Customizing the Oxygen XML Web Author

If you have plugins, frameworks, or specific options that work in the standalone version of Oxygen, and you tested them with the Oxygen Web Author Test Server Add-on, you can use them in the deployed version of the Web Author.

This tutorial assumes that you have already set up the Oxygen SDK startup project.

For detailed information about customizing Oxygen XML Web Author, see the Oxygen Web Author Customization Guide.

Compatibility with Oxygen XML Author

Please note that while we are trying to ensure that the frameworks, options, and plugins behave similarly in the Web Author and standalone version of Oxygen, there might be differences.

The Web Author Sample Project Layout

In order to customize the Web Author you have to modify the sample project, whose folder hierarchy is presented below:

mySample
+-- bundle-frameworks
    +-- oxygen-default-frameworks (*)
        +-- dita
    +-- oxygen-frameworks
        +-- <user-custom-frameworks-location>
+-- bundle-options
    +-- oxygen-options
        +-- options.xml
+-- bundle-plugins
    +-- dropins
+-- oxygen-sample-plugins
    |   ...
    +-- oxygen-sample-plugin-custom-protocol
...

(*) = The oxygen-default-frameworks folder will appear in the projects folder after the maven process-resource phase (after running mvn process-resources).

Configuring Web Author Options

The options in the Oxygen standalone distribution are also supported in the Web Author. This allows you to configure and ensure a consistent editing experience for all users.

You can modify the options in the Oxygen standalone GUI and then export them as an XML file by clicking the Options > Export Global Options... menu. The exported options file should replace the options.xml file from the bundle-options/oxygen-options/ folder in the Maven project.

Installing Custom Frameworks (Oxygen Document Types)

The custom document types can be re-used between the Oxygen standalone distribution and the Web Author. You just have to add your customized frameworks to the bundle-frameworks/oxygen-frameworks/ folder. As an example, the DITA framework is already provided in the Maven project (in the oxygen-default-frameworks folder.

Installing Oxygen Plugins

We currently provide support for the URLStreamHandler and WorkspaceAccess plugins in the Web Author.

The URLStreamHandler plugins can be used to integrate the Web Author with CMS or XML databases. There is an example URLStreamHandler provided in the sample project oxygen-sample-plugins/oxygen-sample-plugin-custom-protocol folder. The plugin uses the cproto protocol to access the file system of the server and can be used as a starting point.
In the WorkspaceAccess plugins most of the methods used to configure the Oxygen GUI are unavailable, but the plugins can still be used, for example, to configure an URIResolver.

If you have already developed such Oxygen plugins, they can be added in the bundle-plugin/dropins folder in the Maven project.

If you are developing a new Oxygen plugin we encourage you to add it as a Maven submodule to the oxygen-sample-plugins module. The structure of your Maven project should be similar to that of the other modules.