XML File - Opening on a Mac

scargill

I have never used a mac - bear that in mind when reading my query !


I have a windows application that produces an XML file. This XML file is being sent to a printers to print some information in a particular format. The XML file contains a reference to a style sheet on our website for formatting.

When I open the XML doc on a windows PC in Internet Explorer or FireFox it displays perfectly.

OK - the printer I am sending it to is in the Middle East - his English is terrible and my Arabic is worse. They only have Macs in their organisation and he says he can't open this file.

Is there any reason this can't be opened on a Mac ? Will XML files open in a browser by default or how does it work ?

The idea of this is that he receives this doc - opens it in a web browser - copies it into his DTP application, preserving layout and formatting.

Does this sound like a reasonable thing to be able to do on a Mac - I'm sure it is, but this guy is trying to tell me it can't work !

Many Thanks

cornbb

Its possible you are using an encoding which is not compatible either with Mac or with his particular localised version of Mac. Its also possible that he simply isn't using the right application to open the XML file. What Windows app did you use to create the file?

If you like (if the xml file isn't important/confidential or whatever) send me a PM and I'll give you my email address to send me the file. I'll check it out on my Mac so at least then you will know if its just his Mac or all Macs.

440Hz

@cornbb: Ahhh you got there first!! grrrrr in a few days i wont be around to kick you anymore damn!!

scargill

Thanks very much - pm sent

Dorsanty

You didn't say how the other person gets the xml file? Via browser website or e-mailed to them?

You need to be wary of text encoding differences between the Windows and Unix world. Windows has a habit of sticking in lots of hidden special chars for new line etc which a Unix system sees as extra text. If you have a single unix system somewhere try opening your xml file in WinVi (http://www.winvi.de/en/download.html) text editor on windows to spot what the file should look like on a Unix machine.

Also on Mac .xml may not be handled by a browser by default. On my Mac OmniOutliner is the default for .xml. But it's not hard to select 'open with' option.


Edit: Damn, too long spent tpying.

scargill

Dorsanty wrote: »

You didn't say how the other person gets the xml file? Via browser website or e-mailed to them?

it's sent via email to him once a week.

scargill

some more info:

A horse racing organisation is using our software to produce race cards. They were printing these racecards to a PDF document and sending them to the printer. The printer was copying and pasting this document into his DTP app to produce a printed racecard.

The PDF document has a header, many item lines, new page, header, many item lines, new page, etc, etc.

The problem with this is that page break is based on an A4 page. They are playing around with different formats for the printed race card so using the PDF won't really work any more. That's why we decided to go with an XML file. He can copy and paste the header info and as many item lines as he wishes (depending on the length of page they choose).

This will also allow him do minor corrections to the data. At the moment if a mistake is found in the PDF it has to be recreated from our app and emailed to him again.

The reason we reckoned this would be a good solution is that I can copy and paste the XML file from IE and paste it into MS Word and all the formating is preserved. I can change text, colours, etc.

Also, because the style sheet is on the web, we can quickly change something in the layout of the header or items without having to update our application or send the printer a new XML file.

Dorsanty

scargill wrote: »

The reason we reckoned this would be a good solution is that I can copy and paste the XML file from IE and paste it into MS Word and all the formating is preserved. I can change text, colours, etc.

Okay if my memories of Word and good html are anything to go by then an xml file saved in word and then e-mailed will not be valid xml unless the receiving party is opening in Word also.

You may want to ditch Word in favor of a proper xml editor but I cannot recommend one myself. I'm sure someone else here might be able to.

cornbb

Already emailed this to scargill but I'll post here in case anyone else needs this info in the future.

Opened the file in TextEdit and VI, the encoding looks fine. Absolutely no weird characters or missing line breaks.

Opened the file in Firefox, it displayed all the plain text correctly but left out line breaks, colours, bolded text, all useful formatting basically.

Opened the file in Safari and it displayed perfectly (Safari useful for something, who knew it )

So it appears there's some compatibility issue with Firefox... or something...

Dorsanty wrote:

You may want to ditch Word in favor of a proper xml editor but I cannot recommend one myself. I'm sure someone else here might be able to.

There was actually no problem on this occasion with the encoding but this is good advice in general anyway. I'd recommend Smultron as a good all-round text editor.

scargill

sorry - I was just using word as an example of something I could paste the file into once I copied it from a browser. (to test if the formatting was being preserved)

Our app produces an XML file - and this XML is emailed directly to printer.