Release of XMLmind XSL-FO Converter v6.2

Release of XMLmind XSL-FO Converter v6.2

XMLmind XSL-FO Converter Evaluation Edition v6.2 can be downloaded from https://www.xmlmind.com/foconverter/downloadeval.shtml. Professional Edition users, please upgrade using this form: https://www.xmlmind.com/store/download.php.

Enhancements:

• XMLmind XSL-FO Converter engine: element fo:block-container with a reference-orientation attribute equal to 90, 270, -90 or -270 may be used to temporarily switch the page orientation from portrait to landscape. This feature is typically used to help MS-Word or OpenOffice/LibreOffice display a wide table or a wide figure. More information here.
• XMLmind XSL-FO Converter engine for .NET: upgraded the .NET implementation of the Java™ runtime needed to run XMLmind XSL-FO Converter to IKVM.NET 8.1.5717.0 (which corresponds to Java 1.8.0_45).
• XMLmind XSL Utility and XMLmind XSL Server:
  • Converting a DocBook document to any XSL-FO based output format now generates PDF, RTF, WML, DOCX, ODT files hopefully looking better than before. This is implemented by changing the default values of a large number of DocBook XSL Stylesheets parameters and attribute sets.
  • Upgraded the following components:
    • Upgraded XMLmind DITA Converter (ditac for short) to version 3.7.1. This new version supports <table orient="land">.
    • Upgraded XMLmind Web Help Compiler (whc for short) to version 3.0.1. The Web Help generated by whc v3 gets a fresh new look. Moreover:
      • It is now “responsive” by default, that is, it adapts its layout to the size of the screen (e.g. it can adapt to the screen of a smartphone in portrait mode). This feature is controlled by new parameter wh-responsive-ui.
      • It does not leverage jQuery UI anymore (only jQuery now). However some new parameters (e.g. wh---navigation-background-color="#F6F8FA") may be used to override most fonts and colors used in the generated Web Help.
      • New parameter wh-ui-language may be used to specify the language used by the messages of the generated Web Help (tab labels, button tool tips, etc). The default is to use the language of the Web browser.
    • Upgraded XMLmind Assembly Processor to version 1.0.9.
    • Upgraded Saxon to version 9.9.1.6.
    • Upgraded the Apache Batik plug-in to version 1.12.
    • Upgraded the Apache FOP plug-in to version 2.4.
• XMLmind XSL Utility: added a "Use the native file chooser in preference to the multi-platform file chooser" option to the Preferences dialog, in the General section. This option is turned off by default because file extension filters are not supported when the native file chooser is invoked by Java™.
• All programs which are part of XMLmind XSL-FO Converter are now officially supported on Java™ 13 platforms and on macOS Catalina (version 10.15).

Bug fixes:

• Setting shorthand properties to an invalid value (e.g. vertical-align="center" instead of vertical-align="middle", vertical-align being a CSS shorthand mapping to XSL properties alignment-baseline, alignment-adjust, baseline-shift, dominant-baseline) could cause the XMLmind XSL-FO Converter engine to raise a NullPointerException.
• Apache FOP options: the "Choose a TTF font and specify its aliases" dialog box picked the localized font family name (e.g. "BIZ UD明朝 Medium") rather the normal font family name ("BIZ UDMincho Medium"). This bug caused FOP to report a fatal error (e.g. BIZ-UDMinchoM.ttc: Name does not exist in the TrueType collection: BIZ UD明朝 Medium) when converting an XML document to PDF.

Incompatibilities:

• XMLmind XSL Utility and XMLmind XSL Server: when converting a DocBook document to any XSL-FO based output format (PDF, RTF, WML, DOCX, ODT), the generated file may look different than in previous versions. For example, when generating PDF, the default values of parameters admon.graphics and admon.textlabel are: admon.graphics=1, admon.textlabel=0. In previous versions, the default values of these parameters were: admon.graphics=0, admon.textlabel=1.
• A Java™ 1.6+ runtime is still sufficient to run the XMLmind XSL-FO Converter engine, Java Edition. However a Java™ 1.8+ runtime is now required if you need SVG and MathML support.

What is XMLmind XSL-FO Converter?

XMLmind XSL-FO Converter is an XSL-FO processor similar to Apache FOP, RenderX XEP or Antenna House XSL Formatter, except that it generates RTF, WML, ODT and DOCX file formats rather than PDF.

More importantly, this commercial product comes with a handy desktop application called XMLmind XSL Utility which makes it easy converting DITA, DocBook, XHTML and XSL-FO documents to a variety of formats (PDF, RTF, WML, ODT, DOCX, HTML, EPUB, Web Help, etc).

XMLmind XSL Utility also makes it easy customizing the deliverables it generates (PDF, DOCX, EPUB, Web Help, etc) and this, without modifying configuration files by hand and without prior knowledge of XSLT. See https://www.xmlmind.com/foconverter/_distrib/xslutil/doc/help/com.xmlmind.xslutil.ConversionEditor.html#customizing_xslt

Home page: https://www.xmlmind.com/foconverter/