About DocFlex/XML

  1. Overview
  2. Editions
  3. Products (Licensed Entities)
  4. Commercial Licenses

1.  Overview

DocFlex/XML is the most advanced application of DocFlex Technology (developed on top of the experience accumulated from the previous two: DocFlex/Javadoc and DocFlex/Together).

This tool allows you to program the automatic generation of professional quality reports and documentation by the data obtained from any kind of XML files. The output documents can be generated in RTF and HTML formats. The HTML can be both single-file and multi-framed documentation. The TXT (plain text) output is supported as well, which enables you to use this tool also for various XML file transformations.

Such a generation is programmed using templates, which function a lot the same as the full-blown scripting-language programs (such as XSLT scripts, for instance). However, the advantage of the template approach offered by the DocFlex Technology is that it requires very few coding of anything manually and allows designing your templates in WYSIWYG form in the terms of things you would expect to see in your output documents rather than on the level of abstract language operators. (For more details, please see About DocFlex Technology | What are Templates?)

The templates are visually designed basing on the information obtained from DTD or XSD (W3C XML Schema) files mostly by using mouse and specifying properties in Template Designer dialogs. The data type information (i.e. XML elements and attributes) appears in various treeviews which are used to program the data processing in the templates. (See Creating a Sample Template flash tutorial.)

The formatting of the generated documents is programmed by specifying formatting properties of template components (some of which can be changed simply by dragging mouse in the designer pane). Many of such properties are graphically visualized by the Template Designer.

The output generator can be both launched from the command line and invoked directly from the Template Designer's main menu which allows you to immediately see the result produced by your templates yet during designing them (no compilation or running any stand-alone interpreter are required).

Key Features

See also DocFlex Technology | Key Features.

Technical Requirements

DocFlex/XML requires Java™ Version 7, 6.x, 5.x or 1.4.x installed on your system. (Java 7 may be preferable as it is the fastest!)

Since DocFlex/XML is a pure Java application (both the Template Designer and Generator GUI are based entirely on Swing), it is supposed to work on any operating system where Java2 Runtime Environment can be installed.

Specifically, the DocFlex/XML software available for downloads includes both MS Windows BAT files and Linux shell script files to run DocFlex/XML immediately on those operating systems. We have been also reported that DocFlex was successfully working under Mac OS X.

Additionally, a sample Ant buildfile and Maven Plugin are provided that will allow you to use DocFlex/XML with both Apache Ant and Maven. For more details, please see DocFlex/XML | Integrations.

To parse XML files, DTDs and XML Schemas, DocFlex/XML uses Apache Xerces2 Java Parser version 2.9.1, whose binaries are included in the DocFlex/XML archives. In case of any questions concerning that library, please refer to the Apache Xerces home page: http://xerces.apache.org.

Note:   Heavy template applications (like XSDDoc) may require considerable computational resources. To run them, you may need a powerful enough computer (e.g. with Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon processor) and at least 512 MB RAM memory.

2.  Editions

Currently, DocFlex/XML software comes in two editions:
  1. DocFlex/XML (Full Edition) - includes all features available in this product line
  2. DocFlex/XML RE - provides the Runtime Environment to run template applications
Please note that DocFlex/XML software is not licensed according to the editions. Rather, it is broken into a number logical products, which are licensed separately according to their major functionality.

DocFlex/XML (Full Edition)

The main focus of this edition is to provide a System Development Kit (SDK) to design and modify DocFlex/XML templates. However, it can be equally used to run any existing template applications.

It is the most complete edition of DocFlex/XML software, which includes all features available in this product line:

DocFlex/XML RE

This is a reduced edition that can be used as a Runtime Environment to execute DocFlex/XML templates. It doesn't include the Template Designer and, therefore, provides no possibility to create/modify templates.

Other features are essentially the same as in the full edition:

3.  Products (Licensed Entities)

Since DocFlex/XML is a very complex sophisticated software (which took many years to develop), a single license covering all features cannot be cheap (let alone free). Moreover, far not everyone even needs everything!

So, we break the whole DocFlex/XML into a number of logical products (or licensed entities) according to the major features implemented. Some of those products are free, others require separate licensing.

Below is the list of such products along with the details of how they are licensed.

DocFlex/XML SDK

This product represents all DocFlex/XML functionality needed to create, modify and run template applications – that is a System Development Kit (SDK). It includes:
  1. Template Designer, which provides a high-quality GUI to design templates. This is the only way to create/modify templates. In effect, the Template Designer visualizes the template language and gives you access to the most of DocFlex Technology.
  2. DocFlex/XML Generator, which provides the Runtime Environment to execute templates and generate output.
Later, more features may be added to the "SDK" category, e.g. some tools for debugging and automatic documenting of templates.

The SDK functionality is available only in DocFlex/XML (Full Edition) and covered by a single “DocFlex/XML SDK” license. Depending on that license, the SDK may work in one of three modes:

The differences between those modes are shown in the following table:

Feature / Functionality Limited Mode Full Mode Trial Mode
License type(s) Limited Free License (activated by default) Commercial or Academic License Trial License
Template Designer demo only
Possibility to create/modify templates
Execution of any custom templates.

Note: If your custom templates are derived from a template set provided by Filigris Works, their execution will depend also on your license for that template application (see Licensing of Templates).
only those created or modified the last time under a Commercial License distorted output
Execution of templates provides by Filigris Works.

Note: This depends also on your license for that particular template application (see Licensing of Templates).
distorted output
Any number of input XML files
Support of XML Catalogs for input XML files
Generator GUI
Generation of HTML, RTF, TXT (plain text) output
Any number of output files of any size
Possible usage of generated documentation.

Note: This depends also on your licenses for other features used during the generation, e.g. the template set, integrations (see Multiple Licenses).
any usage unlimited (under Academic License, only for education purposes) for evaluation only

DocFlex/XML Generator

This product represents the Runtime Environment (RE) to execute template applications, which includes: That functionality (called simply “generator”) is available in both editions of DocFlex/XML.

In DocFlex/XML (Full Edition), the generator is part of DocFlex/XML SDK and covered by the “DocFlex/XML SDK” license.

In DocFlex/XML RE, the generator is covered by Free License, which allows the following:

Feature / Functionality Availability
Execution of templates provides by Filigris Works.

Note: This depends also on your license for that particular template application (see Licensing of Templates).
Execution of any custom templates.

Note: If your custom templates are derived from a template set provided by Filigris Works, their execution will depend also on your license for that template application (see Licensing of Templates).
only those created or modified the last time under a Commercial License for DocFlex/XML SDK
Any number of input XML files
Support of XML Catalogs for input XML files
Generator GUI
Generation of HTML, RTF, TXT (plain text) output
Any number of output files of any size
Possible usage of generated documentation.

Note: This depends also on your licenses for other features used during the generation, e.g. the template set, integrations (see Multiple Licenses).
any usage

Template Applications

DocFlex/XML currently provides two ready-to-use template applications useful for real tasks. (One of them – XSDDoc – demonstrates what DocFlex/XML was actually developed for).

All template applications are available in both editions of DocFlex/XML. However, each of them is a separate product:

App Description License
Allows you to compile any number of generic XML files into a web-ready HTML or printable RTF documentation with the optional inclusion of a namespace binding report that shows which namespace prefixes are bound to which namespace URIs and where.

Although, we put this template set into “Samples” category, we think it might be quite useful anyway. For more details, please see: DocFlex/XML | Sample | XMLDoc
free
Implements a very powerful XML Schema Documentation Generator able to produce both multi-framed Javadoc-like HTML and printable RTF documentation. For more details, please see: DocFlex/XML | XSDDoc.

Note: This is a commercial template application, which requires separate licensing. See also:
separate commercial, academic or trial license

Integrations

Currently, there are three integrations of DocFlex/XML with other software systems. All integrations are available in both editions of DocFlex/XML. However, each of them is considered a separate product:

System Integration Implementation License
Allows you to run DocFlex/XML generator from your Ant build. For more details, please see: DocFlex/XML | Integrations | Apache Ant
settings in your Ant build file free
Allows you to run DocFlex/XML generator from your Maven build. For more details, please see: DocFlex/XML | Integrations | Apache Maven
Maven plugin (Java open source); settings in your Maven project file free
Allows you automatically to insert the graphics diagrams produced by XMLSpy into the XML schema documentation generated by DocFlex/XML XSDDoc (with full support of diagram hyperlinks). For more details, please see: DocFlex/XML | Integrations | XMLSpy.

This integration is a commercial product, which requires separate licensing! See also:
hardcoded in Java (included in docflex-xml.jar); specifically supported in XSDDoc templates
separate commercial, academic or trial license
Allows you to automatically insert the graphics diagrams produced by Oxygen XML Editor into the XML schema documentation generated by DocFlex/XML XSDDoc (with the full support of diagram hyperlinks). For more details, please see: DocFlex/XML | Integrations | Oxygen XML.

This integration is a commercial product, which requires separate licensing. See also:
hardcoded in Java (included in docflex-xml.jar); specifically supported in XSDDoc templates
separate commercial, academic or trial license

4.  Commercial Licenses

License For Description
This license covers a universal System Development Kit and Runtime Environment for rapid development and execution of template-driven automatic documentation/report generators by any data obtained from XML files.

In fact, the whole XML schema documentation generator (DocFlex/XML XSDDoc) has been developed only with this tool!

A commercial license for DocFlex/XML SDK will give you the ultimate control over the XSDDoc template set:
  • Using the graphic Template Designer included in DocFlex/XML SDK, you will be able to customize whatever was impossible to do with only template parameters.

  • Furthermore, basing on the standard XSDDoc you could develop your own XML schema documentation generators, which would represent your XML schemas in some very special way.

    For instance, you may want to avoid in your documentation all those technical terms like "namespaces", "AttributeGroups", "SimpleTypes" and "ComplexTypes" etc. and rather describe everything defined in your XML schemas using the notions of a business language familiar to your customers.

The XML schemas aside, you can use DocFlex/XML SDK to develop any other documentation/report generators from any data stored in XML files (see also DocFlex/XML | Samples).

What's more, as soon as other our commercial template applications arrive (e.g. WSDLDoc), you could use your DocFlex/XML SDK license to customize them as well.
A commercial license for “DocFlex/XML XSDDoc” will unlock all fuctionality implemented in XSDDoc templates. In particular, you will be able:
  • To use all parameters (more than 400 now!) that control XSDDoc templates to customize the generated XML schema documentation within a huge range of possibilities.
  • To use PlainDoc.tpl main template to generate single file HTML or RTF documentation.
  • To format your XML schema annotations with XHTML tags and reproduce that formatting both in HTML and RTF output.
  • To inserting images in your annotations using XHTML <img> tags (supported both in HTML and RTF output).
  • To modify XSDDoc templates as much as you need using the Template Designer included in DocFlex/XML SDK (provided that you also have a separate license for that product, see above).
  • To run any your custom templates derived from XSDDoc.
If you are already a user of Altova XMLSpy® (or may acquire it soon), we offer you to purchase an additional license for the integration of DocFlex/XML with XMLSpy.

This will allow you to automatically insert the graphics diagrams produced by XMLSpy into the XML schema documentation generated by DocFlex/XML XSDDoc (with full support of diagram hyperlinks).

Together with the license for “DocFlex/XML XSDDoc”, that will give you a fantastic XML Schema Documentation Generator with diagramming capabilities no other single product is offering now!
For those who use Oxygen XML Editor, there is an integration with it too. Now, in place of XMLSpy's diagrams (see above), you can have similar diagrams generated by Oxygen XML. All diagram hyperlinks provided by Oxygen XML are there as well!

All you need is to purchase a license covering that integration.
License Bundles
This license pack will allow you both to generate fully featured XML schema documentation and automatically insert in it the content model diagrams generated by Altova XMLSpy®. In effect, that will let you use the unified DocFlex/XML XSDDoc+XMLSpy XML schema documentation generator. Two commercial licenses cover this:
The similar license pack to allow using Oxygen XML Editor as a provider of XSD diagrams inserted automatically in the XML schema documentation generated by DocFlex/XML XSDDoc. Two commercial licenses cover this:
DocFlex/XSD II
This license pack will let you not only generate fully featured XML schema documentation with XMLSpy diagrams included, but also redesign that documentation so much you need (as well as create/modify any other documentation generators based on DocFlex/XML templates). It includes three commercial licenses:


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