VS2005 XML Editor rocks! Navigating type definitions from instance documents!

Friday, June 9, 2006

Note: this entry has moved.

Today, I was working on some GAX software factory stuff. I just couldn't remember if a particular element I had at hand in an instance document supported xs:anyAttribute or not in the corresponding schema. So I though "how handy it would be if I could press F12 (Go to Definition) and be taken to the schema for it". I tried it:

Imagine my surprise when I saw:

Quite unexpected for me, I was presented with the XSD for the document with the relevant element definition focused under the cursor! Now, the element happens to he a ref to the definition which is somewhere else. So I thought "how handy it would be if I could press F12 and be taken to the definition of that referenced element". I tried it:

And I was inmediately taken to:

Simply amazing. I didn't know about this feature. What's more, you can use Ctrl+[minus sign] to navigate back, just like you do when you F12 to definitions in any code window.

Impressive job, XML team. Thank again!!!!!!

To bad they didn't integrate an XPath query. That should have been in VS2003.

Andy Brudtkuhl - Friday, June 9, 2006 2:49:01 PM

Stay tunned on the MSDN XML DevCenter. There's an upcoming article in the works that will show a cool XPath evaluator VS plugin that provides a toolwindow for that, which even highlights nodes in the XML editor ;)

dcazzulino - Friday, June 9, 2006 3:04:29 PM

I will pass it on to the members of the XML Editor team. They will be happy to hear that you like the work they put into the Editor.

Soumitra Sengupta - Saturday, June 24, 2006 2:27:10 AM

I told them on the last MVP conf. call already :).
Thanks!

dcazzulino - Sunday, June 25, 2006 10:29:34 AM

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