Preferences Settings

The command line

When CADIXE is launched via a terminal, the command line can include the following options to modify the default behaviour of the application :

• -userhome path : by default the editor stores its working directories at the same place that the runtime. This argument allows to indicate the path containing the “preferences file” and according to its content (Cf. “preferences settings”) to change the behavior of the system. For instance, with Unix, the user could put the variable $HOME in the path if he/she wants that data management is done with respect to its login place.
  At the runtime, the missing files are automatically copied from the application to the current “userhome”. In this way, it is convenient to distribute a given configuration to all the users. Here is an example (be cautious, the folder CADIXE must exist in this case)
  • java -jar /CADIXE.jar –userhome $HOME/CADIXE

• -prefs name : this argument allows to provide explicitly the name of the preferences file to load in the “CADIXE-preferences” folder. By default the name used by the system is “CADIXE.properties”.

• -load filename : to load a given file that can be either a text file or an annotated one. When it is a text file, the editor uses the DTD and style sheets indicated by the default model file (cf. “preferences settings”).

• -name string : open a new document (based on the default model) with this name.

• -model filename : to provide the name of the default model to use in the parameters –load and –name instead of the one given in the preferences file.

Preference settings

The preferences dialog box (EDIT menu) allows to set some general behavior of the editor and to adapt it to the user. Here are the possibilities founded in each topic :

• Default paths : allows to indicates the directories in which the editor must find (and store) the different resources such as :
  • The name of the default model file uses to create a new document
  • The path to the model folder
  • The path to the DTD folder
  • The path to the style (CSS) folder
  • The path to the document folder
  • The path to the script folder (not used in this release)

When a path is relative, the reference folder can be either the application (the default) or the path that has been provided through the argument –userhome of the command line. The selection of this behavior is done thanks to the radio-button.

In this way, it is easy to set-up the editor such that shared resources (i.e. DTD, models, styles, …) would be stored in the application folder, while specific resources (i.e. documents, preferences, …) would be stored in user folder.

• Editor : in this topic the user can set the tools’ positions in the right part of the interface (see also the menu TOOLS to turn on and off the display). The other options concerns : the facts that a new document is automatically create when the editor is launched, the maximum number of documents simultaneously displayed in the mode “multi-documents” (see DOCUMENTS menu) and the number of files that are memorized in the list of “Load Recent” (see FILE menu).

• Annotation : in this topic the user can select if the selection in the document must be automatically aligned on the boundary of the closest word (default). Indeed, the tagging is generally done at the level of the word rather than the characters.

• XML zone : this topic allows to select the font and the size of the characters used to display the XML tag. It is also possible to define the color and the style (plain, bold, italic) associated to the tags, attribute, value and excerpt at the right of the tag.

• Attributes : the user can customize the way the attributes’ values are entered and controlled when a new tag is inserted in the current document. Here are the options :
  • Display a dialog to fill the attributes : Allows to choose if a dialog box must appears to force the user to fill the attributes, there are three options in the pop-up menu :
    • “Never” : the attributes are classically set through the ATT tools.
    • “Always” : a dialog box always appears (if needed) to set the values.
    • “When REQUIRED”: the dialog box appears when there is at least one attribute of type REQUIRED in the current tag.
  • Verify if REQUIRED attributes are set : When the display of a dialog box is set (see above) this option forces the user to put a value in the REQUIRED attributes. The dialog box can be closed only if the corresponding fields have been filled.
  • Allow to suppress the attributes : When this option is activated a “check-box” is displayed at the left part of each attribute. It enables to (des)activate the generation of a given attribute in the XML code. This option allows to simplify the annotation when some attributes are locally irrelevant. When the option “Always include required attributes” is set, the REQUIRED attributes cannot be removed (default).

• Tags : this topic contains the options allowing to control the display of the list of tags that can be inserted in the document. Here are the possibilities :
  • Allows to insert all the specific tags : When this check-box is deactivated (the default) the editor only displays the tags that are immediately more specific (i.e. the direct children in the DTD) than the current tag. Instead, if it is checked all the possible tags are displayed. The first mode provides few freedom to the user but is well adapted to guide those who are unfamiliar with the current DTD (or more generally not aware about the constraints of XML) and allows to reduce dramatically the number of validation errors (see TOOLS menu). The second mode is less restrictive and is interesting for the “power users” that want to insert the tags in any order.
  • Display relevant tags only : When this option is activated (the default) only the suitable tags (with respect to the current selected fragment) are displayed in the list. If it is deactivated, the unrelevant tags are greyed. The second option could be interesting to use when the number of tag described in the DTD is small.
  • The tags are validated by default : This option is not already used in the current release.

• Toolbar : this topic allows the user to customize the content of the toolbar. There are two columns : the left one contains the list of commands displayed in the toolbar, the right one list all the commands existing in the editor. The button “Delete “ suppresses the selected command from the leftmost list, the button “Add” add the selected command from the rightmost list to leftmost one, and the button “Separator” inserts a separator in the leftmost list. The arrangement of the commands in the toolbar can be changed by “drag & drop” in the left list.