Real World XML, Second Edition
by Steve Holzner"Welcome to the world of Extensible Markup Language, XML..." (more) SIPs: loop index value, learned good morals, frequented public schools, five predefined entity references, events this element (more) CAPs: Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Creating Document Type Definitions, Understanding Java, Book One (more)
Amazon.com Inside XML is an intelligent and easy-to-follow guide to today's proliferating XML standards. Aside from being a road map to the latest and greatest in what's on the horizon with XML, this book gives you what you need to know to be productive with existing XML tools right now.
The tour begins with an introduction to the XML used in real-world applications (like the Chemical Markup Language, CML, and the Vector Markup Language, VML [for graphics]). While many books give you the basics, this one excels at explaining the conventions of designing robust XML document types in detail. With dozens of short examples, you'll learn XML conventions thoroughly, including some of the best practices for creating readable, maintainable content. The author highlights certain lines of XML code, so it's easier to see what's important.
After 200 pages of in-depth material on how to design XML documents, the book turns to using XML in actual browsers (both in Netscape and Internet Explorer). This practical focus means that you get to explore available Microsoft tools and how they sometimes differ from official W3C standards.
Subsequent sections turn to related XML standards, like XLinks and XPointers. Each section lists Web links to the latest online documents, but the emphasis isn't on theory so much as on what you can do right now. You'll learn how to use Java with XML, including navigating the XML Document Object Model (DOM) using IBM's XML for Java (XML4J) package. The tutorial explaining the Simple API for XML (SAX) does a great job of explaining the advantages of this popular tool.
Final chapters delve into displaying XML with several existing standards, including XHTML (for Web browser content), VML (for drawing shapes), and the Resource Description Framework (RDF) for allowing XML-based content searching. Final sections look at combining XML with Perl and Java (through servlets and JSPs) and give a glimpse at wireless content created with the Wireless Markup Language (WML).
Suitable for any developer or IT manager who needs to understand and use XML, Inside XML provides an authoritative yet approachable source of information on a fast-changing set of standards that are almost sure to revolutionize computing over the next few years. --Richard Dragan
Topics covered:
Comprehensive introduction to XML basics and tools
Designing XML documents (including "well-formed" XML, tags and elements, and attributes and namespaces)
Document Type Definitions (DTDs)
Entities and attributes (including design documents)
XML Schemas (using Internet Explorer)
Introduction to JavaScript
Using JavaScript with the XML Document Object Model (DOM)
Cascading style sheets (CSS)
Overview of basic Java programming
Parsing XML with IBM's XML for Java (XML4J)
Java and the Simple API for XML (SAX)
XSL transformations (XSL style sheets and XSL formatting objects)
XLinks and XPointers
Introduction to XHTML
The Resource Description Framework (RDF)
The Microsoft Channel Definition Format (CDF)
The Vector Markup Language (VML)
Using XML with Java
Perl and ASP on the server
Quick introduciton to the Wireless Markup Language (WML)
First Sentence:
Welcome to the world of Extensible Markup Language, XML. Read the first pageStatistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs):(learn more)
loop index value, learned good morals, frequented public schools, five predefined entity references, events this element, formatting object document, set this attribute, public static void display, xlink xlink, given child node, simple page master, var xmldoc, father modesty, node list containing, simple xlink, char handler, javag lang, int static int, context node, woolly world, value broccoli, transitional dtd, put msg, public void warning, behavior url
Capitalized Phrases (CAPs):(learn more)
Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Creating Document Type Definitions, Understanding Java, Book One, The Meditations, Nicolas Copernicus, World Wide Web Consortium, Blandings Builds His Dream House, Method Does This Methods, Planetary Data, Java String, Dublin Core, Element Event Attributes, Britta Regensburg, Betty Richardson, Single Record Binding Using, Module Description, Doug Glass, Union Drive, Attribute Type Default Description, Sun Microsystems, Working With External Style Sheets, Disk Drive, Favorites Media
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Browse Sample Pages: Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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47 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
Exciting book, December 10, 2000
Reviewer:
ZhongDan LAN (Newark, New Jersey, USA) - See all my reviews
This book is exciting. It suits xml novices and experts.
What's good in this book:
1. Both for beginners and advanced. More advanced than <<XML by example>> and <<Java and XML>, easier to read and more practical than <<Professional XML>>.
2. Both microsoft and non microsoft.
3. XML schemas, it's quite new and it's well explained in the book.
4. Java and DOM, Java and SAX. More advanced than <<Java and XML>>.
5. It is good to introduce XHTML, it is a bridge between HTML and XML and is becoming popular.
6. Introductions to different special XML Markup Language.
7. Infosets and Canonical XML (in Chapter 1).
Some opinions:
Presentation can be improved, code can be made downloadable, can have more on a) XML for deplayment (of JSP, EJB, J2EE, ...), b) SOAP, c) XSP, d) WML and e) Java with JSP, ASP
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52 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
Comprehensive, Well Organized, Great value for money, December 16, 2000
Reviewer:
Masood M. Khan (American University of Sharjah, Sharjah, Sharjah United Arab Emirates) - See all my reviews
Inside XML by Steven Holzner is probably the most comprehensive book written on XML so far. Each of the one thousand and fifty nine pages (excluding index) contains judicious and practical information for anyone willing to learn almost everything about XML. The logical organization of knowledge and adroit arrangement of information in the book make reading a joy. Can this be the only book you need to read about XML? I think yes.
XML indeed is the future of business and communication on the net. Many analysts believe that despite its wonderful portability and universal compatibility, XML has yet to achieve practitioners' acceptance and approbation. XML standards have not been practiced as ubiquitously as analysts had expected. List of major reasons for its slow advance includes lack of browser support and functional inconsistencies of currently available XML parsers. I always believed that "lack of quality literature on XML" also contributed to XML's limited success. "Inside XML" has definitely eliminated this particular reason from my list of reasons for XML's slow progress.
Author has discussed CSS, DOM and SAX parsers, XSL, XHTML, RDF and CDF with the help of relevant and interesting examples. This was missing in some of the recent books on XML. I recently read three other books on XML including Benoit Marchal's XML by example and John Simpson's Just XML. I found Inside XML more useful as it covers a much broader range of topics and technologies than those covered elsewhere. Important topics such as server-side XML are covered in a way that an instructor can develop instructional plans based on this coverage. A detailed discussion on Microsoft specific technologies has made this book a great resource for programmers and developers too. Inside XML can be used to develop certification material. Material presented in this book can also be used for developing a one-semester senior level course on XML technologies.
This book has a high information-value to price ratio and I can confidently recommend the book to anyone interested in practicing XML for the real world. Students, developers and instructors can equally benefit from the material presented in this book.
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Customer Reviews
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Great for Newbies (to XML and Programming in general), May 5, 2005
Reviewer:
nathanc (Dallas) - See all my reviews
This book is VERY comprehensive. Holzner literally holds your hand through every single step, which is great if you are totally new XML or even programming in general.
However, if you have more than 1 or two years real world experience programing, this book will more than likely just frustrate you on certain levels. The information is still top notch, it's just that the path getting there is very deliberate.
See some of the other negative reviews for examples.
Still, I think it's a great book.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
One of the better XML books around, March 11, 2005
Reviewer:
O'Sienna (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews
XML can be a rather dry topic. Steve Holzner writes in a style that makes the subject rather interesting. It's the first XML book that I've come across that hasn't sent me to sleep. This book is a great intro into the world of XML. Highly recommended for those looking for a starting point.
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A good reference book on XML and its uses., July 26, 2004
Reviewer:
R. Mahalingam (Columbia Java Users group, SC) - See all my reviews
Title:Real World XML
Edition: 1st edition?
Author: Dr. Steven Holzner
City: Indianapolis, IN
Publisher: Peachpit press
Published Date: 2003
Reviewer Name: Ravi Mahalingam
E-mail address: [email protected]
Review Date: 25 July 2004.
Overall value of the book:
4=Very useful and well written. I will refer to this book again.
Instructional value of the book:
5=Excellent! An essential book on this topic.
Please rate the reference value of this book from 1-5 where
4=This book has earned a valued place on my reference shelf.
The author is an exponent in this field and has written a number of articles adn XML. Due to the mastery over XML, the author has taken the time to explain all the concepts, history and ways to create XML document. the author has written the book at various levels. from basic to advanced depending on the need of the reader. this book can be used by the students of XML who want to start from scratch.
the author begins the book (chapter 1) by touching the salient features of the XML, its features, editor, and different implementations of XML in fields such as chemical markup language to name a few. the author has also explained about creating well formed documents, validating them against DTDs and XML schemas.
the author had provided history about XML schemas asn provided ways to create scheams. Javascript has been used for manipulating XML documents and examples to explain the difficult concepts. the book also describes how to use XML with data from a traditional RDBMS with simple examples.
this book is an excellent book and I will be buying my cousin this book - he was looking for a good book on XML. I think it is a great honor to evaluate a book by this author.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Very good overview of XML technologies..., January 8, 2004
Reviewer:
Thomas Duff (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews
This is the second edition of Holzner's book, which was originally titled Inside XML. I purchased Inside XML back in 2001 when I first started exploring XML, and it was a good choice back then. Looking at the new version of the book, my opinion hasn't changed. It's still a good choice.
Holzner assumes little programming knowledge in his writing. The JavaScript and Java chapters dealing with XML each start with a very high-level tutorial on the language. It's enough to allow you to understand how XML processing can fit in that environment. Throughout the entire book, there is an abundance of examples that you can study and use to get you up and running quickly. To me, the value of this book is how it gives you a great overview of all the pieces of XML as well as example code to make it all come together.
Perhaps the only "drawback" to this book is how much it tries to cover. Looking at the table of contents, you see that XML is actually a number of technologies that are used in conjunction with each other. You could easily buy individual books that are more comprehensive in coverage for any one of these related technologies, like SOAP, XSL, or Cascading Style Sheets. Conversely, you would get so bogged down in the minute details that you'd miss the bigger picture of how they all fit together. This book gives you more than enough information to get started, as well as helping you to understand what it is you still don't know.
For Notes/Domino developers, this is a perfect title to use to get started on XML technology. You will likely find yourself at some point having to either read or produce an XML file for exchange with another business entity. This book will help you to understand what you need to know to get it done. You could use the Java examples in order to code Domino agents to process XML, and those same examples could also help you to understand some of the LotusScript XML classes that are now provided in Notes/Domino. The SOAP chapters will also be valuable should you have to learn to use and/or create web services for your application.
Conclusion
If you are a beginning or intermediate developer who needs to learn the basics of XML in a hurry, this is a very good choice. If you need in-depth knowledge of any particular part of XML, you could supplement this choice with a specific book on that subject. Recommended.
See all Editorial Reviews
Exciting book, December 10, 2000
Great for Newbies (to XML and Programming in general), May 5, 2005