Add X-Power to Your XML Development with Liquid XML Studio 2011

Add X-Power to Your XML Development with Liquid XML Studio 2011

Today, more and more applications are migrating to the Web and the Cloud services are taking over the world; XML has become one of the key and vital parts of the data exchange mechanism. Whether you are developing client centric applications or building a consumer product, you will end up working with XML.

What is Liquid XML Studio 2011?

Liquid XML Studio 2011 is an advanced IDE developed by Liquid Technologies to work with XML files and related documents. Some of the common features of Liquid Studio 2011 are the following :

• Creates and edits XML documents
• XML Validation
• Designer and code split view
• Diagram view
• Intellisense support in XML
• Supports XML, XSD, WSDL, XSLT, XQuery, Web Services, XSD, and XPath

Installing Liquid XML Studio 2011

The first look of Liquid XML Studio is at:

http://www.liquid-technologies.com/Download.aspx

Liquid XML Studio 2011 IDE

Visual Studio 2010 users may find the Liquid XML Studio 2011 IDE familiar. It is a MDI application with menu, Toolbar, Project Explorer, Properties and other controls similar to Visual Studio 2010. The typical XML file in the IDE looks as in Figure 1.

Figure 1

You will notice a File menu that has New, Open and other typical menu items. You may also see a typical code and designer window. There is a Project Explorer and a Properties window. You may also notice a Design, Split and Source view at the bottom of the IDE. 

Why Liquid XML Studio 2011?

OK, so you are an expert in working with XML documents. Now, the very first question is, why do I need Liquid XML Studio 2011? The answer is speed and time. Liquid XML Studio 2011 adds speed to your development and hence saves a lot of time. Now you can not only work with your existing XML documents but you can also download hundreds of existing templates and documents.

Liquid XML Studio starter edition starts at $112. If it saves me a couple of hours a month, it makes sense for me to spend that kind of money. 

Get Started

OK, let's get started. Let's see how Liquid XML Studio 2011 works.

Create and Edit XML Documents

If you select New files in the IDE, you will see categories in the left side and the right side will have the file type. If you notice in the left side bar, the categories are Web, XML Document and more. If you select the XML Document category, you will see a CSS Style Sheet, Text File, XML Document and other file types in the right side.  See Figure 2.

To add a file type, just select a file type and click OK.

Figure 2

XML Validations

Once a file is added, you will notice that Toolbar options are loaded based on the file type. For example, for an XML file, you will see Format XML and Validate Document. The XML view in the Studio looks as in Figure 3.

Figure 3

Figure 4 shows the Validate Document toolbar.

Figure 4

If you validate an XML document and the document is not well formed, you will get an error message that looks like Figure 5. You may also notice the exact error message, line number, location and the file name in the Error List window.

 

Figure 5

If the XML document is well formed, the message will be otherwise.

Designer and Code Split View

As I said previously, the designer and editors are the bread and butter of Liquid XML Studio 2011. Similar to Visual Studio 2010, the XML Studio has three views  - Design, Source and Split. The Split view is a real-time view of the code and vice versa. Figure 6 shows the three views.

Figure 6

Diagram View

Diagram View is another editor in Liquid XML Studio 2011 that allows developers to see XML and other documents in a local tree structure and to edit them in real-time. You can also add, edit and delete logical tree nodes by simply dragging and dropping them at different positions. Figure 7 shows the Diagram view of an XML file.

Figure 7

Intellisense

One more feature of Liquid XML Studio 2011 is Intellisense support in documents. You can enable Intellisense by using the toggle as you see in Figure 8.

Figure 8

Built-in Templates

Liquid XML Studio 2011 comes with an abundance of built-in templates. For example, if you select a category in the left side, you will get pre-defined and pre-loaded templates in the right side as you see in Figure 9.

Figure 9

Visual Studio 2005, 2008 and 2010 Integration

Liquid XML Studio 2011 integrates smoothly into Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, 2008 and 2010 that allows you to work with XML and related documents within Visual Studio IDE.

Editions and Costs

Liquid XML Studio 2011 comes with a free 30 days free trial.

Liquid XML Studio 2011 has three editions - Starter, Designer, and Developer.

The Starter Edition priced at $110.50 per license is ideal for home users or students for creating simple XML documents and work with existing XML schema.

The Designer Edition priced at $331.52 per license includes all features in the Starter Edition plus graphical editors and tools for working with complex XML schema. This version is ideal for analysts and designers.

The Developer Edition priced at $841.57 per license is ideal for developers and testers. It includes all features in the Designer Edition plus the powerful XML data binding code generator.

I personally would not recommend the Starter Edition because the actual power of the Liquid XML Studio lies in the editors and designers.

View more edition comparisons with features here:
http://www.liquid-technologies.com/Liquid-Xml-Studio-Version-Comparison.aspx

Take a Trial

Liquid XML Studio 2011 comes with a free 30 days free trial. You may download a 30-days trial version here and give it a shot.

http://www.liquid-technologies.com/Download.aspx

The Verdict

If you are not a heavy XML user, perhaps Liquid XML Studio 2011 is not for you. But if your applications heavily rely on XML documents and related technologies, you may want to check out Liquid XML Studio 2011. If you are a technical project manager or lead and manage multiple projects and enterprise application that uses XML for data exchange and/or data storage, Liquid XML Studio 2011 may add some serious X-Power and X-Speed to your development.