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Linked Output Messages of an External Engine

Validation engines display messages in an output view at the bottom of the Oxygen XML Editor window. If such an output message (warning, error, fatal error, etc) spans between three to six lines of text and has the format specified below, then the message is linked to a location in the validated document. Clicking the message in the output view highlights the location of the message in an editor panel containing the file referenced in the message. This behavior is similar to the linked messages generated by the default built-in validator.

Linked messages have the following format:

  • Type: [F|E|W] (the string Type: followed by a letter for the type of the message: fatal error, error, warning). This property is optional in a linked message.
  • SystemID: A system ID of a file (the string SystemID: followed by the system ID of the file that will be opened for highlighting when the message is clicked in the output message - usually the validated file, the schema file or an included file).
  • Line: A line number (the string Line: followed by the number of the line that will be highlighted).
  • Column: A column number (the string Column: followed by the number of the column where the highlight will start on the highlighted line). This property is optional in a linked message.
  • EndLine: A line number (the string EndLine: followed by the number of the line where the highlight ends). This property is optional in a linked message.
  • EndColumn: A column number (the string EndColumn: followed by the number of the column where the highlight ends on the end line). This property is optional in a linked message.
    Note: The Line/Column pair works in conjunction with the EndLine/EndColumn pair. Thus, if both pairs are specified, then the highlight starts at Line/Column and ends at EndLine/EndColumn. If the EndLine/EndColumn pair is missing, the highlight starts from the beginning of the line identified by the Line parameter and ends at the column identified by the Column parameter.
  • AdditionalInfoURL: The URL string pointing to a remote location where additional information about the error can be found - this line is optional in a linked message.
  • Description: Message content (the string Description: followed by the content of the message that will be displayed in the output view).

Example:

Example of how a custom validation engine can report an error using the format specified above:
Type: E
SystemID: file:///c:/path/to/validatedFile.xml
Line: 10
Column: 20
EndLine: 10
EndColumn: 35
AdditionalInfoURL: http://www.host.com/path/to/errors.html#errorID
Description: custom validator message