Altova has announced the 2012 Release 2 of its MissionKit suite of XML, database, and UML tools. New features include support for working with EPUB files in XMLSpy, sorting of data mapping results in MapForce, generation of code from UML sequence diagrams in UModel, as well as RichEdit functionality in StyleVision and Authentic.

NOTE: EPUB denotes the "Electronic PUBlishing" file, the standard electronic book format used on a wide variety of eReaders including the Nook, Sony Reader, and iPad. XMLSpy 2012r2 now supports editing, validating, and previewing EPUB documents in its easy-to-use Archive View. XMLSpy itself is an advanced XML editor for modeling, editing, transforming, and debugging XML-related technologies.

"We are always looking to incorporate the functionality that our users need to be more productive with the ever-changing standards landscape and shifting demands of this industry," said Alexander Falk, president and CEO for Altova. "As the public response to Apple's recent launch of the iBooks Author program shows, there is an ever-growing demand for electronic publishing."

In conjunction with the 2012r2 release, Altova is launching a new XSLT Technical Training course as part of its Altova Online Training curriculum. New features available in the Altova MissionKit 2012 Release 2 include Zip and OOXML support extended to Professional Edition. This support allows users to access and work with data in zipped files such as Microsoft Office documents, which, in versions 2007 and higher, is saved in Open Office XML (OOXML) format.

Also new is support for logical files in IBM iSeries databases. To enhance integration with all major relational databases, XMLSpy now includes support for logical files, which are specific to IBM iSeries editions of the DB2 database.

Other features include:

• Ability to escape/unescape XML characters — Sometimes it's necessary to escape characters normally parsed as part of XML code to include them as text in an XML document. A new feature in XMLSpy 2012r2 makes this easy and much faster than escaping the code manually.

• Sorting data by various criteria — The 2012r2 version of MapForce includes two new sorting features: sorting structured data and sorting database input components, which users can apply in a variety of ways in their data-mapping projects.

• Support for logical files in IBM iSeries databases — For MapForce 2012r2, support for logical files means users can map data both to and from logical files in IBM iSeries databases.

• RichEdit Functionality — Designers creating Authentic eForms can leverage StyleVision 2012r2's RichEdit functionality to provide Authentic end users with dynamic formatting control at all levels of the form with ease.

• Support for logical files in IBM iSeries databases — StyleVision developers can now access logical files when creating database reports.