sunBow Preview version available

We are making this initial preview version of sunBow available for download. This is a limited version (it expires on the 1st of August). We will probably be posting additional versions containing new features in the coming weeks - so keep checking back. The final version will be commercial. A price has not yet been fixed.

sunBow is an eclipse based Cocoon IDE. It's aim is to ease the development of Cocoon based applications using a single IDE. Apart from the functionality already provided by eclipse (for example CVS) sunBow provides additional components that help with XML/XSL authoring and test. In addition sunBow also provides components that are Cocoon specific - such as a sitemap editor.

The vision for sunBow is for it to become the one-stop tool for Cocoon development. Here is a complete list of the functionality contained in this preview version:

• XSLT Transformation: Select an XML and XSLT file from your project and start the transfromation.
• XSLT Trace: Step through the transformation.
• XML Validator: Checks if your XML files are well-formed or vallid while saving a file. This is an extension of an available syntax highlighting editor.
• Sitemap Editor: Dialog orientated editor for the sitemap. User is guided with restrictions, that are defined in an XML schema for the sitemap.
• Deployment: Copy your files to a per project defined deployment directory. Changed files are logged and can be selected for deployment.

• Pipeline testing
• Tracing the processing of the pipeline
• Managing the Cocoon configuration from within the IDE
• Deployment using WebDAV

What would you like to see in a product such as sunBow? Let us know. Send any comments, questions or ideas to sunbow-support [at] s-und-n.de. Remember this preview version is provided as is - but we will do our best to help you if you have any questions etc. Please also check this weblog regularly as it will become the main source of information.

You can download the plugin files from:

http://sunshine.s-und-n.de/downloads/sunBow/sunBowPlugins_P2.zip

You will need to have a version of eclipse (www.eclipse.org) already installed on your system - this release has been tested with eclipse stable build M5. Updates will be made available for following stable builds.

Then just unzip the file into the eclipse/plugins directory. If eclipse is running you have to restart it.

You can find documentation on sunBow contained in the integrated eclipse help system.