Into the edit box, past a chunk of valid XML - the longer the better, but remember it should be well formed XML.
Click "Parse Value"
At this point, the XML value that you have pasted is entered into the system under a particular name, probably "File 1" unless you changed it on the paste window. There are a few options you can do to get a sense of the system.
Click on "Reformat" - this will indent the tags properly, and it will also sort the tags alphabetically within a container, so that the file is in a canonical form that can be easily "diff"ed.
Click on "Data View" which offers a view more convenent for casual browsing.
Click on "Return to XML View" to get back to previous options.
Click on "Generate Schema". This will create a "Min Schema", a non standardized format that describes the XML in terms of containers and data elements. Note that a Min-Schema (maybe MinSch for short) is also a Minimal XML file itself.
Click on "Change File" to see that you now have two files in memory, and can switch between them. You can of course load more files into memory.
Click on "Load Web Resource" to has the system read an XML file that is available on the web. You need to enter a valid URL to an XML resource, such as an RSS feed, etc. Finish with "Load from URL" button and see the XML displayed.
Click on "Modify" and see that you get a text editor that allows you to make direct modifications to the currently selected file.
Future Planned Enhancements
There is already a Validate button, which validates according to Min-Schema rules (which are minimalistic at this point). Note that the output is also a Minimal XML file.
You have to associate a schema with a file, and this is currently cumbersome user interface. Could be better.
XSLT Transforms - load an XSLT program in as a file, and apply it to another file. This could be an easy way to test validity.
File format recognition: given a set of schemas, it might be possible to find the "best fit" schema, in effect automatically recognizing the schema for a particular file. Thus you would load an XPDL file into memory, and it would immediately recognize it as such.
Additional means of specifying validation tests in Java.
Persistent files: if you log in and have an account, you coudl save files on the server.
Last edited by Unknown User 09/27/2009(Effective date 09/27/2009)
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XML Grinder is a fairly primitive tool for handling Minimal XML. These instructions should allow you to get a feel for what it can do.
At this point, the XML value that you have pasted is entered into the system under a particular name, probably "File 1" unless you changed it on the paste window. There are a few options you can do to get a sense of the system.
Future Planned Enhancements