Eclipse Web Tools Platform Incubator 0.5 M8 New and Noteworthy

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The WTP Incubator is a subproject fostering the creation and development of new components for existing WTP subprojects, before they become part of a release. While they don't fall under the same schedule as the WTP release itself, they are encouraged to follow the same processes. As such, a complete list of which Incubator bugs were fixed during this milestone is also available.

XSL

XML Perspective

There is now an XML Perspective for working with XML projects. This provides an XPATH Navigator view as well as wizard short cuts for creating XML related files like XML, DTD, XSD, and WSDL.

XInclude Support for Ant scripts

An ANT task is now available for use in build scripts to handle files with xinclude statements. The Ant task is contributed to the Eclipse ANT Runtime tasks list, and can be used within Eclipse or separately outside of eclipse. This was made possible through a code contribution from Lars Vogel.

Variable Content Assist

When editing an XSL file, content assist is available for all previously defined variables. A variable is considered to be either a xsl:variable or xsl:param defined value. Content assist is only available for those variables that are within the scope of the current template or stylesheet.

XPath Content Assist

Content assist for XPath functions is available for any xsl statement that has a "match", "test", or "select" attribute. This provides a list of available xpath and xsl functions to be used with these attributes.

AXIS Content Assist

AXIS content assistance is available for the same areas as XPath content assistance. This includes any xsl element that contains a "match", "test", or "select" attribute.

XPath Templates

The XPath Templates preference page allows the user to customize the available XPath statements available in content assist. There are options to add EXSLT, CUSTOM, XPATH 1.0, and XPATH 2.0 functions to be included. Adopters may add to this list via the standard template extension points.

Stylesheet Validation

Basic validation has been implemented for:

• Checking included files exist
• Circular references in includes/imports
• Template conflicts (via included and imports)
• Called templates
• XPath syntax

Hyperlink Detection

Included files and called templates are now clickable - simply hold down the Ctrl key and hover over the file or called template and click to take you to the linked file.

XSL Content-Type Icons

With the addition of 3.4M6 decorators, XSL content-type files can have their own icon and editor, all while still leveraging and reusing the XML Editor within WTP. This allows for easier identification of what type of functionality will be available when editing an XSL file. Prior to this change all XSL files received the standard XML icon.

XSL Documentation

XSL Tooling now has some user documentation. Topics cover Editing, Debugging, Launching, and Preferences. All documentation is generated from Docbook files and leverage the new xinclude Ant task.

New XSL File Wizard

A new wizard has been created specifically for XSL files. It has two templates to choose from, but this can be extended in future.

Configurable Validation

A new XSL validation preference page allows the user to select what level problems should be report at, if at all.

XPath View is now Linked with Editor

The XPath view is now synchronised with the editor - changing the selection in the view highlights the corresponding position in the editor. Double-clicking selects and reveals the whole node.

Support for Opening Declaration

The Open Declaration menu item can be used to navigate to the position of the called template.