(.NET - XML) An Introduction to the XML Tools in Visual Studio 2005

This article is an introduction to the XML Editor and the XSLT Debugger in Visual Studio 2005 (formerly known by the codename "Whidbey").

Introduction
With wider adoption of XML, XSLT, XSD Schemas, and other applications, XML is being touched by developers at various places of the application. This mainstreaming of XML requires that developers be supported with better development tools. Visual Studio 2005 significantly improves the XML editing and XSLT Debugging experiences.

The XML editor includes the following functionality:

Design time well-formedness and validation errors.
Validation support for Schema, DTD, and XDR.
Inferring an XSD Schema from an XML instance.
Converting a DTD or XDR to XSD Schema.
Context-sensitive Intellisense.
XSLT editing, viewing the results of the transform.
Standard Visual Studio code-editing, such as outlining and commenting or un-commenting.
The XSLT debugger comprises the following functionality:

Invoking the debugger from the XML Editor.
The ability to set and remove breakpoints.
Standard Visual Studio debugger function key and menu bindings (F9 for setting/removing breakpoints, F11 for "Step In," and so on).
Viewing the output of the transform as it is being generated.
Locals, Watch, and Call stack windows.
Stepping into the XSLT from a C# (or any other CLR language) program.
The remainder of this article will explain the above listed features in more detail, and will also be a mini-tutorial for the XML Editor and the XSLT Debugger.