Vex

Homepage: eclipse.org/vex

Vex is a Visual Editor for XML that hides the raw XML tags from the user, providing instead a word processor like interface. Vex uses standard DTD files to define document types and CSS stylesheets to define document layout. Vex contains definitions for DocBook and DITA. To edit other XML formats only a DTD and a CSS are needed.

Vex is based on the Eclipse platform, the same platform used to build the popular Eclipse Java development environment:

• Vex leverages many of the mature plug-ins that make up the Eclipse Java IDE such as the CVS interface, document searching and bookmarking facilities, and searchable help system.
• The Eclipse platform implements a sophisticated plug-in architecture, allowing Vex to be extended with third-party or custom, in-house plug-ins.
• Vex is available with native look-and-feel for many platforms, including Windows, Linux/GTK, and Macintosh OS-X/Carbon.
• Java developers using the Eclipse IDE can instal Vex into their IDE as a plug-in, making it easy to maintain software documentation or other XML files with Vex.
• Vex is reusable: The Vex editor widget is available as a pure Java, cross-platform component with bindings SWT. Developers can re-use this widget, for example as an RCP application.

Vex has moved from the SourceForge project site to Eclipse (see Original Project Proposal). John Krasney has contributed the code of Vex to Eclipse as of August 2008. All code is now licensed under the Eclipse Public License.

Download

New and Noteworthy

• Vex 1.2 Latest Milestone (not yet available): Update Site
• Vex 1.1 (2014-12-28): Update Site
• Vex 1.0 (2012-09-09): Update Site
• Continuous Integration (may or may not be stable): Update Site

Documentation

• User Guide
• Architecture Guide
• Article: XML ohne spitze Klammern (in German) or translated by Google into English
• Interview with John Krasnay and David Carver
• Vex now part of Mylyn Docs

Support

• Mailing List (Web)
• Forum
• Bugs and feature requests: Open Closed New
• Professional Support
  • Agilantis Holger Voormann
  • Florian Thienel

Contributing

There are numerous ways to contribute beyond code contributions (see also Eclipse - Get Involved!):

• The user manual is maintained on the Wiki. Please feel free to update and keep it current.
• See the Architecture Guide for a look behind the scenes of Vex.
• Meeting minutes of the Vex Committer Calls
• Code contributions:
  • see description how to setup a development environment and how to submit changes
  • "Understanding the Vex Rendering Engine" by Mohamadou Nassourou

Other Resources

• DRAFT Plan
• Development Resources
• WTP Build
• DITA Wishlist Ideas