Known Bugs

"Workaround" describes a way to avoid or mitigate the problem. "Will be fixed in next release," means that we have verified a fix. Please contact support if such a bug is a show-stopper for you.

Install seems not to work on Windows 2000

The problem is that in 3.0 Eclipse no longer scans the plugins folder when you start up unless the folder's mod date has changed. Windows 2000 (and maybe some other platforms) doesn't change the mod date of a folder when you add something to it. The workaround is to restart Eclipse with the -clean option on the command line, or delete the configurations folder and restart.

Bugs Fixed in 2.0.75

Convert DTD to anything throws exception

Gets an "unknown scheme memory:" error from URL. This is a regression.

Bugs Fixed in 2.0.72/2.0.73

Elements with text contents should keep end tags on same line

This should have been general rule for formatter irrespective of other settings.

Formatter injects whitespace into empty element

Empty element end tags should always follow start tags. In some cases, formatter was inserting new lines, making the element no longer empty and hence invalid.

Bugs Fixed in 2.0.68/2.0.69

Elements appear twice in outline view

Fairly major regression in 2.0.66/67 caused by switching to Eclipse 3.1 editor API.

h1-h6 tags should keep end tag on same line

Formatter was putting these end tags on a new line.

Convert to doesn't work for most files - shows IllegalArgumentException

Regression a couple of releases ago threw an exception in an exception handler.

DTD Generation not complete

The generator parse stopped at any empty start tag, causing missing elements. Another regression, this one of about six months vintage.

Bugs Fixed in 2.0.66/2.0.67

Error screen when opening file

In Eclipse 3.0-3.1, if you have installed more than one editor for .xml files (or any extension with two or more editors) they can conflict with each other, i.e., all but one of them won't work. Which one works is somewhat random.

Note you may still have this problem in other editors when XMLBuddy is installed. In particular, the WTP editors as of milestone 5 all have one form or another of this bug but are installed as the default editors for HTML, DTD and XSD files. To edit these files, change the default editor or right click each file name and select Open With > XMLBuddy [for DTD/XML Schema].

Transform dialog throws if parameter value is empty string

The first time around it works, but if you try to transform the same file again, an exception is thrown and nothing appears to happen.

Transform parameters not remembered the third time

If you enter a transform parameter, the next time you transform the parameter is remembered, but the next time after that, it is not.

100% CPU utilization when XML Schema has very long pattern

This is apparently a bug in java.util.regex.Pattern. The fix was to stop calling it. This did not affect validation.

Hang when deleting an open file edited with XMLBuddy

Open a file, make a change and save it, select the file in the Explorer or Navigator and hit the delete key. After you OK the delete dialog, the dialog just hangs there. Eclipse is deadlocked.

Formatter couldn't handle DOCTYPE declarations

If the span of a format included a DOCTYPE declaration with a SYSTEM or PUBLIC identifier, the format appeared to do nothing.

Formatter not good for "one long line" files

The formatter tried to preserve whitespace too well. Changed it to honor existing whitespace between elements only as dictated by formatting rules.

Bugs Fixed in 2.0.62/2.0.63

Cut/paste of whole lines causes line after to be indented

Very annoying auto-indent bug. There are a more, but they are at least in the category "doesn't indent enough" rather than "indents too much".

XPath view doesn't work with default namespace

Long-standing bug. Works now for XPath 1.0. Still some question about 2.0.

Bugs Fixed in 2.0.58/2.0.59

This is the first 3.1-only release.

cvc-elt.1 error in documents using DTDs

This was a regression in 2.0.59, a side effect of the change allowing general entities from DTDs to be used in documents validated by XML Schema. If the XML Schema validation preferences were set to match on a root element (had an empty namespace) the empty namespace matched any document whose root element had no namespace.

XPath view didn't work for default namespace

Unless you had a prefix on element names in a namespace, the XPath view couldn't find them. Now the default namespace works, as well.

Bugs Fixed in 2.0.56/2.0.57

XSLT 2.0 schema out of date

Updated the xslt2 schema to match the 4 April 2005 draft (24). This fixes bugs in the former schema for 2.0 where xsl:element and a number of others didn't allow a sequence constructor (the fact that only one person has just recently filed a bug report suggests usage of XSLT 2.0 isn't very widespread yet).

Upgraded to SaxonB8-4. This puts the schema slightly ahead of the latest version of Saxon, which is based on the February draft, i.e., some things accepted as valid may not be supported.

Can't use general entities in documents with XML Schema validation (2)

The DTD, if there is one, is no longer used for validation if an XML Schema is explicitly specified for a document, but general entities from the DTD can be used in the document. All XML Schema users should migrate to this version.

Ctrl-space after & when there were no entities defined caused NullPointerException (19).

Fixed.

Formatter threw away blank lines.

The new formatter preserves one blank line in any sequence of blank lines.

NullPointerException in code assist from XML Schema

Fixed.

XML Schema top-level elements from different namespace

Top-level elements with a different namespace imported into a schema were being lost because the Xerces internal data structures flag them as global but don't define them globally.

Formatter always flows mixed content

This could be very annoying if you accidentally typed a text character in the middle of element content. Do this in the root element and your entire document was flowed! Completely rewritten formatter is not so eager to flow in mixed content; has special rules for html, xhtml and docbook documents; formats xhtml namespace in any document according to xhtml rules.

XSLT 1.0 schema didn't support Saxon extensions

Added xsl:document and xsl:script from XSLT 1.1, supported in 1.0 by Saxon. Not a problem if you don't use them, but suppresses error messages when you do.

Typing <!-- (unterminated comment) in DTD caused 100% CPU utilization

Not any more.

ClassCastException in schema grammar pool

Happened when cached grammar corresponding to DOCTYPE decl is not a DTD grammar.

StackOverflowError generating DTD

Very large document with missing end tag(s) would cause automatic DTD generator to nest every subsequent element, which depending on memory max could cause a stack overflow error due to sheer number of elements. Fix to end inner elements when an outer element end tag is encountered, a la HTML.

A killer end case with zillion-deep nesting in an otherwise valid document could still cause the problem. Trap the resulting StackOverflowError and try to recover (though this is not always safe).

Code assist doesn't work when there are many attributes

Code assist stopped working when there were more than six attributes (twenty tokens) in an element.

Spaces in path name cause Transform dialog to fail

Fixed.

NullPointerException on MacOS

Macintosh encodings, like MacRoman, don't have any IANA standard name counterpart. Don't assume they do.

XML Schema StackOverflowException

StackOverflowException when user has recursive type definitions in schema. Fix this case and head off stack overflow in validation by catching exception and trying to proceed.

XML Schema IllegalStateException

IllegalStateException validating schema. When Xerces scans a bad schema, it produces a screwed-up internal schema, which we detect and throw. Swallow this exception (log it the first time) so user can see errors and whatever code assist we were able to grab.

XML Schema wrong schema used

When the same namespace was used for different schemas (as Sun does with its overworked http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee) the schema cache was grabbing the first schema compiled regardless of schemaLocation. Added match on schemaLocation when it is specified.

Bugs Fixed in 2.0.22/2.0.23

Eclipse 3.1M4

Versions 2.0.20/2.0.21 didn't work in Eclipse 3.1M4

Bug caused blue-line screen of death. Fixed it. Versions 2.0.22 (XMLBuddy) and 2.023 (XMLBuddy Pro) are now current for Eclipse 3.0.1 through 3.1M4.

Bugs Fixed in 2.0.20/2.0.21

Eclipse 3.0

2.0.10/11 interferes with Ant editor code assist

This was fixed by the Ant editor in 3.0.1. All 3.0 users are urged to upgrade to 3.0.1.

All Platforms

No user interface to clear document cache

XMLBuddy caches documents loaded from the network, e.g., with http: URIs, in the workspace. This tripped up users who modified documents on a server, then found the old versions still used by the editor. This release adds a Cache preference page that allows you to clear the cache with a button click, or to disable the cache altogether.

Saxon version (7.9.1) out of date

This release uses Saxon 8.2 (the open source B version, without validation).

XSLT error messages reported by Saxon not shown

Now they are. Note that when used with a version 1.0 XSLT document, Saxon now reports a warning that a 1.0 transform is being used with a 2.0 processor. It was always a better idea to use the system default processor for 1.0 transforms (see XSLT preferences), now it's less annoying, too.

XPath view didn't show element values

It formerly showed only the attributes. Now it shows non-whitespace text values followed by attributes in parenthesis, if any.

Log messages about unknown type in 2.0.10

The messages were harmless, but you won't see them any more.

Error screen and NullPointerException for certain open sequences

Fixed.

Generate XML Schema didn't show errors detected in document

For example, if an element or attribute was in an unknown namespace. The fix is to show the error message(s) but continue to open whatever schema was generated from the incomplete information.

Ant scripts failed because XML files seemed to be locked

This was apparently caused by XMLBuddy scanning documents to detect dependencies when a resource change was reported. We decided this was a bad idea.

Bugs Fixed in 2.0.10/2.0.11

Eclipse M9/RC1

2.0.9 didn't work at all

Something went wrong in the build process, producing an empty xmleditor.jar. Since that is basically the editor, the version was a non-starter and has been replaced by versions 2.0.10/2.0.11 (see below).

The 2.0.9 release works as expected in Eclipse 2.1.x, and has not been replaced.

Can't update to Pro in Eclipse RC1

Users who unzipped Pro on top of non-Pro discovered that they were still running lite (with overbyte, I guess; anyway, they got bitten.) The problem is that some warlord on the Eclipse "team" (a.k.a. IBM) decided to optimize startup by not checking if plugin folders with the same name have, in fact, changed. Even though this practice has worked for the past three years, he is claiming it was "not API" (which is strictly true for most Eclipse behavior, because most of it is undocumented). This leaves us little choice but to use different version numbers for the free and Pro variants. Hereafter, the even-numbered version will be free and the odd-numbered version will be Pro. These represent the same feature level of the software.

The upshot of this is there are currently three current versions of XMLBuddy. Version 2.0.9 covers XMLBuddy and XMLBuddy Pro for Eclipse 2.1.x. Version 2.0.10 is XMLBuddy, and 2.0.11 is XMLBuddy Pro, for Eclipse 3.0M9/RC1. In the next cycle, there will be "only" two current versions.

Bugs Fixed in 2.0.9

All Platforms

Same namespace, different schemaLocation

If two different documents used the same namespace but specified a different schemaLocation, one or the other would be validated with the incorrect schema. This was caused by schema caching. The new algorithm is: If a schema location is specified in preferences, it overrides any local schemaLocation (or none). Otherwise, both namespace and schemaLocation (if specified) must match for the cache to be used.

Debug output to console when XML Schema used

Naughty, naughty.

Eclipse 2.1.x only

No coloring for user-specified file extension

If a user set preferences so that "*.foo" was to be edited with XMLBuddy, the file would have no syntax coloring (and other problems). This was a regression caused by 3.0M9 workarounds.

Bugs Fixed in 2.0.8

All Platforms

Can't use XML Schema to validate when schemaLocation not specified

In XML Schema, the schemaLocation attribute is optional. If missing, the parser is expected to provide a way to locate the schema. Previously, if schemaLocation was missing, XMLBuddy just reported an error.

Fixing this required a UI change. XMLBuddy > XML > Validate > XML Schema preferences now accepts either a root name or a namespace, but not both. For documents validated by XML Schema, a matching root name or namespace uses the specified schema. Namespaces work within a document (beneath the root level), too; they automatically select a schema. The same is true in a schema, for imports or includes that do not specify a location.

You can also specify a default prefix to be used for code assist in the event that a schema allows an <any> element or attribute from a particular namespace.

100% CPU utilization when SGML DTD specified in DOCTYPE

This typically happens when opening an HTML file that refers to the HTML 4.0 DTD, which is an SGML DTD. Now correctly reports an error. Keep in mind, XMLBuddy is really an XML editor, not an HTML editor, and is useful to edit HTML files only when they are valid XML files, e.g., XHTML.

NullPointerException generating XML from schema with QName datatype

Fixed. Note that XMLBuddy cannot "make up" a valid QName unless it is specified in an enumeration.

Generate XML QName enumeration values show up as gobbledegook

Fixed.

100% CPU utilization when RNC files in project

This was infinite loop in background dependency check due to parser bug.

UTF-8 file created in Notepad begins with funny characters

Now correctly handle Microsoft UTF-8 Byte Order Mark (BOM). (A very strange creature, indeed, since UTF-8 encoding is insensitive to byte order.)

Format breaks up DOCTYPE PUBLIC and SYSTEM ids

Now it doesn't.

NullPointerException parsing RNC except

Fixed.

Unknown update from sku

The XML > Update > Version command was essentially broken in 2.0.5, due to some scrambled internal version ids. Should be fixed now (and work in 2.0.5, too).

Hang in XPath view

A backward-looking axis (like ancestor) that extended past the root node caused an infinite loop.

Error validating xhtml1-transitional.xsd

This is a bug in the schema. In its infinite wisdom, XML Schema changed the rules in its errata so that previously accepted patterns that begin with '-' are no longer allowed. Xerces has adapted to the change. The only fix is to download the schema, fix the patterns by escaping leading dashes as '\-' and use the local copy.

The problem also affects a published JSP schema. (That I contributed. No good deed goes unpunished.)

Eclipse 3.0 M9

Encoding support broken for external files, files with user-assigned extensions

This is an Eclipse bug we work around.

Can't refactor move/rename a file after saving it

Can't reproduce in 2.0.8.

VerifyError involving createAnnotationAccess

Can't reproduce in 2.0.8.

Bugs Fixed in 2.0.5

All Platforms

1021 DTDs with an explicit xmlns attribute kill code assist for subsequent elements

This was reported on an XSL-FO DTD and will affect other DTDs that try to pretend they are supporting the namespace recommendation. The workaround is to remove the attribute. Will be fixed in next release.

1020 Files open on launch show "Unexpected parse error"

If you have a file open in XMLBuddy, quit Eclipse and then re-launch, you may see an "Unexpected parse error" message in the Tasks view. The problem may occur on any platform, but shows itself reliably on MacOS 10.3. The workaround is to close the file and re-open it. Will be fixed in next release.

All Platforms - Eclipse M6

When you type a < code assist doesn't come up automatically

This is an Eclipse M6 bug, described in bug 49212. According to the comments, this will be fixed in M7. The workaround is to explicitly type Ctrl-Space after typing a < character.

MacOS 10.3

Crash on Eclipse launch and/or bouncing Eclipse icon

This problem is not related to XMLBuddy, but users tend to delete plug-ins when they are having problems like this. Bug 42554 has an attachment, Updated Eclipse.app, that fixes both problems. Download it and copy it to the eclipse folder, replacing the Eclipse application icon.

Bugs Fixed in 2.0.2

The following bugs were fixed in release 2.0.2.

1007 Pernicious jumping outline view

Clicking in outline, then clicking in editor, then clicking in outline caused outline view to close up, scroll to top and lose selection.

This ugly but cosmetic bug was the primary reason for 2.0.2. If you weren't bothered by it, you don't need to download again.

1008 RNC Compact Syntax Open Definition doesn't work for define in same file

This was a parser error. The define didn't show in the outline view, either, for the same reason.

1009 RNC Compact Syntax datatype with parameters or except not indented correctly

Another parser error.

Bugs Fixed in 2.0.1

The following bugs were fixed in release 2.0.1.

1000 Infinite loop in Generate XML from XML Schemas (Pro only)

Fixed.

1001 Exception thrown by Generate XML from XML Schemas (Pro only)

Fixed. This happened for any element model that had attributes, which essentially broke the entire feature. Generate XML should now work as well for XML Schema as it does for DTDs.

Note that Generate XML does not take patterns into account. This restriction is as designed for the 2.0.x release series.

1002 Focus lost when switching between editors (M5/M6 only)

Fixed.

1003 Markers don't show icons in editor (M6 only)

This was caused by an Eclipse incompatibility in M6. Adjusted to use the new M6 feature.

1004 Auto-validation markers always show warning icon in problem list (fixed in M6 only)

New M6 feature gives an authorized way to get this right. Will not be fixed for 2.0.1.

1005 Typing / in element can eat parent's end tag

Fixed.

1006 Typing > at end of element fails to generate end tag

Fixed. This is the dual of 1005.