If you’re a Brightcove developer you know that the BEML template editor in Brightcove Studio is not a full featured editor. It will validate your BEML code when you paste/save it but it’s missing one important editor feature: code hinting. Fortunately, everything you need to easily edit BEML templates is completely free.

Basically, you need two things: an XML editor and one little tidbit of information.

First, if you already have an XML editor such as XML Spy, skip to the next paragraph. If not, go get Eclipse (eclipse.org) and the free XML Buddy plugin (http://usfiles.brothersoft.com/development/xml/xmlbuddy_2.0.9.zip). Unzip the eclipse distribution to a folder of your choice and then unpack the xmlbuddy_xxx.zip file into the {eclipse}\plugins directory. The only prerequisite for all this is Java since eclipse needs Java to run.

Second, create a new XML file and use this as the first line:

<!DOCTYPE Runtime SYSTEM “http://admin.brightcove.com/dtds/beml_rt.dtd”>

And then you have instant code hinting! You can edit using XML Buddy and then copy/paste into the “Edit your code in the space below” text field in Brightcove Studio. You’ll find yourself in a constant copy/paste/save cycle which isn’t convenient but it’s better than the alternative.

One note of caution! When BC Studio saves your BEML code it strips out that top line and replaces it with a simple <Runtime> tag. If you copy/paste from BC Studio into your XML editor, you’ll lose the part you need to support code hinting. It helps to have a simple text file handy with that one line only so you can restore it if (when?) you need to.

Happy editing!