1. A computer-implemented method, comprising: using a browser executing on a local computing system to access and display a hypertext markup language (HTML) representation of an extensible markup language (XML) file, the HTML representation including: a plurality of elements of the XML file formatted in accordance with an extensible stylesheet language (XSL) transform associated with the XML file, wherein at least one of the plurality of elements is empty; and a plurality of editing handlers inserted within the HTML representation to facilitate modifying the HTML representation and applying the changes to the XML file; receiving a selection of a first element of the HTML representation that is displayed; in response to the selection of the first element of the HTML representation, evaluating XML attributes of a first XML element that is represented by the first element of the HTML representation; dynamically generating a dialog including fields that represent the XML attributes of the first XML element, the fields used to modify the XML attributes of the first XML element in the XML file and displaying the dialog, wherein dynamically generated dialogs change depending on XML attributes of the first XML element as defined in the schema represented by the HTML representation; allowing modification of the first element of the HTML representation through the dialog for purposes of applying the modifications to the XML file; receiving a selection of a second element of the HTML representation that represents a second XML element that is empty, wherein the empty second XML element is visually represented in the HTML representation such that a user can engage the second XML element; displaying an indication to edit the second element of the HTML representation; and receiving an edit to the second element of the HTML representation and applying the edit such that the second XML element is no longer empty.
9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising validating the modification to the HTML representation, including: before allowing the user to modify the HTML representation, accessing an XML schema associated with the XML file; and allowing the modification to the HTML representation if the modification is consistent with attributes included in the XML schema.