Microsoft .Net 2 SP1 Breaking Changes

We recently received feedback about an issue with the HTML Documentation Wizard failing to generate any files (see Knowledge Base). When we investigated further we found that the latest build 7.0.2 had an optimization included to run Garbage Collection to reduce the memory footprint when generating as large XML Schema could cause memory issues.

Unfortunately, we fell foul of the fact that .Net 2 SP1 introduced methods that did not exist in .Net 2. So any code that targets .Net 2 but calls any of the new SP1 methods will break on PCs that don't have SP1. This is made more likely as Visual Studio 2008 installs .Net 2 SP1, but has no way of showing the SP1 only methods in the intellisense.

This is an issue we have previously picked up during testing E.g. when using the FileDialog.AutoUpgradeEnabled Property. But it would appear for our latest point release 7.0.2, the test environment had .Net 2 SP1 installed, so the issue was not picked up...a warning to all you .Net 2 developers!

For clarity, it would probably have been better if Microsoft had moved the version to 2.1 when they released .Net 2 Service Pack 1.

This issue will be fixed in the next point release of Liquid XML Studio, in the meantime you can fix this by installing .Net 2 SP1.

JSON Import/Export Support in Liquid XML Studio 2009

In the latest Liquid XML Studio 2009 point release 7.0.2, we have sneaked in support to import and export JSON files as XML.

JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is a lightweight data-interchange format used by many web developers. You can now import your existing JSON file, view and edit it as an XML document and then export back into JSON format.

This is ideal for testing as you can validate the XML document against a schema, ensuring the JSON data is 100% valid.

Ease the credit cruch this New Year with our 20% discount

Happy New Year

To welcome in the New Year, we are pleased to announce a special 20% discount on all purchases made directly from our web site for the whole of January!!

Liquid XML Studio 2009 is packed with all the essential XML tools for your project, and for a limited period you can now purchase it for an unbelievable price:

• Liquid XML Studio 2009 Designer Edition = £115 ($175 / €125 approx.)
• Liquid XML Studio 2009 Developer Edition = £395 ($600 / €429 approx.)

To claim your 20% discount when making your purchase, use the discount code: Jan09

Remember this discount code will only work in January 2009.