Released: Mar 25, 2024

Updates in V26.1

Funktionen

Artificial Intelligence

• Preview Feature Improved - The preview functionality used by the AI Positron Assistant plugin has been improved, now enabling you to selectively choose which of the AI's proposed changes will be incorporated into your document. It is important to mention that the AI Positron Assistant plugin is currently accessible exclusively on the Web Author demo server and soon to be available for Web Author on-premise installations.

DITA

• Added Support for DITA-OT Projects - DITA-OT project files can be designed in a modular fashion to create reusable configuration structures that allow you to define settings in one file and refer to them in other projects to publish multiple deliverables at once. The DITA Map pane now has controls that you can use to specify a DITA-OT project file and choose between the contexts defined within it. This allows you to easily choose the current context map and content filtering, allowing you to visualize and edit the content for a specific publication. By setting a project, you can also easily switch between its contexts to see a preview of each final publication.
• More Control When Setting a DITA Context - You now have more flexibility when it comes to imposing a DITA context, either by choosing a DITA project and one of its contexts, or by choosing a DITA map and a DITAVAL filtering file. This grants you a larger focus to edit content in a specific context. You can easily switch profiling conditions using a convenient drop-down control instead of having to browse for DITAVAL files.
• Focus on a Deliverable by Only Showing Content That is Not Excluded by a DITA Context - For content that is excluded by a DITAVAL context filter, you can now easily choose whether to hide it or show it as grayed out. By hiding the excluded content, you can preview the document in its final publication form.

General Editing Improvements

• Emojis Supported in Document Content - You can insert emojis within document content and they are now rendered properly.
• Outline Pane Distinguishes Nodes Filtered by DITAVAL - The Outline pane now presents as grayed-out nodes that are filtered by the current DITAVAL file that is applied to the document, making it easier to distinguish which nodes are filtered by the DITAVAL.
• Outline Pane Automatically Scrolls and Expands Nodes When Dragging - When dragging a node within the Outline pane, the outline tree now automatically scrolls along with the movement to make it easier to precisely drop the node where needed. Furthermore, dragging a node over a collapsed entry now automatically expands it so that you can precisely choose where it should be dropped within the expanded entry.
• Split Action in Content Completion Automatically Inserts Required Child Element - When using the Split action within the content completion feature, if the initial element has a required first child element, it will now be automatically added as an empty child element inside the newly created element so that after insertion the document stays valid.
• Edit DocBook 5.2 Documents - Support has been added for creating and editing DocBook 5.2 documents.

Concurrent Editing

• Text Mode is Read-Only During Concurrent Editing Sessions - When using the Edit as XML action to enter the Text editing mode during an active concurrent editing session, the document is set as read-only to prevent overriding changes made by other collaborators in the current shared editing session. Previously, the text mode was unavailable during concurrent editing sessions.

Markdown

• Smart Paste Markdown Content - Markdown content that is pasted within DITA, DocBook, TEI, or XHTML documents in the Author visual editing mode is now converted to the target vocabulary, similar to pasting web page content or Microsoft Word content.

Customization and Integration

• Enable Authentication with GitHub or GitLab - A new option has been added in the Security section within the Administration page to select the provider for application-level authentication. The possible providers that can be selected are: GitHub, GitLab, and GitLab Enterprise.
• CSS Inspector Pane - A new CSS Inspector side-pane has been added that lets you see the styling/formatting that has been applied to the selected element. It makes it easier to understand what CSS rules were involved in determining the style of an element. You can open the view by selecting About Element->Inspect Styles from the contextual menu.
• Download Logs from Administration Page - You can now troubleshoot the Web Author server more easily by downloading the server logs that are available from the Administration Page.
• Framework Validation - You can now spot framework configuration problems in the new framework validation dialog box that appears when you upload the framework. This helps to keep your customized frameworks problem-free.
• Line/Column URL Anchors Now Supported - When opening a file using a configured URL, it is now possible to use an anchor that has the line=#,column=# format. The anchor will point to the element located at the specified line and column number within the source of the XML document.
• Impose DITAVAL Filtering Using a URL Parameter - A new URL parameter (show.excluded.content) can now be used to control whether the content excluded by a DITAVAL filter is shown as grayed out or hidden. If the parameter is set to true, the content that is excluded by the DITAVAL filter is shown as grayed out while setting the parameter to false hides the excluded content.
• Impose DITA Project File and Context Using URL Parameters - Two new URL parameters can now be used to impose the DITA Project file and a Context for filtering the document. The dita.project.url parameter specifies the URL of the DITA Project file and optionally, you can use the dita.project.contextid parameter to specify the ID of a Context that is defined inside the project file.
• Accelerate Git Project Loading Using the Hybrid Retrieve Strategy - Large Git projects now can have faster loading times due to the implementation of a new Hybrid Retrieve Strategy mode. By enabling this configuration, Git projects are loaded faster by using an in-memory clone during the loading process. The configuration option can be found in the Git plugin configuration page that can be reached from the Administration page.

API

• Show URL Chooser With Specific URL Selected - A new JavaScript API (sync.api.UrlChooser.Context.setInitialUrl) can be used to show a URL chooser (file browser) with a specific URL selected to make it easy for users to choose a file that is in the same directory.
• Add a Toolbar in a Side View - Two new API methods can now be used to add a toolbar in the header of a side view. The getToolbarDescriptor method defines the structure of the toolbar, while the getToolbarActionsMap method creates an actions map that contains the custom actions that will be available in the toolbar.

Component Updates

• The integrated JGit library has been upgraded to version 6.8.0.202311291450-r.