XML Nanny is basically a graphical SAX parser with the added ability of validating your instance documents against many types of XML schemas (small ess) and displaying the results in an intuitive list.

Sometimes it's fun or instructive to parse your XML document with a SAX parser and look at the information items the XML parser finds in your document or DTD. To use XML Nanny for this purpose:

  1. Open XML Nanny. If you are parsing a local XML document, click the "browse" button next to the "Source" text field. Select your instance document in the Open File dialog that appears. If you are parsing a remote XML document on the web, type the URL for your instance document into the "Source" text field. Only the http:// protocol is supported.
  2. Select "None" in the "Validation" popup menu if you just wish to check your document for well-formedness. Note that XML Nanny will still attempt to load and parse an external DTD referenced in any Doctype Declaration in your instance document. Or, select "DTD" in the "Validation" popup menu if you wish to also validate your document against a DTD. With version 2.0, you cannot specify a DTD for validation puposes through the XML Nanny GUI. You must specify your Doctype in your instance document and XML Nanny automatically discover Doctype you want while parsing.
  3. Select the "Verbose" checkbox to see all the SAX events XML Nanny encounters while parsing your XML document.
  4. Toggle the "Namespaces" checkbox to enable namespace recognition in XML Nanny's XML parser.
  5. Click "Parse" and watch as XML Nanny displays a list of SAX-like events in the results list.
  6. If you are parsing a local XML document, you can click on any of the warnings or errors that appear in the result list to open the document in BBEdit with the offending line selected.