XML Books - Yenra

Book reviews

Books

Applied XML: A Toolkit for Programmers - XML overview, Document Type Declarations (DTDs), XSL, XML and information exchange, three-tiered architectures, browser support, XML tags, attributes, comments, namespaces, DOM reference, tree navigation, trees and notes, Internet Explorer 5 and data islands, JavaScript and VBScript, Java XML parsers, server-side XML: Active Server Pages (ASPs) and servlets, XML data types, XML and Visual Basic, and XML queries.

Building Web Sites with XML - This book is organized into four parts. Part 1 covers general XML topics, including XSL, the DOM, and Web-based vocabularies, and gives a quick review of XML markup. Part 2 covers XML in the browser, while Part 3 presents solutions for delivering XML from the Web server. Part 4 covers extended topics such as XML Forms that should be of particular interest to Web developers, and it builds on all of the concepts presented through the book to build a complete Web site based on XML. You can, of course, read the book from cover to cover. In fact, I recommend that you skim all of the chapters in order at least once. If you are new to XML, you will want to read Part 1 carefully before jumping to either Part 2 or Part 3. Chapter 1 is designed to orient you to XML by describing how XML came about and the reasons for its importance, and suggesting possible applications of the technology. The chapter also introduces technologies such as DTDs, XSL, and the DOM, and it describes XML's relationship with HTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Chapter 2 introduces the structured document and provides a quick tour of XML markup to get you started. Note that Chapter 2 is not an intensive tutorial on XML-you can get that from one of the introductory books on the topic. Rather, this chapter is designed to get you up to speed quickly so you can begin real-world XML development as soon as possible. A key chapter in this book, Chapter 3, introduces XSL and its associated transformation language, XSLT. XSLT is a primary means for accessing and processing XML elements.

Designing XML Internet Applications (Charles F. Goldfarb Series) - For readers with previous experience developing Internet applications using other tools, introduces XML, a new standard descended from SGML, as an alternative to HGML. Explains how to think about structured information within the system, how to apply that thinking to an intranet application design, and how to implement the applications. The CD-ROM contains the Java, C++, and Pearl source code needed, along with XML tools and the Java Development Kit.

Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 Specifications: From The W3C Recommendations - This book is a printed version of the XML specifications. It contains the complete text of the original document developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an independent and international standards body devoted to furthering Web technologies.

Inside XML DTDs: Scientific and Technical - XML syntax, DTD document design, XLink and XPointer, MathML, RDF and Dublin Core, VHGTM, CML, BioML, BSML, Weather Observation Markup Format, AML, AIML, and Perl-based XML processing.

Just XML - Just XML exposes some XML features such as XLink and XPointers, as well as cascading style sheets.

Professional XML - XML syntax, Document Type Definitions (DTD), data modeling, Document Object Model (DOM), Simple API for XML (SAX) 1.0, namespaces, schemas, linking, XML--database integration, server to server transfers, eBusiness applications, Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), and SOAP.

Structuring XML Documents (Charles F. Goldfarb Series) - Not recommended for newcomers to XML, Structuring XML Documents immediately launches into document type definitions (DTDs), the book's main topic. Megginson's goal is to delve into the heart of XML through the use of DTDs. "Though the book necessarily deals with some of the idiosyncrasies of XML and SGML DTDs and uses XML syntax in its examples," he explains, "it deals with issues--such as learning, usability and ease of processing--that all document designers and analysts must understand, whether or not they use XML or SGML and whether they use DTD syntax or other notations to define their structures." Anyone unfamiliar with the basic concepts of XML would do well to steer to another title; anyone ready to use XML and plan the necessary architecture for its implementation will appreciate Megginson's authority.

XML : A Primer - This guide to XML shows developers how XML fits into the current landscape of emerging standards. It presents a complete guide to the syntax of XML, explaining how to create well-formed and valid XML documents. Style sheets, including the Cascading Style Sheets standard, are applied to XML documents to create documents that are attractive to humans as well as to computers. Document Type Declarations (DTDs) receive extensive coverage, with several chapters exploring their application through well-documented examples. XML: A Primer presents DTDs suited to a variety of tasks, including document management, EDI, device control, and traditional web page development.

XML : Extensible Markup Language - The book is divided into three parts. The first part covers the basics of XML, providing enough information to start creating XML Web pages. This section includes information on the philosophy behind XML, how XML uses extensibility in place of a multitude of tags, how to render XML documents into HTML, how to get pages onto the Web, and how to use Extensible Style Language (XSL) style sheets. The second part discusses more advanced issues, such as document type definitions, how to assemble documents from a variety of sources, how to use attributes to describe elements, and how to use Xlinks and Xpointers to provide greater functionality than HTML's hyperlinks and anchors. The third part is Practical XML.

XML and Java: Developing Web Applications - Written by three XML researchers from IBM, XML and Java provides a great introduction to the Extensible Markup Language (XML) for the working Java developer. This book proves that you don't have to master all the details of XML to utilize its power for real-world projects on the Web. After introducing XML and explaining its ability to standardize information exchange in corporate computing, the book turns to today's XML Java parsers, like XML for Java and the Simple API for Java (SAX), which greatly simplify XML development. Using these two APIs, the book shows how to parse an XML document. Next the authors demonstrate how to create an XML document from scratch as well as modify XML tree structures. They also present a mapping program, which translates XML data from one format to another. (This utility can be used to convert HTML to XML.)

The XML and SGML Cookbook : Recipes for Structured Information (Charles F. Goldfarb Series) - A book/CD-ROM guide providing instantly usable Document Type Definition (DTD) recipes for every type of document, and explaining document structure, patterns, and form. Contains sections on systems of documents, document patterns, and characters and glyphs. The CD-ROM contains all DTDs from the book, plus SGML tools. For publishing managers, information professionals, and system integrators.

XML Applications - Concentrating on how programmers and system designers can exploit XML within their documents, "Instant XML Programmer's Reference" covers those tools that are freely available over the Internet, including the programming classes and APIs currently under discussion with the XML community. The important issue of style specifications will be dealt with in a chapter devoted to writing DSSSL programs.

XML Bible - Explains XML documents, DTDs, CSS and XSL.

XML Black Book - The first part of the book introduces XML and covers everything from the history of markup languages to how to use XML in a corporate intranet. Each chapter in the book starts with an "In Depth" section, which frames the information, and ends with a section called "Immediate Solutions," which provides quick examples of how to perform common tasks. In the second part of the book, the authors pick apart XML, detailing how Document Type Definitions (DTDs), elements, and attributes all work together. This part also covers Xlink, Xpointers, and XML processors. Most tutorials would end at this point, but this hefty book continues with coverage of XML style sheets and XML applications that are out there in the real world such as Resource Description Framework (RDF) and Common Data Format (CDF).