Is there a user friendly XML editor out there? I can't find anything good, preferably open source

Question

Something to take an XML schema and let you add/edit data but not change the XML structure, preferably installed on a server. basically a UI to edit xml documents as a web app. Someone has got to have done this already right?

Answer 1

Liquid XML have a nice free version

update: (as of March 10 2010) it seems that the editor is no longer free

Answer 2

Check out microsoft for an XML Notepad 2007. I'm not to fond of it, since it really treats xml as a tree as opposed to plain text, but that is what you want, right?

Answer 3

I personally like Notepad++ with the XMLTools plugin. It will unfortunately allow you to edit the structure.

Answer 4

IMHO BXE - The Wysiwyg XML Editor can do this - i.e. create/edit XML document in browser, based on existing XML Schema. I am not sure, but you probably have to include it in your own page, it is just the editor component, not the full web application.

Answer 5

I don't think there is a web-app that allows you to write an instance document based on an uploaded schema (as yet.. mebbe I should write one? :) ).

Altova XMLSpy is pretty much the best of the editors I have used, but very expensive.

Answer 6

It depends on what you mean by "user friendly", and what you want out of a text editor. I personally use emacs for editing xml, but I'm willing to put up with the learning curve of the editor for the sheer power it gives me - editing XML is now rather easy and painless for me, but it took me a bit to get it to that point.

oXygen looks like it might fit what you want, but it's not free.

This page has a good comparison of xml editors and there features, seems like a good starting point.

Answer 7

Give vim a try with a suitable plugin (http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=301).

/Allan

Answer 8

XML Copy Editor is free and GPL

Answer 9

Xopus is a commercial XML editor designed specifically to be used by non-technical people. Xopus is browser based and can be installed on any webserver. Xopus keeps the XML document 100% valid at all times using XML Schema and has a WYSIWYG view using XSLT.

You could use the DOM API to configure it so that only the text can be changed, not the structure.

Direct link to a demo.

Answer 10

What about Eclipse with the Oxygen plugin, that would be my recommendation, free open source and very widely used. Altova XML Spy is a great tool but expensive, they used to do a free non-commercial use edition but that doesn't appear on their website now so perhaps they have discontinued that.

Answer 11

XML Editor is free (whereas the various FO converters are not) and you can use it with FOP (from the Apache project). Emacs with the psgml module can do it along with vim but both probably more low-lovel). Eclipse can do it too but iut is rather heavyweight.