Can I add saved navigation points in XML Spy?

August 30, 2007 10:27 AM

I'm working with huge XML files in XML Spy so I'm using bookmarks to navigate around the files. But the bookmarks aren't saved so every time I reopen a file I have to add all the bookmarks again - goddamn does this drive me crazy! Is there any way to add navigation points in XML Spy that are saved?
posted by The_Partridge_Family to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

You could just manually insert comments where you'd like your bookmarks to be, then search for the bookmarks. If you do this, you can find your bookmarks regardless of editing interface.
posted by rachelpapers at 11:48 AM on August 30, 2007

Here is another nifty trick: instead of searching for bookmarks with Find in Files, you can also use the XPath analyzer in the Altova XMLSpy XML Editor to quickly navigate to those locations.

All you need to do is add comments to the XML file to mark those locations, e.g. <-- Bookmark #1 --> and then you can use the XPath expression //comment() to show all comment nodes in your file. Now you can click on each one and you will see them displayed in the editing view. You can even quickly reestablish bookmarks by clicking on each one and hitting Ctrl-F2 to set a new bookmark

For more details and a screenshot see my recent XML Aficionado blog posting "XMLSpy Tip: Using the XPath analyzer to quickly find information in files".
posted by XMLaficionado at 1:59 PM on September 25, 2007

The "File Commander PRO" plugin for XMLSpy does exactly what you want. Whenever you open the file again the bookmarks and even the last selection will be restored for you.

Check it out here:

Regards
posted by spycomponents at 6:36 AM on September 28, 2007

Well, the link is not shown in my comment from above. Another try: http://www.spycomponents.com
posted by spycomponents at 6:37 AM on September 28, 2007