Custom File Systems

A file system is view that represents information as a series of files in at least one folder or directory. An individual file within that file system - such as an XML document, an XQuery program, or a DTD - can contain any text or binary information.

A custom file system is a way to extend the file/folder metaphor beyond traditional disk-based files (accessed with the file: scheme), and even beyond web-based files (WebDAV's http: and https:, and the ftp: scheme of the file transfer protocol) for example. Stylus Studio supports several standard and custom file systems, including Windows, WebDAV, and FTP.

These file systems are referred to as "custom" because, although some are packaged with Stylus Studio, you can create your own. For example, you could create an LDAP custom file system to query an LDAP directory as if it were a file system.

There is a Java API that allows you to access the custom file interface in Stylus Studio.

Tip

 

The Stylus Studio interface to Sleepycat Software's Berkeley DB XML was implemented using the File System Java API to create a custom file system.

Creating a Custom File System

The process of creating a custom file system in Stylus Studio involves two main steps:

1. Use the Stylus Studio File System Java API, create the Java wrapper class for your data source. See File System Interfaces for more information on this step.
2. Register the finished custom file system with Stylus Studio, to make it available through the Stylus Studio Open, Save, and Save As dialog boxes, as shown in Figure 393. See Registering a Custom File System for more information on this step.

Figure 393. Custom File System Registered with Stylus Studio

XML Unicode Encoding

Stylus Studio supports over 300 different file encodings, including UTF-8, UTF-16, EUC-JP, SHIFT-JIS, and more, alowing you to work with any XML document. Robust text editors support standard editing features, and Sense:X intelligent auto-completion.

XPath Query Editor

Stylus Studio's XML Editor has an XPath Query Editor that allows you to easily roubleshoot, test, and debug any XPath expression.

Microsoft XML Tools

Build Microsoft XML applications with Stylus Studio, which includes development support for all Microsoft XML technologies, including MSXML and Microsoft System.XML (Microsoft XML Parsers), SQL Server 2000, SQL Server 2005 (Yukon), and more.

XML-DEV Blog

Join the XML Development discussion at XML-Dev - the hottest place to talk about XML technologies, trends, systems architecture and all the latest buzz. Bookmark this RSS and ATOM feed now!

Stylus Most Wanted

 
Free Stylus Studio XML Training:
W3C Member