Product Description
This powerful new edition provides developers with a comprehensive guide to the rapidly evolving XML space.Serious users of XML will find just about everything they need, from fundamental syntax rules, to details of vocabulary creation, to transformations, to APIs used for processing XML documents.XML in a Nutshell, in fact, is the only reference of its kind among XML books. Whether you're a Web designer using SVG to add vector graphics to web pages, or a C++ programmer using SOAP to serialize objects into a remote database, this expanded second edition provides a thorough explanation of all the basic rules -- including XML, DTDs, namespaces, Unicode, XML Schemas, XSLT, Xpath, SAX, and DOM. If you need explanation of how a technology works, or just need to quickly find the precise syntax for a particular piece, this is the place to look.XML in a Nutshell is an essential guide for developers who need to create XML-based file formats and data structures for use in any XML document.Amazon.com Review
Continuing in the tradition of the Nutshell series, XML in a Nutshell provides a dense tutorial on its subject, as well as a useful day-to-day reference. While the reader isn't expected to have prior expertise in XML, this book is most effective as an add-on to a more introductory tutorial because of its relatively fast pace.

The authors set out to systematically--and rapidly--cover the basics of XML first, namely the history of the markup language and the various languages and technologies that compose the standard. In this first section, they discuss the basics of XML markup, Document Type Definitions (DTDs), namespaces, and Unicode. From there, the authors move into "narrative-centric documents" in a section that appropriately focuses on the application of XML to books, articles, Web pages and other readable content.

This book definitely presupposes in the reader an aptitude for picking up concepts quickly and for rapidly building cumulative knowledge. Code examples are used--only to illustrate the particular point in question--but not in excess. The book gets into "data-centric" XML, exploring the difference between the object-driven Document Object Model (DOM) and the event-driven Simple API for XML (SAX). However, these areas are a little underpowered and offer a bit less detail about this key area than the reader will expect.

At the core of any Nutshell book is the reference section, and the installment found inside this text is no exception. Here, the XML 1.0 standard, XPath, XSLT, DOM, SAX, and character sets are covered. Some material that is covered earlier in the book--such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)--is not re-articulated, however. XML in a Nutshell is not the only book on XML you should have, but it is definitely one that no XML coder should be without. --Stephen W. Plain

Topics covered:

• XML history
• Document Type Definitions (DTDs)
• Namespaces
• Internationalization
• XML-based data formats
• XHTML
• XSL
• XPath
• XLink
• XPointer
• Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
• XSL-FO
• Document Object Model (DOM)
• Simple API for XML (SAX)

Customer Reviews (36)

XML in a Nutshell
This is a well-written reference on XML 1.1.Slightly over half the book is tutorial in nature, while the remainder of the book is reference material (on XML, Schemas, XPath, XSLT, DOM, SAX, and character sets).The explanations were clear and the reference portion quite complete. I recommend this book as a good reference on XML.

Specialized reference book for XML with JAVA
This books starts out with a quick explanation and walkthrough or XML 1.0 specification that is pretty good. It is lacking a XML Schema (XSD) section as well covers very briefly the XSLT (XML Stylesheets) anyone wishing to anything with sytlesheets after reading this book will be disappointed. XPath coverage is pretty good as well as SAX, & DTD. XLink, XPointer, are talking about but nothing in depth. All example code is in JAVA. Anyone wanting specialized knowledge of ASP.NET / .NET / MS SQL usage of XML should look elsewhere (this is somewhat understandable due to the publish date.)

Great book
This is the only XML book I have - I skimmed through several and this one was far and away the best.You will have to know what you are trying to do and sort of figure out which parts of the book to pay attention to as there is so much there.I spent some time with DTDs only to realize they were unnecessary for what I was doing.But the book allowed me to build an application from scratch.

Much more than good value for money
The authors managed to compress an amazing amount of information in a very small amount of space, without affecting readability. Including coverage of XML, DTD, Namespaces, XSL, Xpath, Xlinks, DOM and much more, including Schemas (missing from previous edition). As a bonus we get reference for XML, Schemas, Xpath, XSLT, DOM and SAX. Much more than good value for money, it's a real bargain. Just not recommended to absolute newbies

bad organization with some typo erros.
I have read part of the book and tried to use it as a reference, but always confused with the bad organization, not to mention some typo errors.
personally, I don't recommend it. ... Read more

Product Description
This is the first book that provides a solid theoretical account of the foundation of the popular data format XML. Part I establishes basic concepts, starting with schemas, tree automata and pattern matching, and concluding with static typechecking for XML as a highlight of the book. In Part II, the author turns his attention to more advanced topics, including efficient 'on-the-fly' tree automata algorithms, path- and logic-based queries, tree transformation, and exact typechecking. The author provides many examples of code fragments to illustrate features, and exercises to enhance understanding. Thus the book will be ideal for students and researchers whether just beginning, or experienced in XML research. ... Read more

Product Description
(Pearson Education) Reveals how to integrate XML and UML to create dynamic, interactive Web applications and meet optimal business-to-business application goals. Uses a large-scale running example to keep the material moving in a fluid, understandable manner. Features 'steps for success' and other tips for creating top designs. Softcover. DLC: XML (Document markup language). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

And the choices are?
As of this review, if you wanted to use UML to model XML, this is about it.So it is good ... until something better comes along.

Good overview but not enough "meat" ...
I bought this book after reading Dave's articles on UML modelling for XML schemas hoping to learn more about the technique. So I was really interested in a quarter of the book but I still read the whole book.

Overall, its a good book as an overview to the whole XML modelling approach and it is great for a beginner or novice in the area. It explains the concepts quite clearly and provides some VERY SIMPLE examples.

But if you are looking for a book that guides you along on the "how to" aspect and application of knowledge, then this book doesn't quite have enough "meat" to be of much use.

In summary, for beginners only.

An excellent book covering an important niche
Like many web-related technologies XML and its many derivatives have evolved much more quickly than the support from traditional modelling and development tools. As a result many developers creating XML-based applications are doing so with the crudest of tools, and find it very difficult to either exchange ideas with more traditional developers, or to benefit from the strengths of more powerful tools and modelling approaches. This book sets out to address that issue, and it does an excellent job.

At the same time, the book provides a valuable introduction to a range of XML and e-Business technologies for those more familiar with traditional approaches. I found it answered a lot of questions I had about XML which had not been addressed by reading more typical "how to" books, so this book bridges the divide both ways.

The book starts out by setting out its aim - to bridge the XML and UML communities, and provides a high-level overview of both areas. It then focuses in on the key issue of e-Business integration, both as a common challenge and an area which will naturally affect both communities.

In subsequent chapters the author discusses defining a business vocabulary, and shows how an XML vocabulary can be modelled in UML, or generated from it. Having established this basis the author then discusses a number of XML-related standards, including XMI, XPath, XPointer, XLink, XML DTDs and Schemas, and XSLT, in each case using UML models to explain how the pieces fit together.

Finally, the last few chapters present an overall e-Business architecture based around the examples in the rest of the book, bringing all the pieces together in the context of Web Services.

It's the curse of all technical writers and publishers that whatever you write is rapidly out of date, and this book suffers a little from that. Published in 2001 it views several key standards (such as XSD and core Web Service protocols) as "proposals", and frequently omits details from examples because of this uncertainty. A reader would be well advised to supplement it with more up to date reading around the technical details.

That said, this book is well written, easy to read, and covers a niche which is still almost unoccupied. The companion web site backs the book up with some valuable material, including a free downloadable tool for XML modelling, generation and reverse-engineering.

I'd love David to do a second edition, moderately refreshed to present a 2004 view of the various standards and how they fit together. The core of the book wouldn't have to change. Until that book turns up, I'm happy to recommend this one.

A very good overview
It is quite a strange book: very interesting, depicting a complete, sometimes accurate, path between UML and XML languages, and trying to show the whole and complex environment that required the development of a language like XML. The fact that both UML and XML syntaxes are not explained in detail should not induce to consider this issue as an introductory one: a thorough comprehension of all quoted subjects presumes a good knowledge of a structured (possibly object oriented) programming language and some reference to an XML syntax textbook and a UML guide. You do not learn by this book either designing UML or writing XML code, but it represents a survey about the subject that can be interesting both for skilled people and beginners.

Well written and easy to read
David Carlson has produced a book that discusses how to integrate two important technologies: UML and XML. More than that, the book serves as a primer to both. Even if you already know UML or XML, you'll probably learn something new about each. References are supplied for those who want to learn more. For me, I also found that the book planted seeds for new ideas.

The material is presented in a practical way, around a simple business application. This makes the technologies more concrete and easier to understand. Fortunately, the reader is not overwhelmed by endless code listings - though there are enough nuts and bolts to make the concepts understandable.

Key concepts such as vocabularies, schemas, and portals are explained well. The book also touches on related technologies, such as RSS, XSLT, SOAP and UUDI. All in the context of a practical use case. I found the examples useful even if I design community based portals and not e-Business applications.

Hopefully the book will lay down the foundation for standards in schema development. ... Read more

Product Description
Web Services are self-describing, modular applications. The Web Services architecture can be thought of as a wrapper for the application code. This wrapper provides standardized means of: describing the Web Service and what it does; publishing it to a registry, so that it can easily be located; and exposing an interface, so that the service can be invoked - all in a machine-readable format. What is particularly compelling about Web Services is that they can be accessed by any client that understands XML, regardless of the platform, language, or object model.

This book provides a snapshot of the current state of these rapidly evolving technologies, beginning by detailing the main protocols that underpin the Web Services model (SOAP, WSDL, and UDDI), and then putting this theory to practical use in a wide array of popular toolkits, platforms, and development environments.

The technologies presented in this book provide the foundations of Web Services computing, which is set to revolutionize Distributed Computing, as we know it.

This book covers:

Product Description
Replacing DTDs (Document Type Definitions) as the way in which XML documents are described and validated, XML schemas are essential for ensuring the accuracy and security of information in B2B transactions and other XML applications. This how-to guide employs extensive examples and source code to help developers and programmers get quickly up to speed on the practical application of this important technology. With in-depth explanations for each example, XML expert Mike Fitzgerald acquaints readers with coding structures, then moves to more advanced topics, including unique element and attribute values, keys, and how to use schemas with HTML. Like the other books in the series, this guide features comprehensive appendices listing all the datatypes and data facets, code indexes, and other time-saving features. ... Read more

Product Description
Get powerful results with XML Schema-fast!The XML Schema Companion brings you up to speed on XML Schema with clarity, thoroughness, and precision. Itis the perfect introduction and reference for every content specialist, architect, and developer...including anyone working with the new schema support in Microsoft Office 2003.As in his best-selling The XML Companion and The XSL Companion, Neil Bradley carefully organizes this book to fully illuminate the most crucial concepts first. You'll begin by mastering the construction of document models. Next, you'll learn how to define data types that can serve as reusable building blocks for your documents. Then you'll be ready to master the powerful XML Schema pattern language and inheritance techniques.The XML Schema Companion: *Carefully explains the essential principles of document modeling with XML Schema *Explains how to read and interpret any XML Schema definition *Uses practical examples to illuminate schema definition and validation *Shows how to resolve schema ambiguities *Introduces XML Schema data types simply and precisely *Demonstrates how to include external components in schema-conformant documents *Presents detailed, practical coverage of namespaces and namespace switching *Introduces advanced inheritance techniques for building more flexible, powerful document models *Contains an entire chapter of tips for more effective document modeling *Includes a complete DTD for XML Schema documents and shows how to create DTD-compatible schemas ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Kangaroos jump around less than this book
I purchased this book based upon recommendations listed here on Amazon.I should have looked elsewhere for reviews.This book is absolutely unreadable.The author jumps from topic to topic and then back that it makes my head spin.He refers to future chapters, future concepts, and external resources to distraction.

Specifically, in the midst of discussing simple element constructions, Mr. Bradley includes a paragraph describing television stations in the UK that has no relevance to the examples given.I'm sure he's proud of his heritage and his expertise on television in England, but what does it have to do with XML Schemas or the current example????????

I suspect that Mr. Bradley is a college professor.If he is, he should be forced to sit through recordings of his own lectures.Maybe that would cure him of his unbearable writing style.
.

From beginning to the end, XML Schema is explained
Neil Bradley in his fourth book tells you everything you would ever want to know about XML Schemas or better knows as XSD for XML Schema Definition.With the popularity that various XML technologies are attracting these days, every developer, architect and designer needs to know what XML Schema is and how it used.This topic is covered in many other books, but Bradley's book has by far the most extensive, comprehensive and thorough coverage of the topic.It shows that author truly understand the topic at hand, and can convey the message clearly to the reader.The organization of the book starts with the author explaining how the XML Schema standard defines a template that documents created based on that template must conform to, followed by showing the reader how to define reusable data blocks based on the XML Schema language, and it finishes with XML Schema related topic such as namespaces and a rather complete overview what's out there and where to get more information.

Schemas are in a whole different category all by themselves.Every XML document, standard, protocol - basically anything that has anything to do with XML needs to use or to interact with XML Schema in one or another. XML Schemas are used to model both data and narrative XML documents, which means that if you are ever planning on interacting with XML, you better understand XML schemas.I thought that this topic will be very easy, and there is nothing to it... I was wrong.There is a whole lot to cover and once you read Bradley's book you'll know what I am talking about.The standard for schemas is so extensive, that the first few chapters of his book are spent on what the different terminologies mean and how they interrelate.For example, the difference between narrative data (data where the sequence of events and representation matters greatly) and datacenteric documents (order of presenting the data does not matter), and the difference between the schema definition author (the person who creates the schemas) versus the document instance author (people who create well-formed documents) and many others alike.After talking about the basics, the author spends a great deal of time explaining the various components of the XML schema such as elements, attributes, simple data type, complex data types, etc...Understanding these topics is essential in reading the following chapters of the book.
The author uses the same examples throughout the end, so the reader can follow the text and actually understand the topic while the author is presenting it.The code samples are just great.Since the topic is rather abstract, the author had spent a great deal of time using examples to demonstrate the topic at hand better.There were times that I read the example first, and then I went back to read the text, because the visualization is the key in this topic.As with any programming or technical book, the topic and examples start simple and they get much harder as you read the book.The same goes with this book, but the interesting thing is that if you don't know enough about namespaces, the author sends you off to one of the accompanying chapters to read to get ready.The chances are that you don't know enough about namespaces, and the "reference" topics included towards the end of the book become very valuable as you read this book.I thought that I knew namespaces rather well until I read the following:
"... namespaces do not exist as physical entities.There is no namespace definition markup language and no namespace file, object, or interface....namespaces are just a concept.This fact alone has led to much unnecessary confusion..."
In all the books and all the articles and the press and ... that I have read on XML, this little but rather important concept was left out.In one chapter the author has shed more light on a topic of namespaces than an entire book that one would find on the topic.The moral of the story is to read this book cover-to-cover.Even if you think you know it all, still spend the time to read this book.I was amazed at how complicated XML Schemas could get and how powerful they really are.
Some of the advanced topics covered include inheritance and pattern recognition.Both topics are very well explained and covered well.If you know regular expression from Perl, then pattern recognition in schema world would look very familiar to you.The same regular expression rules that are covered in Perl, govern the patterns matching in XML Schemas.What the author adds is concrete examples of how this technique can be used to build powerful schemas.Inheritance is another interesting topic in schemas, as inheritance has made XML schemas very object oriented.Some of your favorite concepts in Java map directly into schemas, and the author actually made table cross referencing the various "key phrases" in Java versus XML Schemas.If you are coming from the OO world of C++ or Java, take a look at this table first.If you are at all familiar with the Eiffel language, you would have a greater appreciation for some of the features of XML Schemas such as the ability to redefine an element or to extend specific parts of a schema.
In closing, if you think you know XML Schema's, think again.This book covers the topic in detail and does so very well.I would recommend this book to be read by any schema designer or a valuable reference for anyone interface with any XML technology.

Solid reference work
This is a solid reference work on XML Schema. I wouldn't go looking to it for advice on how to solve particular problems with XML Schema. But if you are looking for a quick reference guide that covers all of the syntax with annotated examples then you have come to the right place. The graphics, which are light-weight and to the point help to illustrate the key points.

Two minor complaints are that the structure of the book is odd (chapters at the end of the book which are clearly appendices are structured as chapters), and the index is also a little short.

On the positive note, XML schema is not a particularly exciting topic and Neil's tone keeps it a light and interesting read.

So far this is the best book I have read on the subject.

Namespaces are the key concept
You probably know that XML is descended from SGML, and it thus inherited DTDs, which were then the only means of specifying a document model. That proved adequate for SGML, but its limitations soon became clear in XML. Several alternatives were proposed, but XML Schema seems to be winning. Thus Bradley has delivered a timely exposition. He covers all the features clearly. A brief mention is made of its competitors, Relax NG and Schematron. But they do seem to be fading fast.

The most interesting part of Bradley's text are the chapters on namespaces. Other aspects of Schema are lower level and, while useful, are frankly mundane. By contrast, namespaces are the critical feature of Schema. They let you build on pre-existing schemas that have been published on the web. And you can publish your schemas so that others might benefit. You and those in your field or industry can cooperatively derive a net gain by agreeing and publishing standard definitions. A Network effect.

I assume that you are familiar with HTML. In that, the crucial element are the hyperlinks (the href and src attributes in certain tags). It is these that put the "H" in HTML. Without them, HTML just becomes a limited page markup language. It is that ability to link to arbitrary locations on the Internet which produced the Web. Likewise, in the much heralded Web Services, these exchange data via XML. Which in turn depends on XML Schema to build consistent hyperlinked semantics.

You should read Bradley's chapters on namespaces thoroughly. ... Read more

Product Description

XML is the lingua franca of the Web. All designers and developers working in a web environment need a sound understanding of XML and its role in application development. Many software packages and organizations allow for the exchange of data using an XML format. Web services and RSS feeds are now commonplace.

Customer Reviews (3)

Not for newbies
One doesn't need any previous XML knowledge to work with this book. XML itself is quite simple. What gets complicated is when you get past the basic tag structure and begin using DTD, DOM, XSLT and XPath. That is when your head starts to hurt. Fortunately, Flash's' implementation of XML eliminates the need for all those technologies (except DTD which isout-dated). The only XML technology needed for Flash would be XSD (XML Schema). And this book doesn't cover that.

I think a beginner in ActionScript, or Flash in general, would be fairly well lost, however, even though it is a "Foundation" book. Although the ActionScript isn't all THAT bad and I have only found 1 typo in the code examples. However, even for someone familiar with ActionScript, the explanations of the example code just skims the surface. I would suggest that a beginner finish a strictly AS book before starting this book. Possibly Foundation ActionScript 3.0. I just bought it, to update my skills from AS 2, so I can't really comment on it yet.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I have read several of Sas Jacobs books and they all seem to suffer from the same problem: overly stressing really basic stuff, then skimming over more advanced code/concepts, especially as the book progresses.

For me, it was a good fit. I already know XML, and have experience in JAVA and ActionScript. Someone with less experience would probably have a tough go of this.

Oh yeah - I am disappointed that xmlsocket wasn't covered, too.

Very good book
This book gives exactly what it says it will. Lots of good info and practical applications of XML in the classic and new versions.
Easy to read. Lots of examples.

Excellent source for understand Flash related XML
Very interesting read... Sas gets deep into talking about as3 xml. even though i wasnt too happy about not covering xmlsocket this book i would recommend this book to anyone who works a lot with xml. good job sas!

K ... Read more

Product Description
"C++ XML" is a book exclusively devoted to the power and complexities of integrating XML standards into C++. As a developer, this is a book you cannot miss. "C++ XML" addresses all major standards, toolkits, and types of applications dealing with XML as a format for representing and exchanging data, as well as XML behavior, from a C++ standpoint. It explains the implementation of applications and reusable frameworks for all major XML purposes exclusively using C/C++ parsers and toolkits, such as expat, Xerces, Xalan, libxml2, and Microsoft's MSXML.The high-end theory and examples in this book - such as development of OpenGL applications, Visual Studio Wizards to automate DOM procedures, GIMP extension to interpret XML scripts, and more - and its exclusive C++ orientation - separates this work from any other resource (online and offline). It is a must-have for any programmer interested in a specialized, complete, and detailed view of XML technologies.This book will show you how to master:-All major XML technologies addressed exclusively from the C++ perspective (C++ SAX, DOM, XSLT, Xpath, and more)-Every aspect of efficient server-side, standalone, and client-side C++ development for XML-Extensions to your C++ programs, allowing seamless XML and database integration-Advanced techniques for the development of Windows and graphic Linux XML applications-Important concepts using examples showing applications of C++ libraries and XML (MFC, OpenGL, ODBC, GTK, and more)The CD-ROM included with this book contains:Hundreds of MB of working code, showcasing C++ exclusive applications of all major XML standards and toolkits, including (but not limited to) MSXML, Xerces, Xalan, Xpath, XSLT, SAX 2.0, DOM Level 2, and SOAP. Every line of code in the book is supported by a working program. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (19)

A good introduction...
As many C++ programmer, I have heard of XML and its supposed wonders, yet, I always thought it was just another web-specific kind of technology. I knew the basics, but was not really aware of how it could be integrated with C++.

This book was exactly what I was looking for. It just covers every possible way of integrating XML into C++ applications. This book is a wonderful survey of all possible solutions.

The fact that this book covers every possible technology is of course very appreciated, but its coverage of every technology is very brief and may only serve as an introduction.

Worse, the very comparison between every technology and the "when to use what?" section is of a mitigated quality. The author just doesn't explain well his point. The book looks more like a compilation of chapters than a unique book with a clear vision.

After reading this book, I fell like I know more how to integrate XML into C++ and dispose of some information on which technology use, but definitively need to buy another book to cover the chosen technology.

Overall, this book is a very good introduction to the integration of XML into C++ apps, but a better "guidance / technology comparison" would be appreciated.

The only one on the subject, but far from being perfect
Although XML is a buzzword du jour, its acceptance in the C++ world
is surprisingly slow, especially in non-Microsoft environments. This
is mostly due to the lack of an accepted and standardized API. The
standardization process is painfully slow and even though there are
a number of publicly available parsers with C++ bindings, they vary in
their approach to XML processing as well as in the minute details that
make them work with some C++ compilers but not with the others.

In such an environment, a book devoted specifically to processing XML
using C++ is mostly welcome. Read below and decide for yourself.

The good:

- the book covers all major XML processing technologies
available for C++ programmers. It provides examples and explains the
difference in various approaches.

- It will not bore you with XML basic description, excessive quoting
of XML standards, or useless hype (99.9% of XML books out there are
plagued with all of the above).

The bad:

- Even though all of the technologies are compared, the comparison is
crammed in the back of the book, after the chapters describing all
of these technologies in great detail. This sounds like a poor
choice, because these technologies are very different from each
other and different tasks require different approaches. A good
overview and comparison of all of those in the beginning would be
much welcome. It would give readers an idea of what technology to
choose.

- Most of the large examples are Windows-oriented.

- Source code for the examples is only available on an attached CD.
It is not available on-line, which is a shame - I though we've
already passed the stage of "proprietary examples." Apart from other
obvious advantages, having examples on-line would facilitate
contribution of patches and improvements from the readers.

- Speaking of the examples on the CD, they are presented in the worst
manner I've ever seen. The examples I've played so far are bundled
with XML parser distribution (each of them!), have plenty of
temporary files around (like editor backups, or files that Visual
C++ produces). Even those examples that are supposed to work in both
UNIX and Windows come with no Makefiles, the source code looks and
feels rather immature (I though, one learns to NOT supply an
identifier to #endif directive during the 1st year of C/C++
education). All in all, each example I've seen so far feels like a
quick hack, hastily cooked up and released without a mere attempt to
make it look presentable. This is really bad, since, given the
scarcity of books on the subject, there will be plenty of people
fighting with the source code from the book.

The bottom-line: this books falls way short of my "golden standard"
(UNIX books by W. Richard Stevens). Nevertheless, it seems to be the
only book on the subject and it does cover all major technologies. If
you need to work with XML in C++ - buy this book. Once a revised
edition is out (or a better book appears), switch to it.

There are dozens of books on XML and Java and one for C++?
Well I know Java and XML well, I needed a good reference book on "best practices" on using XML with C++, this book is really the only game in town and is quite useful as it covers all the bases.

It will get out of date pretty quick as most tech books of this kind do but as a reference it does nicely.

There are dozens of books on XML and Java and one for C++?
Well I know Java and XML well, I needed a good reference book on "best practices" on using XML with C++, this book is really the only game in town and is quite useful as it covers all the bases.

It will get out of date pretty quick as most tech books of this kind do but as a reference it does nicely.

There are dozens of books on XML and Java and one for C++?
Well I know Java and XML well, I needed a good reference book on "best practices" on using XML with C++, this book is really the only game in town and is quite useful as it covers all the bases.

It will get out of date pretty quick as most tech books of this kind do but as a reference it does nicely. ... Read more

Product Description
XML is buried everywhere in the Microsoft .NET Framework, but effective XML parsing and coding in .NET requires adjustment. This book describes the set of XML core classes in .NET, introduces the .NET XML parsing model and how to program against it, and discusses XML readers and writers and XMLDOM. It examines related technologies such as schemas, transformations, and XPath, and it discusses data issues such as synchronization and serialization, the DiffGram format, and the XML extensions in Microsoft SQL Server 2000. This Microsoft Press title also reveals how to get the best performance from XML with .NET, and it offers in-depth information on interoperability topics such as when to use XML Web services and when to use remoting. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Senior Software Engineer
Anyone that writes software around the XML standard absolutely needs this text book! The author has done a stellar job at describing the strengths and limitations of XML from a programmer's perspective.In addition, he has provided very clear programming examples that in some cases can be cut-and-pasted right into your source file.

What I like the most about Dino's approach is that he takes the time to explain things in a brief paragraph format, and then provides simple examples of what he just described.He not only knows this subject - but also how to explain it to others.

This book has earned a place on my 'Top Shelf'.

Great job Dino !

Great but out of date
Dino Esposito is one of the finest authors in the .NET world. He brings a unique blend of architectural awareness, good and practical coding, and a readable writing style.

This is one of the two best books on .NET XML (of the handful available).

But, in Visual Studio 2008 the introduction of LINQ has prompted a new namespace for XML for compatibility, and introduced much cleaner methods of creating and reading XML. The benefits are many -- element rather than document-centric processing being a main one -- but come at the cost of a Microsoft-specific XML processing.

In any case, to make the best decision as to which to use, it's best to consult Pro LINQ: Language Integrated Query in C# 2008 (Windows.Net). This has a detailed comparison of the two approaches, as well as an extended -- over a 100 pages -- description of LINQ to XML.

The best resolution would be an updated edition of this volume.

Great VS2003 Book
Dino does a great job on this book. It is a great reference on how Microsoft handles and processes XML.

This book only has one drawback that it is outdated as it refers to Visual Studio 2003 and many things in Visual Studio 2005 have beenchanged or are outdated.

Hope they pubblish soon a book that is more up to date.

For Advanced readers only
I am a proficient MSXML coder but i can't get what I want (knowledge about .Net XML programming objects) from this book because the author habitually relies on advanced concepts from related technologies to explain things. So unless you are a pretty competent .Net programmer and already proficient in ADO.Net/ADO youwill struggle to understand this book and struggle to understand the significance of what you are being told and why. I gave up and resorted to looking for articles on MSDN. Undoubtedly there is good stuff here but Mr Esposito writes as an extremely knowledgeable person for the already extremely knowledgeable person only.

stop punishing yourself with MSDN
Dino tells all in this superb and in depth look at XML on Microsoft's .NET platform.The book is well organized, starting at the fundamental classes and then branching out to the high abstraction level .NET classes and other Microsoft products such as SQL Server 2000 and Internet Explorer.

As an example of why this book is so wonderful, there have been several situations where I needed to do something in XSLT that just didn't seem practical (maybe not even doable).The section on how to use standard .NET languages such as C# from XSLT is itself worth the price of admission.

Keep in mind that readers are expected to have a good grasp of XML; the book is a .NET book.
... Read more

Product Description

This book is designed to teach anyone working in data-intensive publishing how XML can be leveraged to make the job of presenting data easier. While the XML discussions within the book are general, FrameMaker is used for all of the examples since it supports a wide variety of XML import and export options. In addition, author Kay Ethier shows you how FrameMaker's powerful formatting features lend themselves to publishing XML documents&emdash;without reworking them.

This book is written for a professional audience, including writers, database administrators, developers, and production staff. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

XML and FrameMaker
This is an excelent reference and training book which is applicable to all users, from new user to experienced user.

Great Resource
I had been trying to get my hands around Structured FrameMaker for quite some time when I purchased this manual.I am about two-thirds finished with it and I am now successfully creating XML files from FrameMaker.

This manual fills in many holes that I couldn't figure out from the Adobe supplied resources.This manual also has a great tutorial for creating templates that many people may find useful if they are new to template building.

Would be better if the sample files were available
No doubt about it, this is a very good book for learning about FrameMaker's interaction with XML. I agree with the other reviewers: this is way better than the info supplied by Adobe in both the FM manual and in the supplementary PDF's that come with FrameMaker. One caveat: the example files available for download from Apress's Web site (the publisher) don't match the narrative in the book. This may be a great disappointment to you as it was to me. Reading along and looking at the pictures in the book was not the same as exploring live examples -- and possibly using them as the basis for my own XML. Still, there were illustrations provided in the book, and with some imagination, there was information to be gained.

Saved an outrageous amount of time and frustration
Recently I had to use FrameMaker as authoring tool for DoocBook, it was quite a challenging task because it required learning a lot of new stuff. FrameMaker is a powerful and sophisticated tool, with XML capabilities that were build on top of its SGML legacy, so it's a pretty complex beast to learn. This book was just right on the spot; it allowed me to save an outrageous amount of time and frustration. I don't know if it can be valuable for seasoned FrameMaker users, but I am sure it's a great investment if you have to deal with FrameMaker and XML starting from scratch

Debafflement
This is a great introductory crossover text for both xml programmers and FrameMaker users who want a cram course in structured layout. The first third of the book is devoted to FrameMaker for the XML expert-how to set up a document and master pages, create and use style sheets, and manage templates. The rest of the book explains, in clear and concise prose, how to get started with FrameMaker's approach to XML.
Because I am an expert Frame user, I immediately zoomed to the XML stuff, and found it a grand introduction to a complex subject. Before I found this book, I had read the entire 600+-page manual that Adobe supplies with Frame, but didn't feel like I had a solid, fundamental understanding what was going on. After reading this book and working through the tutorials, the information in the user manual suddenly made perfect sense.
This book won't make you an expert in structured FrameMaker-it's a Byzantine subject, complicated by Frame's own quirky implementation (read bugs), plus a startling lack of Frame-specific intro material on the Internet. What it will do, though, is give beginners a good foundation in both Frame and XML. Highly recommended. ... Read more

Product Description
Web services enable the new generation of Internet-based applications. These services support application-to-application Internet communication-that is, applications at different network locations can be integrated to function as if they were part of a single, large software system. Examples of applications made possible by Web services include automated business transactions and direct (nonbrowser) desktop and handheld device access to reservations, stock trading, and order-tracking systems.

Several key standards have emerged that together form the foundation for Web services: XML (Extensible Markup Language), WSDL (Web Services Definition Language), SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), and UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration). In addition, ebXML (Electronic Business XML) has been specified to facilitate automated business process integration among trading partners.

This book introduces the main ideas and concepts behind core and extended Web services' technologies and provides developers with a primer for each of the major technologies that have emerged in this space. In addition, Understanding Web Services summarizes the major architectural approaches to Web services, examines the role of Web services within the .NET and J2EE communities, and provides information about major product offerings from BEA, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, IONA, Microsoft, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, and others.

Key topics include:

XML facilities for structuring and serializing data How WSDL maps services onto communication protocols and transports WSDL support for RPC-orientedand document-oriented interactions SOAP's required and optional elements Message processing and the role of intermediaries in SOAP

UDDI data formats and APIs

How ebXML offers an alternative to Web services that supports reliable messaging, security, and trading-partner negotiations

With Understanding Web Services, you will be well informed and well positioned to participate in this vast, emerging marketplace.Amazon.com Review
Web services, the new way of stitching data and processing resources together to form elaborate, distributed applications, aren't like other software systems. They differ even from other architectures for distributed applications. In his fantastic Understanding Web Services, Eric Newcomer helps his readers figure out what Web services are all about. This book is better than any other book out there in helping readers come to grips with the terms, technologies, behaviors, and design requirements that define the Web services universe. It's remarkably light on code--Newcomer's logic appears to be that you should dig into the details of implementation only after you thoroughly understand the design concepts--and emphasizes definition and exposition of SOAP, UDDI, WSDL, and ebXML.

Newcomer's work looks and reads almost like a notebook, with succinct statements in the margin (for instance, "SOAP processors first have to check the mustUnderstand attribute, if any"), adjacent to paragraphs that go into greater depth. He's careful to call attention to differences among the relevant standards documents, and points out differences among implementations. Graphical learners may wish for more conceptual diagrams, as there aren't a lot of them here. Newcomer's prose is brilliant, though, and it's pretty easy to determine what he means. Perhaps best of all, Newcomer isn't cheap with his opinions and forecasts. It's helpful to read his informed feelings and predictions. --David Wall

Topics covered: The specifications, implementations, and popular trends that define the Web services movement. Conceptual coverage of Extensible Markup Language (XML), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Web Services Description Language (WSDL), and the Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) protocol fills these pages. Emphasis is on how it all works rather than on how to program for it. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (26)

Good Resource of Information
I run across this book and I enjoyed reading it
I found it to be very detailed and it offers the latest technologies in Web services

good but old
This title is very good for understanding basic WS technologies. But is older for now and some informations are outdated. Reprint with updated information (espec. UDDIv3) would be good.

Good Book
As a glosary is very good, if you where aming to learn how to program a web service it was not very good for me. I would prefer more code samples from the basics to advanced. Definitely you should have a previous knowledge of XML, and maybe even some basic knowledge of webservices before reading this.

Excellent Overview, But Extremely Difficult Read
I recommend this book for everyone beginning Web Services.However, I do so with a word of caution:READ IT SLOWLY AND READ IT TWICE.The book has a great spread of issues but is extremely difficult to sit down and read/work through.

All the issues covered are covered lightly with the exception of the most important topics:WSDL, SOAP, UUDI and ebXML.The only thing it didn't touch on that I wish it would have was REST.

Key pieces of these topics are scattered and you need to be careful to read through and keep notes about where you can find more information (I found myself keeping margin notes on where key pieces of information were in the book at the introduction of each topic).

I recommend it so that you can understand the complexity and get a good overview of the topic, but I would definitely say that the book is only a good place to begin.It will leave your head spinning, but if you have purchased other books on individual topics, it will provide you with a reference on how they tie together.

The book has its ups and it has its downs, but it is worth reading.

A lot of understandble and useless paragraphs
We bought this book trying to find a good overview about what web-service implementation is, what WSDL means what RPC/Document style means, etc, by an expert point of view, I must say at least this is not the case.

There are a lot of paragraphs with useless information, that in the first read you avoid because you don't understand, in the next reads you avoid because they are useless.

Terms are confusing and mixed up, explanations also.

If you like skipping paragraphs it is a good newbie introduction, if you have some background on web-service just avoid it.

Really disappointing ... Read more

Product Description
Authoritative reference and tutorial filled with practical insights and detailed examples. Provides a conceptual introduction to XML Schema, and addresses how to apply schemas to specific business goals. Softcover. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Certainly not a book for learning about XML schemas
Certainly not a book for learning about XML schemas, may be used as a reference. Very theoretical, particularly the first few chapters, and strikingly similar to W3 recommendations. If you are just starting with XML schemas, pick a different book.

Use this book all the time
I've been doing a whole bunch of schema development work lately and I find that I've been referring to this book frequently. My only criticism is that the some of the early chapters are a little too theoretical for a plain old programmer like myself--but the extensive reference material provides me with all the information that I've needed to build a complex set of interlocking schemas.

Need Help Writing Your Own Schemas? Try this.
If you are already using XML, it is probably with DTDs, as this was the first implementation of XML. Both came out of SGML, in which the role of DTDs was defined in the early 1990s. Unfortunately, the drawbacks of DTDs were not fully appreciated until they began to be widely used in XML. A DTD cannot easily constrain an integer variable to a range of values from 5 to 10, say. It has no conception of common primitive types like float or double found in many programming languages. Also, the structure of a DTD is quite unlike that of the XML document it supports. From the point of view of writing parsers, you end up effectively needing two parsing algorithms to read a DTD and an XML document. XML Schemas answer all these issues. Plus namespaces are built into them, to handle collisions in tag names when you use multiple Schemas in a document. With DTDs, namespaces came into being after DTDs were first defined, and had to be bolted on in a most awkward fashion. XML Schema notation for namespaces is much more natural.

The problem right now with XML Schema is that it is new. Most XML books use DTDs, in part because when they were written, the Schema specification was not finished by W3C (in May 2001). Some XML books since then do describe Schema. They usually give a good overview and provide examples that work for the XML document examples they describe. So if you have an application that you want to write a Schema for, you can get started. But chances are, you soon run into problems if your application is not a carbon copy of a text's example. You soon need some Schema component or attribute whose usage or even existence was not disclosed in that book.

This book addresses that shortfall. It provides at least one example of how to use every attribute of EVERY Schema element. A formidably comprehensive task. Which accounts for the near thousand page size. But this is far more than just some dictionary-style exposition. They describe important closely related issues, like how to use the DOM and Xerces SAX parsers, and the different outlooks these take. Also, from your viewpoint of how to write a Schema for YOUR application, they offer a top-down approach. Schemas can be result-oriented or data-oriented. You get enough details to help decide which case yours fits. This can greatly aid developing a facile "natural" Schema. One where once you have it and an example XML document that uses it, the layout taxonomy seems axiomatic. Which should be your goal. It is not enough to define a Schema that can hold all the information you have. The skill is in making a Schema that does that and has a clear, obvious logic. Because in many cases others, probably not as technically adept as you, get to fill in documents based on it. So the logic should be clear to them. Even if they do not directly write into an XML document, but build it from a GUI, the clearer the Schema, the easier it is for someone to build a GUI to populate a document based on it.

The authors also provide a website (XMLSchemaReference.com) that has the code described in the book, and many more examples. Worth bookmarking.

So try this book and its website if you need an authoritative guide to writing Schemas. ... Read more

Product Description
Designed to provide non-programmers with a hands-on guide to automating their spreadsheets through the use of Visual Basic for Applications, Excel 2003 VBA Programming with XML and ASP also gives readers a wide range of VBA coverage and a thorough overview of a number of programming languages and techniques useful for working with Excel.Learn how to: Work with macros, write VBA procedures and functions, use object collections, and create classes. Automate operations on files, folders, and other applications such as Microsoft Office Access. Enhance the user interface through the use of dialog boxes; custom forms, menus, and toolbars; and event-driven programming. Handle errors, debug procedures, and use e-mail in Excel. Program features such as PivotTables, PivotCharts, lists, and SmartTags, and control the Visual Basic Editor. Use Excel with a number of web technologies such as HTML, ASP, and XML. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Very Thorough
I bought this book to help me figure out how to read an xml file and collect certain data to populate a spreadsheet.It was quite helpful for that and also helped me understand more about file access in general.There is a lot more here that I have not studied yet.

Good introduction for VBA in Excel
I started my VBA programming from zero for my department needs by using Google search. Although the job could be done, the process was time consuming (for search) and left questions unanswered.
If you want to save yourself time then this is a good book to start with. The layout is pretty good, and explain things clearly. I browsed the book but didn't read every chapter but found it's informative.
Don't expect to receive a lot of examples, but again you can find everything you need through web search.
Advance users should look for something else, like Professional Excel Development: The Definitive Guide to Developing Applications (which I owned too).
I seldom bought computer books for long time (hey, educated by web search is free) since it's expensive and out-date too quickly. This book and above are what I'm willing to invest my money in for past few years. Beside, Amazon price is very competitive.

Very good on the whole
Still not finished, but I have been mostly very happy with the book so far.The section on automation was a key interest, and proved valuable, though I was hoping for more on the shell function, and identifying the correct string to open a wider variety of applications.

I was confused with a comment in chapter 17 concerning security popups in Outlook, that...

"When Excel attempts to send an e-mail message using Outlook, the application responds with a message to ask permission, as shown in Figure 17-12. The only way to prevent this message from coming up is by setting the macro security setting to low."

My experience to date is that digitally signing the project prevents the popups from Outlook 2003, even if the project is located in Excel. I haven't yet come to any section of the book that covers digital signatures, and the assertion that the only solution is to take the ill advised step of setting macro security to low makes me suspect that it might not be forthcoming.

Chapter 12 provided a lot of detail on interacting with Access, but some of the code seemed untested (undeclared variable and mis-spelled arguments in the two CreateTextFile subs).The chapter works as a good reference, but made for difficult reading.

Despite the above gripes, I have learned a tremendous amount from the book so far, and am anxious to come back for more. I liked the chapter on Class Modules, thought the native file handling in VBA was very well covered, learned a lot in the material on the Windows Scripting Host, and feel the text builds nicely from the basic to more involved topics.All in all one of the better VBA books I have read. ... Read more

Product Description
This thoroughly class tested text and online tutorial gives a complete introduction to the essentials of the XML standard. It will teach students how to apply web technologies to develop XML based web applications. Through the book, the student will build applications that work together to construct interesting and workable web applications.

Contents

ForewordPreface

I: XML Technologies

1. HTML and Web Pages

2. XML Documents

3. Navigating XML Trees with XPath

4. Schema Languages

5. Transforming XML Documents with XSLT

6. Querying XML Documents with XQuery

7. XML Programming

II: Web Technologies

8. The HTTP Protocol

9. Programming Web Applications with Servlets

10. Programming Web Applications with JSP

11. Web Services

12. A Complete Application

BibliographyIndex

Features

* Relies exclusively on open source Java software, and will be tied closely to the online material. * Contains a finely tuned progression of ideas, examples and details.* Shows how to use XML in modern web applications.* Backs up a thorough treatment of its key points with clear, practical examples.* Offers insight and understanding of the concepts, their importance and their application.* Offers a rigorous look at existing standards.

Additional Support Material

* Learning outcomes.* Links to relevant online resources.* Online tests.* Live code for all examples and applications. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The first (and only?) clear, concise, deep, scientific account of the stuff...
This is what I wrote the authors of this book:

Dear Anders and Michael,

I recently purchased your book entitled "An Introduction to XML and Web Technologies". I started reading it and I must say that you have done a wonderful job. It reads with ease and your presentation style is as limpid as pure mountain water. I particularly enjoy the fact that you are doing a masterful and in-depth tutorial of several of the recent outputs of the W3C's language mill without losing your critical mind and making accurate remarks for several annoying idiosyncrasies owing their existence more to historical and political reasons rather than simple efficient scientific design.

At any rate, I congratulate you on an excellent book and look forward to reading more of your didactic and scientific publications.

[...]

It would be very interesting to envisage a book in the style of
yours on the so-called Semantic Web. I, for one, as ILOG's current Principal rep in the W3C Rule Interchange Format WG, would welcome your critical eye and approach to this vast and unchartered domain.

Thanks again for writing this book. I will definitely recommend it as an effective and concise reference to the subject to anyone - whether newbie or old-timer.

Best regards,

-hak
--
Hassan Aït-Kaci, Ph.D, Distinguished Scientist R&D
ILOG, Inc. - http://www.ilog.com/ - Product Division
Surrey, BC, Canada - Fri Aug 25 07:40:40 2006 PST ... Read more

Product Description
If you're seeking ways to build network-based applications or XML-based web services, Microsoft provides most of the tools you'll need. XML is integrated into the .NET Framework and Visual Studio .NET, but if you want to get a grasp on how .NET and XML actually work together, that's a different story.With .NET & XML, you can get under the hood to see how the .NET Framework implements XML, giving you the skills to write understandable XML-based code that interoperates with code written with other tools, and even other languages. .NET & XML starts by introducing XML and the .NET Framework, and then teaches you how to read and write XML before moving on to complex methods for manipulating, navigating, transforming, and constraining it. As you move from chapter to chapter, you'll absorb increasingly complex information until you have enough knowledge to successfully program your own XML-based applications. This tutorial also contains a quick reference to the API, plus various useful appendices. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Well written reference primer
This is a first edition book on the .net platform's foundation Xml libraries.It was written more than five years ago, but still remains an excellent resource to anyone trying to get a handle on all those angle brackets (especially if you've just been thrown at a project with minimal exposure to Xml, and you think that learning LINQ sounds like wayyy too much work.Not that such a thing would ever happen in the software development world, of course).Bornstein's writing is quick and engaging, and most importantly: helpful.

That being said, it is an older book, pre-dating even .net 2.0, so some of what is discussed is depricated material.Perhaps surprisingly, quite a bit of the material is still relevant in this modern .net 3.5 (soon 4.0) / Silverlight era.

I wish there was a second edition, so I could give five stars.

Hardly a Java book!
A careful reader would have noticed the "using" keyword in the code sample, and realized that this is C#, not Java. I found this book a good supplement to the MSDN; its well-conceived examples got me off to a good start in this area.

aaaarrrrggggg Who wants java examples in a .net book
i was looking for example on using the System.xml.serialize name space. This is the example copied from the book
public enum AddressType {
Home,
Office,
Billing,
Shipping,
Mailing,
Day,
Evening,
FAX
}
If you'll look again at Example 9-7, you'll see that each state is actually listed by its full name, not the abbreviation as listed in the State enumeration. Here I've added an XmlEnumAttribute for each state name. Note that I've skipped some in the interest of space:

public enum State {
[XmlEnum(Name="Alaska")]
AK,
[XmlEnum(Name="Alabama")]
AL,
[XmlEnum(Name="Arkansas")]
AR,
[XmlEnum(Name="Arizona")]
AZ,
// ...
[XmlEnum(Name="Washington")]
WA,
[XmlEnum(Name="Wisconsin")]
WI,
[XmlEnum(Name="West Virginia")]
WV,
[XmlEnum(Name="Wyoming")]
WY
}
The Address class has one attribute, type, and four elements. Here I've added XmlAttributeAttribute and XmlElementAttribute, as appropriate. The AttributeName and ElementName fields of each attribute are used to set the names of the XML attributes and elements, respectively:

public class Address {
[XmlAttribute(AttributeName="type")]
public AddressType AddressType;
[XmlElement(ElementName="street")]
public string[ ] Street;
[XmlElement(ElementName="city")]
public string City;
[XmlElement(ElementName="state")]
public State State;
[XmlElement(ElementName="zip")]
public string Zip;
}
Similar to Address, the TelephoneNumber class has one attribute and three elements. Again, I've decorated each member with the appropriate attribute. Note also that here, as in Address, I've set the names of the attributes and elements to match the ones in the XML; that is, they all start with lowercase letters:

public class TelephoneNumber {
[XmlAttribute(AttributeName="type")]
public AddressType AddressType;
[XmlElement(ElementName="areacode")]
public string AreaCode;
[XmlElement(ElementName="exchange")]
public string Exchange;
[XmlElement(ElementName="number")]
public string Number;
}
Now we come to the meat of the personnel record, the Employee. This class has three attributes: firstname, middleinitial, and lastname, which I've treated with the appropriate attribute. However, the Employee class also has two additional elements, addresses and telephones. These two elements actually contain nested arrays of elements, so I've used the XmlArray and XmlArrayItem attributes to help the serializer figure out what to do with the XML elements it reads:

public class Employee {
[XmlAttribute(AttributeName="firstname")]
public string FirstName;
[XmlAttribute(AttributeName="middleinitial")]
public string MiddleInitial;
[XmlAttribute(AttributeName="lastname")]
public string LastName;

[XmlArray(ElementName="addresses")]
[XmlArrayItem(ElementName="address")]
public Address [ ] Addresses;
[XmlArray(ElementName="telephones")]
[XmlArrayItem(ElementName="telephone")]
public TelephoneNumber [ ] TelephoneNumbers;

[XmlAttribute(AttributeName="hiredate")]
public DateTime HireDate;
}
Here's the document element, personnel, which is decorated with XmlRootAttribute. Although the Employees member is an array of Employee objects, it is not a nested array, like addresses and telephones. By adding the XmlElement attribute directly to the member, the XmlSerializer knows that this member is to be serialized as an array of employee elements, without a separate top-level element:

[XmlRoot(ElementName="personnel")]
public class Personnel {
[XmlElement(ElementName="employee")]
public Employee [ ] Employees;
}
Finally, I've made some changes to the Serializer class, which I introduced in Example 9-5. Serializer's Main( ) method still uses the CreatePersonnel( ) to create some personnel records, but it then instantiates an XmlSerializer to deserialize the objects it created back out to a file:

public class Serializer {
public static void Main(string [ ] args) {
Personnel personnel = CreatePersonnel( );
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Personnel));
using (FileStream stream = File.OpenWrite("Personnel.xml")) {
serializer.Serialize(stream,personnel);
}
}
}

notice its in java??? for crying out loud if your going to say .net and xml use .net examples not JAVA

Very Disappointed
Note that I decided to write this review because I could not believe that so many people wrote so nice reviews about this book.My assumption is that someone or some people are really trying to sell this book, because this book is definitely not that good whatsoever.

Actually, this book is definitely not what I expected from a .NET/XML book.I was expecting a practical book with some theory, a good description about .NET's XML implementation and good examples.This is not what this book included.I'm very flexible with books.It's impossible that every book will be perfect.Actually, most aren't, so you have to get used to it, but again this book is for the most part terrible, unless you only want to get a general idea of how to use XML with .NET, otherwise get a different book.Again, I don't know where the reviews for this book came from, because this book is really not that good.

To name a couple of things that I find wrong with the book, lets start with the examples included.Two words: they suck!Each chapter is pretty much like this: here is the general theory, some of it unnecessary like the constant reference to W3C stuff; then, here are a few lame, simple examples without much substance; now, lets go to the next chapter.

The first time I looked inside the book I was looking for information about how .NET did Xml Validation, and it is just terrible.I actually found more information out of general .NET books I already had, than from this one.And when you are working on a project where you need this information, and you have a book that's suppose to help you with this stuff, it is very disappointing to find out that the book is pretty much irrelevant.

You would assume validation is a very important XML topic, among many others, but there's really not a lot of info on it.Actually, if you look on the book's index, you'll see that about half the related info is in the reference section, which you could get out of MSDN anyway.BTW, almost half of the book is simply reference for the different .NET XML namespaces.Again, the same data you could get out of MSDN.

In any case, I know there's not much else to choose from, but pretty much anything else might be as good or possibly way better...

Just what I was looking for!
Over the years, I've found it increasingly difficult to buy technology related books simply because of the speed in which they become obsolete. So now I look at each book as not only an instructional tome, but whether or not it will be useful 6 months down the road as a reference. This book (like many of O'Reilly's titles) has easily earned a place in my library.

Mr. Bornstein's method of writing seems to fit very well with the way I learn, and his coverage of the subject matter makes this book a great resource when I'm trying to remember the exact syntax of a specific method call. ... Read more

Product Description
XML, the Extensible Markup Language, is the next-generation markup language for the Web. It provides a more structured (and therefore more powerful) medium than HTML, allowing us to define new document types and stylesheets as needed. Although the generic tags of HTML are sufficient for everyday text, XML gives us a way to add rich, well-defined markup to electronic documents.The XML Pocket Reference is both a handy introduction to XML terminology and syntax, and a quick reference to XML instructions, attributes, entities, and datatypes. Although XML itself is complex, its basic concepts are simple. This small book combines a perfect tutorial for learning the basics of XML with a reference to the XML and XSL specifications. The new edition introduces information on XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations) and Xpath.Amazon.com Review
Even hot dog Web coders proficient in XML need a little refresher once and a while. Although some portions of XML are still very fluid, the handy XML Pocket Reference offers quick access to the syntax and usage rules of this next-generation language.

At the front of the book, a crash course in XML quickly spells out the important terminology, along with extremely short examples of XML, Document Type Definition (DTD), and Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) documents. The book also includes a nice bulleted list of cautions and rules to follow if you want to create valid XML documents. A tip section entitled, "Unlearning Bad Habits" offers handy warnings that are especially useful for those of us who occasionally slip into sloppy HTML coding behaviors that XML won't tolerate.

The remainder of the title comprises reference sections devoted to XML, DTDs, XSL, XLink, and XPointer. These sections offer a balanced mix of both straight syntax references and brief general explanations of key topics. Short examples are in abundance to illustrate usage with accompanying explanatory text. The authors are very up-front about the changing nature of the XSL, XLink, and XPointer and point out that even their freshly published material on these subjects may soon be out of date.

You won't find any big-picture look at the importance or implementation of XML in the real world. However, if you're already sold on the technology and working with it, this little guide will be a handy companion. --Stephen W Plain

Topics covered: XML overview, well-formed XML rules, using elements and attributes, syntax and usage reference to XML, DTD, XSL, XLink, XPointer. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (32)

Useful, But Better Option Exists
This book is small and travels well.It does not have an index, which seems odd for a reference text, but it does have a table of contents.I find Essential XML Quick Reference (ISBN 0-201-74095-8) to be well worth the additional investment.

Good book but no coverage for XML schemas
I guess it's my fault for not checking closely enough, but this book is somewhat dated now (more than two years old as of this writing).It was somewhat of an impulse buy at the book store when it looked useful after a quick scan.It had a little "2nd Edition" banner across the front cover corner and I just assumed it included coverage of schemas.The coverage of XSLT and XML in a small format is quite useful.I'll probably buy the 3rd edition when it comes out--I would have given the book 4 or 5 stars two years ago when it was first published.

Merely an introduction to XML...
This book provides a useful overview into the basics of XML while doubling up as a quick reference to the XML specification. Handy for those that want to dabble in XML without buying a more detailed book, but then XML has so many related technologies anyone serious about XML will need more.

The O'Reilly pocket references are so concise that they are not really meant for someone who is totally new to the subject. They can however be the ideal way to provide an overview to anyone who wants to know the basics of the topic.

This is a beginners book...
I can't possibly imagine that this book will be of any value to someone working with XML on a daily basis. It should be renamed to "a terse introduction to xml", as it is in no way a reference. This is based on the fact that I bought it to learn XML from, and it was quite good at teaching someone with no experience in XML whatsoever the basic concepts.

If you are looking for a reference, look elsewhere. If you are just like me, and don't want to wade through hundreds of pages to get an idea of what it is all about, then you can perhaps consider it. Since it is so wrongly named, I give it three stars. But as an introduction it really deserves five.

Half part useful, another half part not
This book is ok, the first half part is pretty good.
It covers XML basic and DTD very well, but it does not
cover schema; it covers XSLT/XSLFO also, although there are something inaccurate inside; its part for XLink and XPointer is
useless and wrong; and there is nothing for XML database or
XSP. This book may be helpful, but you need another book as <> or <> to really learn XML basic.

Daniel, IBM certified developer for XML and related technologies. ... Read more

Product Description
This book is designed to take Microsoft Access users to the next step in programming. Its five parts cover an intro-duction to VBA programming, manipulating databases with ADO, using DDL, event programming, and using ASP and XML. With more than 300 hands-on examples and 11 custom projects, users can quickly build the toolset required for developing their own database solutions.Learn How To: Write and debug your programming code with the Visual Basic Editor. Understand and use common VBA programming structures such as conditions, loops, arrays, and collections. Create and manage databases with ActiveX Data Objects (ADO). Perform database tasks with Jet/Access Structured Query Language (SQL) and its Data Definition Language (DDL) component. Query and manipulate your database from a web browser with Active Server Pages (ASP). Export and import Access data to and from XML both manually and programmatically. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

More about VBA then Access
This book has been useful.

My only real complaint is that this book does not spend any real time talking about Access.

If you only read this book you would think you had to do everything through VBA. I can't think of too many reasons to create a table at runtime except with a query.

The book is also a little lite on real world examples.

A nice book if you are building a library of access books.

What I didn't know
This book has been a tremendous help to me.
I have been a basic programmer since the 1980s, but have tried to move into object oriented programming without instruction.I purchased this book as a reference.After using it for a while as such, I decided to go completely through it - front to back, following the examples available online.

I have learned so much!

Helps me a great deal - every day!
I really like this book.We still use Access 2003 at work, so I wanted a book specifically for that version and specifically for VBA.I am already a fairly experienced Access user, but was not as experienced in VBA.As anyone who's used Access knows, you need VBA to make just about anything work.I'm very pleased and have gained a great deal of experience from this book.Very good examples and written well.I'm very happy and use it nearly every day.

Good Reference To Have
A book about Access that tells about the different aspects of the software as this book does is worth having on the book shelve. I recommend this book to anyone who needs as I do to have an available book to give examples as well as explain the details and tell about each area of Access databases. It's not a exhaustic concordance of Access but it has enough info to allow one to build some sophisticated databases. Not exactly for the beginning Access programmer but for the intermediate and advance programmer it would be an asset. I want go into detail but you need to read through the pages to understand the valuable resource it is. If you need reference material this book is for you.

Fantastic book for intermediate-advanced users
This is not the book for beginners. But this is the book for users who have a good foundation with the basics of Access- forms, reports, and queries- and want to learn how to use VBA to improve their database. I'm working on a project where I need to reprogram many aspects of the database, and this book has been invaluable. I have plenty of Access books for reference, but this book is the secret weapon for Access programmers. ... Read more

Product Description

Pro PHP XML and Web Services is the authoritative guide to using the XML features of PHP 5 and PHP 6. No other book covers XML and Web Services in PHP as deeply as this title. The first four chapters introduce the core concepts of XML required for proficiency, and will bring you up to speed on the terminology and key concepts you need to proceed with the rest of the book. Next, the book explores utilizing XML and Web Services with PHP5. Topics include DOM, SimpleXML, SAX, xmlReader, XSLT, RDF, RSS, WDDX, XML-RPC, REST, SOAP, and UDDI.

Author Robert Richards, a major contributor to the PHP XML codebase, is a leading expert in the PHP community. In this book, Richards covers all topics in depth, blending theory with practical examples. Youll find case studies for the most popular web services like Amazon, Google, eBay, and Yahoo. The book also covers XML capabilities, demonstrated through informative examples, in the PEAR libraries.

Customer Reviews (8)

PHP XML and Web Services
This particular book provides the reader with a comprehensive view of PHP development. I was pleased with the vast amount of topics covered. This book is a very useful tool for developers.

Great PHP XML Reference
'Pro PHP XML and Web Services' by Robert Richards is a great book to help you learn your way around these technologies.Packing in over 900+ pages, this book gives a broad overview of the subject matter which is outlined here:

01. Introduction to XML and Web Services
02. XML Structure
03. Validation
04. XPath, XPointer, XInclude
05. PHP and XML
06. Document Object Model
07. SimpleXML
08. Simple API for XML
09. XMLReader
10. Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations
11. Effective and Efficient Processing
12. XML Security
13. PEAR and XML
14. Content Syndication: RSS and Atom
15. Web Distributed Data Exchange
16. XML-RPC
17. Representational State Transfer
18. SOAP
19. Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI)
20. PEAR and Web Services
21. Other XML Technologies and Extensions

If you need a book that dives into the XML technology and doesn't look back, this is a nice pickup that gets the job done.Lots of other Apress books I feel are a bit too long, but this book at over 900 pages I have less complaints about.It's solidly written and a nice companion book to have on your bookshelf for anyone that programs with XML.

**** RECOMMENDED

Heavy Metal XML
This is first and foremost an XML reference. The author takes the reader through over 100 pages XML background in the first three chapters, then an overview of a few utilities like XPath and XPointer before he touches on PHP. Having provided some grounding in the basics, he then proceeds to develop the use of XML in PHP from the basic topics of DOM (Document Object Model) and XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations) to the more advanced topics of SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) and web services.

Along the way Richards introduces the reader to utility classes like SimpleXML, SAX (Simple API for XML), XMLReader. He also touches on PEAR (PHP Extension and Application Repository) utility classes and topics like security, RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration). The author's examples are reasonably concise and readable; making the necessary points without getting carried away.

The bottom line is that this is a highly effective reference (that means fairly comprehensive, but dry reading; I read cover to cover, but it was relatively tedious) on XML and its varied uses in association with PHP. This is not a book for the newcomer to programming, nor is it a cookbook for examples for the casual programmer/web developer, although the author does provide PEAR examples for connecting with major web services like Amazon, Google and Yahoo (among others). My suggestion for readers is to review what you need of the first 11-12 chapters to ensure a firm grounding in XML, and then hop to the chapters specific to the problem being faced.
P-)

All you need to know
This is a great book in that the author provides comprehensive coverage of a complicated subject, and does it in clear, concise and understandable language. The book should be a promary resource for programmers. I look forward to more contributions from this author.

The standout reference on PHP and XML
This book is amazingly well written. The content is organized in an intuitive and logical fashion. The author explains base concepts and progresses into advanced topics, providing consistent depth of coverage along the way. The author's writing and concise examples get the message across on the first reading - unlike some texts that require multiple passes.It's also noteworthy that the Technical Reviewers, Christian Stocker and Adam Trachtenberg, are renowned PHP experts and authors. If you plan to study or work with PHP and XML, this book is a MUST HAVE. ... Read more

Product Description
This developer's overview and how-to book provides a complete introduction and application guide to the world of topic maps, the powerful new means of navigating the World Wide Web. Softcover. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A multi-faceted look at a complex topic
This book is a must for anyone interested in Topic Maps. It would certainly pay to have some familiarity with XML, URIs, etc, because otherwise the examples will be hard going. If you do know XML, then you'll be away, because XTM is a very small and simple vocabulary.

Each chapter is by a different author, and each one comes at the subject from a different angle. Topics covered include tutorials for using the XTM specification, topic maps for website Information Architecture, Knowledge Representation, Ontological Engineering, e-learning, visualisation, relationship to RDF, information about various software implementations (a bit dated now, but still valuable), as well as sample topic maps and XSLT code.

Because of the diverse - even contradictory - viewpoints, the book as a whole provides an excellent overview of the field.

XML Topic Maps - the next level above XML?
Since Tim Berners-Lee wrote of the Semantic Web
several years ago, there has been speculation about
how we might embed meaning within Web pages, as
opposed to merely displaying content. To answer this,
XML offers the separation of content from display.
From its user definable tags, different user
communities can define their own sets of tags and
associate meaning with those. XML offers the
infrastructure. But it is still fairly low level.
Assembler language, as it were, compared to more
powerful languages like C or Java.

So if XML is like an assembler, what is the analog of
C? This book puts forward XTM, XML Topic Maps, as the
answer. It consists of 17 chapters by different
authors, outlining various aspects of XTM. The
chapters can be divided into two types.

One type has nitty gritty explanations, replete with
examples of XTM written in XML. If you are a
programmer, these chapters are for you. There are web
sites listed with XTM definitions that you can

incorporate into your XTM, just like using standard
namespaces available on the web in normal XML.

The other chapters deal with the much deeper and
harder problem of how XTM may be used for Knowledge
Organisationand Knowledge Representation. They are
high level and abstruse,edging up to the issues of
semiotics and artificial intelligence.

As a side note: In the XTM examples and
implementations given, I was surprised to see no
mention of altavista's graphical representation of

search results, circa 1998. This was not in XTM, but
it conveyed the flavour. What happened was that if you
searched for, say, 'tornado', the results would appear
as a graph. The nodes would be the main keywords in
the documents containing 'tornado'. Nodes would be
connected to each other if documents contained both
those words. In this case, one might see two non
intersecting clusters - one related to weather
patterns, and the other to jet planes. By clicking on
a node, you could expand it into finer grained graphs.
It complements this book, whose main thrust is in
manually describing XML documents in an XTM format,
because it could achieve much the same visual results,
but derived automatically from arbitrary web pages.

Interesting approach to knowledge management
In order to fully appreciate this book you will need a good working knowledge of XML and associated W3G documents, and more than a casual exposure to knowledge management.The first four chapters are a blend of historical information aboutXTM (XML topic maps) and fundamental technical information that describes design rationale and components of XTM (which is a separate open source initiative that is based on the ISO/IEC 13250 Topic Maps standard).

Chapters 5, 6 and 7 dive into the mechanics of XTM and knowledge management, and requires the prerequisite knowledge I cited above.This part of the book is not an easy read. This is not a reflection of the authors/editors ability to write as much as it is of the nature of the material.Knowledge management and development issues are given both wide and deep treatment in these chapters. Chapters 8 and 9 go deeper into the XML family as they relate to XTM (with an emphasis on XSLT), and address creating and maintaining sites that use XTM/XSLT as the core of a knowledge management strategy.

Related topics are covered in Chapters 10 through 13, including open source tools, RDF (widely used as a mechanism for weblogs and blogs that are gaining popularity), and semantic networks (intelligent agent-based systems). The final two chapters tie together the preceding material with a chapter devoted to topic map fundamentals for knowledge representation and a chapter about topic maps in knowledge organizations.

If you are interested in using an XML-like technology as the foundation of a knowledge management strategy, or are interested in learning about new directions in the integration of web technologies and knowledge management this book is ideal.For the technical reader the code examples, pointers to open source and commercial solutions and the website that supports this book (using topic maps, of course), this book is an excellent way to leverage knowledge of XML and use it to develop knowledge management solutions. ... Read more

Product Description
Provides a complete roadmap for understanding how XML, XSL, XML Schema, and related specifications interlink to create powerful, real-world applications. Both a reference and tutorial, this practical guide begins with a detailed timeline that charts the history of the Internet, the Web, and XML. Softcover. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

How to get a Perfect Bound copy of this book
Attention Michael Pachis and others who purchased this book in 2006: I am the book's author and when I saw your comments, I contacted my publisher. If you purchased a copy recently and received it in 3-hole punch format, send me an email and I'll put you in touch with the publisher.They have a small number of perfect bound copies they can send you instead. Use the email address on the right side on my personal web site (kensall.com) home page. I hope this helps.
(I gave this 5 stars simply to not impact the book's current rating.)

Note: This is not a paperback!
I want to warn customers that the publisher has gone to a "print on demand" publishing model and this book is not delivered as a paperback, but as eleven hundred three hole punched loose leaf pages! This leaves you with the task of finding a binder after paying 40$ for the book! Since it is book size (8 x 10) it awkawardly fits into a standard 8.5 x 11 binder, not very convenient for reading or transporting, and you need the binder to be 3.5" thick to fit the book in the binder.

I gave it five stars for content, but this new method of publishing gets zero stars.

Rather practical!
Where to start?With the concise history of where XML came from and why each design decision was made and how the evolution of specifications took place over the years, or the thorough explanation of all the XML specifications, or the programming and parsing aspects of XML and metadata, or the cool XML timeline poster towards the end of the book?This book has much to offer any person interested in finding out what XML is and why and how it has changed our world.

Kenneth B. Sall, the author of this book, organized this book in a fashion where each section could be studied on its own, and if there are references to the previous sections, they are appropriately mentioned.This way, one does not need to sit down and cover this 1000+ page book cover to cover to realize that the topic of conversation is.The stage is set at the beginning by the author commenting on the fact that XML can describe everything under the sun, even the kitchen sink:

"XML: ... maybe it's everything but the kitchen sink? Say, have you heard the one about the XML Kitchen Sink Language? ..."

I have been working with XML for sometime now, and I am still amazed at how it has grown and expanded in to our everyday lives in the past few years.One can spend months coming up to speed with the specifications and the XML "realm", and that's not enough.This book does not even cover, in a great detail at least, the Web services realm.That alone is a couple of thousand page book.The background topics are essential to any reader: basic XML syntax, DTD, Canonical XML, Namespaces and XML Schema.Once you have these topics covered and well understood, you can jump around to any other part of the book, displaying XML data for example or XML programming API's.

One can spend a couple of hours trying to figure out how these specifications fit in, but the author hs already done the job with a very useful picture inside the cover page.What's your forte?Cascading Style Sheets to convert XML data into a PDF document for example, or an XHTML document to display on a web site? XHTML is also covered in length, if you do not know that is and what it offers over the plain old HTML.
My favorite topics were probably the authors explanation of the XML parsing and the available API's and resources.SAX, DOM, JAXP and JDOM are covered in great detail.
* SAX - the API that started it all.Minimal and light-weight. Fast and event driven.
* DOM - Memory intensive, complex, but very powerful.It's a tree based model, and the tree represents the whole document.
* JDOM - java specific.Can be used with either DOM or SAX.
* JAXP - java specific again, but easier to use than JDOM.
There are also a number of C++ XML parsers that the author touches on such as the Apache Xerces, C++ SAX and many others, but the main topics revolve around the four most popular parsers mentioned.These sections are mostly tutorials and how-to's.Each parser is used in an example and example is analyzed piece by piece.DOM is covered in more detail due to the number of levels (DOM level 1-3) that it has.Since DOM is more powerful and more complicated, the topic is a bit more advanced and would require more attention from a novice.If you read thru the SAX chapter and understand it well, DOM would not be that much of hurtle, but make sure that you read understand SAX first.Java centric API's including XML-RPC, JAXB, JDOM, JAXM are covered by the author to depict how XML can be used and how it would benefit the application - and developers in-turn.The icing on the cake is when K. B. Sall outlines the differences between SAX, DOM, JDOM and JSAX.He talks about each of the technologies in detail, tell you what the advantage and disadvantage of each one is, and then it compares them against each other.By the time you are done reading these sections, you would become an expert in XML parsing and programming.

XLink and XPointer.How can one leave without these two core technologies and tools?They are truly remarkable; easy to use, light weight and easy to learn.Well, they are well covered - as you would expect from this book.One thing about these topics is that they could be very abstract and need examples, and we got lots of those.The example depict the efficacy of how one can use XLink to create complex connections between sets of resources, even though you do not have a write access to those resources.This is very handy and resourceful technique is you need to build an e-commerce site.With XPointer, one can locate individual XML elements, set of elements or even a range of XML data between two points.The ability to specify "range" of elements is where the true power of XPointer is revealed.

The references, the related resources for each topic, simple to complicated examples and a CD filled with goodies, source code used throughout the book and the W3C specifications at your fingertips outline the some of the other benefits of Kenneth B. Sall's "XML Family of Specifications" book.

Thorough in its explanations, lots of additional references
This is an excellent book to understand, develop and code XML. However, in the parsing discussions (chp 7-10) an understanding of OOP and Java programming are almost required. Other than that, it is an excellent text.

great book. Must have for CS students.
This book is not an "how to" guide, nor does it claim to be one. I mean by this that if you are, say a Java programmer looking for a book that concretely shows you how to integrate xml with Java then you would be better off with one of the so many Java/XML books on the market.

However, if in your work or your studies you feel that you need to gain a more thorough understanding of the W3C specifications related to XML, then this is the book to buy.

All the W3C specs are available for free on the web. The trouble is, W3C documents are designed to provide a precise definition of a standards, they are not designed to be especially intelligible by mere mortals (however technologically enclined). Some are quite readable, others far less.

Firstly, I really like that this book present all the relevant specifications and working drafts in perspective. Secondly, I found that it does a remarkably good job at translating these specifications (without simplifying them) in understandable terms.

In my work, I am interested in gaining as thorough as possible a view of XMl technologies and this book helps me greatly. I also like the fact that it present a well-organized bibliography at the end of each chapter (sadly many computer books from Wrox, O'reilly, Que an like don't have a bibiography as if to say "everything inside this book comes straight from the author's mind. DO not look any further).

I have reviewed for myself around twenty XML books. I found this book to be one of my top favorite. I recommend it especially for:
- CS students or programmer with a theoretical bent.
- anybody who wants to get a thorough overview of W3C standards. ... Read more