Attribute Inspector and ording of attribute items

[freyp576]

Hi,

we have a problem with the sort order of the attributes displayed in the XMetaL 6 attribute inspector. It looks like the handling has changed - in previous versions (4.x?) the list was output in the ordering defined in our DTD - in 6.0 it is now sorted alphabetically

the problem we have with this is that important attributes are no longer displayed on top,
e.g. with a LINK.NORM element (law citations) that has a larger number of - many optional - attributes the user needs to specify or verify.

Is there a way to control the ordering of the attribute list in XMetaL 6?
(we are using XMetaL Author version  6.0.1.030)

regards,
Peter

[Derek Read]

This is a known issue that I hope we will be able to address soon.

There is no way to turn off the new alphabetic. What I would like to see is an option somewhere to toggle between the DTD order and the alphabetic order.

[mag3737]

As a workaround, if you are so inclined, you could create your own alternative UI for authors to modify attributes.  For example, Derek wrote this macro a while back which allows you to perform the functions of the Attribute Inspector by way of the context menu (right-click):

http://forums.xmetal.com/index.php/topic,738.0.html

It doesn't do exactly the same thing as the Attribute Inspector, and it gives you more than you want, such as an Element List submenu, but its purpose is to serve as example to illustrate what is possible.  You could modify it to meet your requirements better.

If you install the above sample, you will notice that the attributes are sorted alphabetically on the submenu it provides -- but that is easily changed by commenting out one line of code in the macro script:

Code:

add comment marker to line 216:
//elemAttrsArray.sort();

With that line commented out, the attributes do seem to appear on the submenu in the order in which they were defined.  (My test was with a schema-defined document.)

[slimke]

Hi everybody,

we got the same problem. We are using Xmetal 2 and Xmetal 5.5. Version 2 has the attributes in DTD order, 5.5 in alphabetically order.

Is there any way to get this changed? (last post here was on february...!)
(Except this workaround script)

[Derek Read]

No, there is no way to alter the application short of releasing a new version that does this. This is on the list of things to look into for our next release.

[slimke]

This is a known issue that I hope we will be able to address soon.

There is no way to turn off the new alphabetic. What I would like to see is an option somewhere to toggle between the DTD order and the alphabetic order.

Since the last post was in July 2011 i just want to ask if there is any new version that fixes this issue?
An option to toggle between the DTD order and alphabetic order shoulnd't be a big deal or?

Thx for help!

[Derek Read]

The feature is in XMetaL Author Essential 7.0 and will be inherited by XMetaL Author Enterprise 7.0 when it is released.