External Tools allow 3rd party applications to be invoked within the Liquid XML Studio Environment, form more information see External Tools.
Once configured external tools can be assigned shortcut keys and added to other menus and toolbars, see customizing menus and toolbars.
This is the name that will appear in the drop down menu.
The executable to be invoked. This can contain Windows Environment variables (i.e. %windir%, %temp%, %homepath% etc)
The working directory that the executable will be run with, this can also contain Windows Environment variables.
The arguments passed to the application. This can contain Windows Environment variables, but also includes an additional set of substitutions.
Addition Substitutions
%FILE_NAME% if the full filename is c:\temp\test.txt, then this is test.txt %FILE_PATH% if the full filename is c:\temp\test.txt, then this is c:\temp %FILE_EXT% if the full filename is c:\temp\test.txt, then this is txt %FILE_FULLNAME% if the full filename is c:\temp\test.txt, then this is c:\temp\test.txt %FILE_NAME_WITHOUT_EXT% if the full filename is c:\temp\test.txt, then this is txt %TIME% i.e. hhmmss %HOUR% i.e. hh %MINUTE% i.e. mm %SECOND% i.e. ss %DATE% i.e. yyyymmdd %YEAR% i.e. yyyy %MONTH% i.e. mm %DAY% i.e. dd
A list of additional substitutions that can be used in the Arguments section.
Ensure that quotes are placed around path variables where applicable. If you fail to do this your path may appear to the application to be 2 arguments if it contains a space. I.e.
Using the following example :
Executable : C:\Windows\Notepad.exe
Arguments : %FILE_FULLFILENAME% (which will expand to c:\My Files\test.xml).
Resulting command Line
C:\Windows\Notepad.exe c:\My Files\test.xml
Notepad will interpret this as 2 arguments "c:\My" and "Files\test.xml".
So the Argument should be surrounded with quotes i.e. "%FILE_FULLFILENAME%".