The Stylus Scoop June 2004 — Top-10 Reasons it's Time to Look at Stylus Studio Again

Welcome to The Stylus Scoop, a new bi-monthly publication about Stylus Studio and other topics of interest to the XML developer community.

There's so much going on with Stylus Studio today! We've devoted this issue of the Scoop (that's how we refer to it in-house) to news about Stylus Studio's exciting new features like XML differencing, about our new Web sites, and enhanced developer forums, which we revised in response to suggestions from the Stylus Studio user community.

I suppose you could accuse us of hiding Stylus Studio's light under a bushel, and perhaps that was so in the past (we're the quiet XML IDE company…). But as you'll learn in this issue of the Scoop, we've always been committed to your success, and to providing you with innovative XML development tools to help assure it. The Scoop is just one of the ways in which we're redoubling our efforts to let you and others in the XML development community know what a great tool Stylus Studio is, and to help keep you abreast of emerging XML trends and standards.

Have fun reading the Scoop, and let us know what you think! If you haven't looked at Stylus Studio in a while, read on and get the scoop on 10 reasons why it's time again.

Sincerely,
Ivan Pedruzzi, Product Architect, and the Stylus Studio Team

Table of Contents

Stylus Studio 5.3 Released! Adds XML Differencing and More!

Stylus Studio 5.3 is available now for free trial download. This new release adds a flexible XML differencing utility that allows you to quickly compute and visualize changes between XML documents and directories. The fully-integrated XML Diff utility provides features such as:

  • Differencing of XML files and folders using a customizable color-coded XML tree view
  • Support for one-to-one and many-to-one XML file
  • Step through XML differences node-by-node
  • View differences using "split-screen" and "merged changes" views
  • Expand all changes, or collapse identical XML blocks to simplify the display
  • User-configurable XML differencing settings allow you to optionally resolve or ignore XML entity references and XML namespaces

See our new website for more about Stylus Studio's amazing new XML differencing utility.

New XML Mapping Tools, Too!

Stylus Studio pioneered visual mapping for XQuery and XSLT development, and we're proud to add powerful enhancements to this exciting technology in Stylus Studio Release 5.3. A new split-screen editing mode provides simultaneously display of fully editable views of both the visual XML mapping diagram and the underlying XSLT or XQuery source code. Users can now edit either the source code or the visual XML mapping diagram, and see instantly the effect their changes have — all without clicking a separate tab or opening another editor. Because Stylus Studio automatically synchronizes the changes to both visual mapping and source code views as you work, this feature is a great way to learn the intricacies of these powerful XML technologies. Visit our website for more about Stylus Studio's XML mapping tools.

Many other Killer XML Development Features!

Besides intuitive XML differencing and enhancements to the XQuery and XSLT Mappers, Stylus Studio Release 5.3 adds:

  • Support for the Saxon 7 XQuery processor
  • A new JSP 1.2 / JSP 2.0 document wizard
  • Enhanced support for creating XML documents from relational database tables
  • Improvements to our XSLT and XQuery profiler
  • And more!

For complete information on these and other additions and enhancements to Stylus Studio, see the release notes.

Free Upgrade to Stylus Studio 5.3 for Stylus Studio 5 Customers

Some companies use complex pricing schemes that force you to pay for upgrades that are really little more than patch releases to address buggy code. Stylus Studio offers a true upgrade program — software revisions with robust and innovative new features and functionality. Sure, we ship patches that address known issues, but we don't charge you for a patch release and call it an upgrade. In fact, we don't charge anything for upgrades or patch releases. Existing Stylus Studio version 5 customers can download Stylus Studio 5.3 for free today!

New StylusStudio.com Website Launched

You may have noticed by now that we've recently introduced StylusStudio.com as its own independent Web site. The new site — presently undergoing a live Beta development process — has been re-engineered to serve as a truly helpful technical resource for XML software developers, managers, and architects. Learn more about using Stylus Studio for your next XML development project at our new Web site today! Visit us online at http://www.stylusstudio.com now!

New Stylus Studio Developer Network (SSDN) Forums

In response to your requests, we've updated the Stylus Studio Developer Network! The updated SSDN Forums serve as a primary source for free technical support, and provide a knowledge base consisting of thousands of archived and searchable messages. Ask a question. Get an answer. Connect with other users in the Stylus Studio community to pick their brains or share a hot tip. We love to hear from you. We respond to every message, usually within one day.

Stylus Studio Product Documentation Now Available Online

We recently posted all Stylus Studio product documentation on a new online documentation portal, http://www.developxml.com. Currently, the site consists of searchable product documentation, and we're adding more original, technical XML resources to the site over the next year.

True Stylus Studio Stories: Why I Switched to Stylus Studio

Each issue of the Scoop features a True Stylus Studio Story, like this one from Doug Domeny, a software analyst for Ektron Inc., an innovator in Web content management and authoring software. Doug recently published an XSLT stylesheet to convert project files from his former XML tool's file format to that of a Stylus Studio project file so he could take advantage of Stylus Studio's robust product offerings. (Isn't XSLT great?)

In Doug's own words: "I just purchased Stylus Studio, and it is a really good product. It found some errors in one of my XML schemas that my former XML tool failed to detect, so I'm pleased with its thorough technical competence. Most of my time with XML tools is spent writing XSLT to filter XML or to convert from one XML vocabulary to another, and Stylus Studio's XSLT editing, mapping, and debugging tools save me lots of time and effort. Stylus Studio is an excellent tool for any developer working with XML."

Find out why thousands of XML developers like Doug are making the switch to Stylus Studio!

Switch to Stylus Studio Today!

Stylus Studio is excited to offer a special upgrade price to current customers of competing products. Just $199 (USD) and a proof of your current license gets you a single-user license for Stylus Studio, the industry's most innovative XML Integrated Development Environment. This special upgrade license program provides savings of approximately 50% off Stylus Studio's already low cost of $395. See our website for more information about this new offer.

Learn SQL/XML and XQuery at JavaOne 2004

Hungry? Feed your head and your tummy at a Java One technical session and breakfast hosted by Stylus Studio technology partner, DataDirect Technologies.

Jonathan Robie, co-author of the W3C XQuery specification and XML Program Manager for DataDirect Technologies,
will help Java and XML developers to learn more about leading-edge XML technologies including SQL/XML, XQJ and XQuery, and XML development, featuring the recently released Stylus Studio 5.3. The free technical session and breakfast takes place on Tuesday, June 29, from 7:30am to 8:30am at the San Francisco Marriott, 55 Fourth Street, San Francisco, CA. Register for this free technical session now!

Stop the press? Visit: http://www.stylusstudio.com/unreg.html

PURCHASE STYLUS STUDIO ONLINE TODAY!!

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Learn Stylus Studio in 6 Minutes

Can six minutes change your life? A new action-packed online video demonstration covers how to use Stylus Studio in just six minutes! Watch this video and change the way you develop XML applications forever!

Ask Someone You Know

Does your company use Stylus Studio? Do your competitors? Engineers from over 100,000 leading companies use Stylus Studio, and now you can ask someone from your own organization about their experiences using Stylus Studio.

 
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