, WSDL editing, Java/C++ code generation, HTML Importing, and Tamino Integration. Altova's AUTHENTIC 5 is a standards-based browser enabled document editor; it allows business users to seamlessly capture thoughts and ideas directly in XML content for storage in any content management system, database, or XML repository, for later retrieval or transformation, unlocking corporate knowledge. The STYLEVISION 5 XML tool supports web developers by providing powerful conversion utilities for painless migration of traditional HTML websites to true XML-based sites; it consists of XSLT stylesheets, XML Schema/DTD, and XML content." Each of the tools is available from the Altova website for free trial download and evaluation.

From the 2002-09-16 announcement:

XMLSPY 5 is the industry standard XML Development Environment for designing, editing, and debugging enterprise-class applications that involve XML, XML Schema, XSL/XSLT, SOAP, WSDL and Web service technologies. XMLSPY 5 is a necessary productivity tool for J2EE, Microsoft .NET, and database developers.

AUTHENTIC 5 is a standards-based, browser-enabled document editor that allows business users to seamlessly capture thoughts and ideas directly in XML format. This can then be saved for later retrieval or transformation to any content management system, database, or XML repository for subsequent retrieval and transformation, unlocking corporate knowledge. AUTHENTIC 5 is ideally suited as an editing component for use in building document frameworks; which are standard-based, XML Schema-driven document and content management systems that empower business users to create, manage, search, and publish content for multiple audiences or devices across an enterprise. AUTHENTIC 5 fully supports all popular server repositories, including Oracle9iR2, Microsoft SQL Server 2000, Software AG's Tamino Server, and other leading content management or XML databases.

STYLEVISION 5 is a radical new XML tool for web developers that provides powerful conversion utilities for painless migration of traditional HTML websites to advanced XML-based sites in full compliance with new Internet standards: XML, XSLT & XML Schema. Stylevision is the only Web developer tool to support HTML Importing, the process by which any traditional HTML page is distilled and separated into three files: an XSLT stylesheet for presentation, an XML Schema (or DTD) that defines the page's content model, and the XML document that contains the page's content itself. Through a visual drag-and-drop interface, a user can separate a page's presentation from content by highlighting content from an existing HTML file, dragging it across the screen, and then assigning it to a content model. Conversion of HTML based websites to XML will facilitate the internationalization, searching, and indexing of billions of documents on the web.

In order to meet the needs of enterprise developers, XMLSPY 5 builds on the success of previous award winning versions through the addition of several key new features:

• XSLT Debugging: XMLSPY now includes a built-in XSLT debugger that allows developers to eliminate any un-desirable program errors. Users can incrementally step through an XSLT transformation process and set breakpoints on either the XSLT stylesheet or the XML input document, inspect variables, check the call stack, analyze node-sets, and more.

• WSDL Editing: WSDL is ideally suited as an Interface Definition Language (IDL) for architecting Web service applications. By first building an interface, client and server programmers can implement their respective programming contract using any language or operating system, while avoiding interoperability problems. XMLSPY 5 Enterprise Edition includes a new Web Service Description Language (WSDL) editor that allows a user to edit, visualize, and validate any WSDL file.

• Code Generation: XMLSPY 5 Enterprise Edition's schema editor now includes Java and C++ code generation capabilities which enable XMLSPY to act as a software modeling and prototyping tool. XML applications can be visually prototyped at a high level in XML Schema and then automatically generated. Changes to an application's XML Schema content model can be immediately reconciled with a software implementation simply by re-running the code generator. Built-in code generation frees software developers from the mundane tasks of writing low level infrastructure code, enabling them to focus on implementing critical business logic. Auto-generation of program code substantially accelerates project development time from initial design to final implementation, resulting in significant cost savings and time to market advantages.

• Tamino Integration: The new XMLSPY 5 Enterprise Edition includes integrated support for Software AG's Tamino XML Server, the world's leading XML repository according to IDC. The XMLSPY editing environment includes the ability to search, open, edit, save, or delete XML documents to and from a Tamino XML Server. Additionally, the XMLSPY schema editor supports editing of Tamino Schema Definitions (TSD), conversion of XML Schemas to TSD files, and validation of XML instance documents validation using Tamino Schemas.