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XML @ Web Programming
Programming Shed : Programmer Store & Resources |
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XML Index - XML Book :
Professional Xml (Programmer to Programmer)
by Mark Birbeck (Editor), Nikola Ozu, Jon Duckett, Andrew Watt, st Mohr, Oli Gauti Gudmundsson, Jon Duckett, Andrew Watt, Stephen Mohr, Kevin Williams, Oli Gauti Gudmundsson, Raja Mani, Daniel Marcus, Peter Kobak, Evan Lenz, Mark Birbeck, Brian Hickey, Zoran Zaev, Steven Livingstone, Jonathan Pinnock, Keith Visco Perfect Paperback - 1268 pages 2nd edition (May 2001) Wrox Press Inc ISBN: 1861005059 Dimensions (in inches): 2.19 x 9.20 x 7.32 Amazon.com: Professional XML is aimed toward seasoned Web or general application developers as a guide for developing sophisticated, real-world XML solutions. It successfully meets the most pressing need for programmers new to XML by putting all of the various component technologies into clear context. The near boundless potential of XML also means there is much ground to cover, and this book cuts no corners in taking the reader through the network of technologies, exploring both the presentation and data exchange applications of XML. This second edition represents the current state of the ever-evolving set of XML standards, particularly the momentum toward XML Schemas. The first couple of chapters compose an excellent XML introduction and the basic language syntax. Then the various authors delve into the individual components of XML such as document type definitions (DTD), XML Schemas, XPath, and XSLT. Most of the chapters include some concrete examples of how to implement the techniques in question. Late in the book, a full-fledged case study serves as an excellent compilation of several aspects of XML. The book goes beyond the basics of XML to give the reader a glimpse of the still unknown potential of the technology. A fascinating chapter on Schema Based Programming (SBP)--an experimental coding technique--adds a degree of excitement to the learning process and is sure to spark innovation in any creative programmer. Professional XML is another seminal work from Wrox. It should be required reading for anyone looking to become an XML guru. --Stephen W. Plain Topics covered: • XML introduction • Document type definitions • XML Schemas • XML-Data Reduced (XDR) • Validation tools • XPath, XSLT, XLink, XPointer • Fragments • Document Object Model (DOM) • Simple API for XML version 2 (SAX2) • Schema Based Programming (SBP) • Data modeling • XML data binding • VoiceXML • XSL-FO • RDF • SOAP • Microsoft BizTalk and B2B solutions Book Description: XML has made a major impact in almost every aspect of software development. Designed as an open, extensible, self-describing language, it has become the standard for data and document delivery on the web. The panoply of XML-related technologies continues to develop at breakneck speed, to enable validation, navigation, transformation, linking, querying, description, and messaging of data. This is the new edition of Professional XML, updated to cover the latest developments in XML. This book... Customer Reviews Reviewer: Sergio Buonanno from Pordenone, Italy The book covers too many topics and just few are developed in deep while others are superficially introduced because not yet standardized at the time of print. The book claims it covers the following topics: XML, XSLT, DOM, DTD, SOAP, XLink, XPointer, XPath, WAP, WML...and more; but just XML, Schemas, DTDs and SOAP could almost fit the book's size. Chapters don't follow a very logic thread and it doesn't deal enough with very relevant subjects. Wrox probably planned to make this book the XML bible but I think they are far from the target. Reviewer: Lee D Carlson from Global Mathematics Inc Saint Louis, Missouri USA The XML declarative language, with its adaptability and expressive power, is continuing to become the language of choice for reporting and classifying information. XML is a formal grammar that captures the syntactic features of a document type definition, and its properties, syntax, and applications are discussed effectively in this book. It covers XML as formalized by the W3C and the authors show how to use XML in Web-based and database applications. Readers who have developed applications in HTML will probably view XML as somewhat more abstract, since the visual representation of the content of a document is not emphasized in XML. Readers are expected to have a background in HTML, JavaScript, Java, and ASP in order to read the book. Although XML can be learned by reading the W3C specifications, these documents are frequently difficult reading, and this book makes the learning of XML much easier than reading these specifications. They include the W3C specifications for XML 1.0 in an appendix to the book for the interested reader. The book is a little dated, since the W3C has been updating XML specs since the time of publication (especially with regard to schemas), but there is a 2nd edition coming out soon. In Chapter 1, XML is introduced as a mark-up language and its inherent extensibility emphasized. This is followed by a detailed treatment of XML syntax in the next chapter, with emphasis placed on the hierarchical nature of XML. The authors do include a discussion of Processing Instructions (PIs) for users who want to use XML in this fashion. Document Type Definitions (DTD) are the subject of Chapter 3, where the authors communicate effectively how DTDs formal grammar is used to specify the structure and permissible values of XML documents. The formal DTD structure is discussed, and the principles behind writing DTDs are effectively outlined. They also discuss the problems with using DTDs. Data modeling with XML is discussed in the next chapter, with information modeling via static and dynamic models treated in detail, and the authors carefully distinguish these two approaches. The actual designing of XML documents is given a nice overview as well as the role of schemas in XML. This is followed in Chapter 6 by a discussion of the (tree-based) Document Object Model, which overviews how XML documents can be accessed by various programs. Some helpful examples are given on how the DOM can be used to create an XML document programmatically. An alternative way of processing an XML document is discussed in the next chapter on the (event-based) SAX interface. The authors outline in detail the benefits of using SAX rather than DOM. In Appendix B the reader will find the Internet Explorer 5.0 XML DOM 1.0 W3C specifications. In addition, in Appendix C, the specification for the SAX 1.0 interface is given. The shortcomings of DTD are addressed in terms of XML Schemas and namespaces in chapter 7. Since this book was published, XML Schemas have reached W3C recommendation status as of Nov 2000. The authors give a good overview of namespaces and schemas, with helpful examples. This is followed in chapter 8 by a discussion of how to link and query into XML documents using the XML information set, XLink, XPath, XPointer, XML Fragment Interchange, with XLST covered in the next chapter. For database applications, the authors outline the differences between relational databases and XML documents. A very detailed treatment of how XLST transforms the source document is given, and the authors compare XLS and DOM transformations. An Internet Explorer XSL reference is included in one of the appendices of the book. More details on the relationship between databases and XML is the subject of chapter 10, wherein the authors show how to store XML and how data can be communicated between different servers using XML. The issues involved when moving data from RDBMS to OODBMS or from Oracle to Sybase, are discussed by the authors. This is followed by an interesting discussion on how to use XML as a distributed component model for server-to-server communications via XML-Remote Procedure Call and Simple Object Access Protocol. E-commerce applications are discussed in the next chapter, with EDI and its improvement via XML. The business markup language cXML , which allows business to business electronic commerce transactions across the Internet, is also treated in detail. The authors then finally discuss how to render XML documents more readable and pleasing for the viewer in the next chapter using the style languages CSS and XSL. The discussion is really interesting, for the authors dig a little deeper into the foundations of style languages. The discussion of style languages as rule-based languages is particularly illuminating. The next chapter is very interesting and its inclusion is actually very surprising, namely a discussion of the Wireless Application Protocol. The authors give an introduction to the Wireless Markup Language and WMLScript. The book ends with four useful chapters on case studies for data duality, distributed applications, a book catalog information service, and SOAP. There are many applications of XML in many different areas, such as CellML (proprietary) used in cell biology, CML (Chemical Markup Language) for molecular chemistry, IML (Instrument Markup Language) for control of laboratory equipment, BSML (Bioinformatic Sequence Markup Language) for gene sequencing, and MathML for formatting of mathematical equations. I find XML an extremely powerful approach to information reporting and I am currently developing a package called NMML (Network Modeling Markup Language) for use in reporting results in simulation and mathematical modeling of networks, and FMML (Financial Modeling Markup Language) for use in reporting results in the modeling of financial instruments. This book, along with the W3C specifications, has been a tremendous help in the development of these applications. Reviewer: A reader from Boston, MA United States I found this book very boring and tedious reading. The style of the book seems to vary as much as the number of authors. The concepts don't smoothly flow together. The book is a hodgepodge of technical information presented in patches by a huge bunch of authors. Obviously this book was an attempt to bring to market a book on XML as quickly as possible. The book doesn't provide enough examples or applications although it does present many examples on syntax. This may be a good reference book, but to really learn how to use XML I'm searching for another book. |
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