Applied XML: A Toolkit for Programmers

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

ALEX CEPONKUS has been working with XML since its inception and has built numerous XML applications. Alex is a student at the University of Toronto in the Division of Engineering Science, specializing in computer engineering. FARAZ HOODBHOY has spent more than three years working on large-scale information systems and consulting projects across the globe. Faraz is currently a student in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Department of Decision Sciences and Engineering Systems. Both Alex and Faraz have worked as program manager interns for Microsoft's XML technologies team.

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The tools and techniques you need to build applications and systems with XML.

IT professionals know that XML is well on its way to becoming the industry standard for information exchange on the World Wide Web. This book provides you with the hands–on details you need to create the next generation of Web applications. With this book/CD–ROM, two former Microsoft XML technologies team members supply you with the know–how and tools you need to harness the power of XML. Alex Ceponkus and Faraz Hoodbhoy walk you through numerous real–world examples illustrating effective techniques for using XML to enhance the data accessing and presentation capabilities of your programs.

You get an in–depth look at how to use the XML Document Object Model, the DOM, and techniques for leveraging the XML Stylesheet Language, XSL.

Learn how to:
∗ Build sophisticated e–commerce applications with XML.
∗ Use XSL with XML to facilitate data presentation.
∗ Radically enhance the data exchange capabilities of intranet and Web applications.
∗ Create customized markup languages.
∗ Create intelligent, searchable document structures.
∗ Access existing data in relational databases.
∗ Exploit XML in various real–world business scenarios.

On the CD–ROM you′ll find:
∗ Source code from the book.
∗ Demo applications.
∗ Active Server scripting examples for server–side interaction.
∗ Updates on XML from the W3C.
∗ The tools and applications you need to begin writing and testing your XML applications.

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Introduction

Technology is a funny business. One day everyone's screaming "object-oriented!" the next it's "push!" and today it's XML!" How does one separate the wheat from the chaff?

That's not something we try to tackle in this book.

Our objective in this book is to show you how to apply XML to real world scenarios. Yes, we spend some time covering the conceptual details of XML - but that's the easy stuff. What we chose to write about are things that most books couldn't cover before: how to use XML while creating real world applications.

About XML
That XML is big is something you already know or you wouldn't be picking out books from this shelf.

If you're asking yourself what XML is and why on earth everyone's making so much noise about it, XML is the eXtensible Markup language. It is a universal method for representing information that is especially well-suited to distribution over the Internet. It is a technology that, aside from having a lot of hype, has the real potential to change the way we compute today and a technology that has the backing of virtually every major industry player.

From a lifecycle perspective, XML today is where HTML was in 1992. Between then and 1995, if you knew anything about HTML, you were in for the ride of your life. While it is dangerous to draw parallels in the technology business, we're confident saying that now is a good time to know how to use XML.

How This Book Is Organized
This book is organized in three major parts, and while it helps to read all of them, we've tried to keep each independent and self-contained.

Part One - XML - A Panoramic View
In Part One we start from simple concepts that you are familiar with and provide you with a scaffolding of strut-like information so you can climb to the top and see XML in its entirety. We begin with a very general approach to XML and then move into more of an industry-specific overview of where XML is and what is happening. We then jump straight into describing the W3C XML 1.0 standard and provide you with the details you need to begin creating XML documents.

Part Two - XML Document Object Model
Part Two describes the Document Object model (DOM) specification as outlined in the W3C Recommended specification. The DOM is the critical link that exposes XML to programmers. It is a layer of abstraction in the form of objects that isolates the programmer from the nitty-gritty details of working with text documents. Even more importantly, this layer of abstraction can be implemented on top of existing databases (for example SQL or Oracle databases) and make the data appear to be XML.

Part Three - presenting XSL - The XML Stylesheet language
Perhaps the most visible application of XML will be through XSL, the XML Stylesheet Language. While XML provides a universal way of describing data, XSL provides a way for manipulating, transforming and displaying the data contained in XML documents. XSL is currently a W3C work in progress, however partial implementations of it do exist.