A visual editor is automatically generated from an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) schema and then used to edit the data contained in corresponding XML documents. The entities within an XML schema are mapped to components of the visual editor, such as forms, widgets, etc., that are generated as class specifications. These class specifications can be customized through the use of a customization specification file, as desired. The class specifications are then instantiated as objects in a Java Virtual Machine to perform the functions of the visual editor.