Professional XML (Programmer to programmer) - Softcover

Anderson, Richard; Birbeck, Mark; Kay, Michael; Livingstone, Steven; Williams, Kevin; Loesgen, Brian; Martin, Didier; Mohr, Stephen; Ozu, Nikola; Peat, Bruce; Pinnock, Jonathan; Stark, Peter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1861003110 ISBN 13: 9781861003119

Publisher: WROX Press Ltd, 2000

Synopsis

Chapters written by professional programmers discuss XML specification and navigation, linking, XSLT, presentation technologies, databases, messaging, and B2B applications.

About this title

Review:

XML--eXtensible Markup Language--is capable of rendering all data transfer and display OS and application agnostic. It's a self-documenting meta-language (used to describe data) implemented as a sub-set of SGML. As the authors of Professional XML explain, to use XML you first define an XML "vocabulary" suitable for your purpose. There are already vocabularies suitable for molecular modelling, commercial data exchange, legal and medical documents and much more. A vocabulary definition is contained in a DTD (Document Type Definition). The authors justify the need for the XML meta language, cover usage and XML document handling via DOM, Document Object Modelling. They don't spare blushes either, freely acknowledging XML problems such as the already perceived need to move from DTDs to the more elegant, XML based Schemas.

While conceptually simple, XML is tricky to implement well in data structures and XML parsers, not least because it's a moving target. The authors cover a wide range of ways to use and implement XML with real-world examples--including heavy coverage of the SAX XML API implemented in Java--but what comes through most clearly in the 1,150 pages of Professional XML is XML's lack of maturity. This is unsurprising: W3C only nailed down the XML 1.0 specification in February, 1998. There is, though, no doubt about the need for, and importance of, XML in a networked world. Whether you are developing for Web or business-to-business applications, you need to understand XML. Professional XML meets this need. --Steve Patient

From the Author:

An interview with Steven Livingstone from Professional XML 2nd Edition (June 2001)

1. What do you think is the major selling point of this book (or what does this book do that others don't)?

This is the latest XML book on the market. The world of XML has changed considerably over the last couple of years and this book gives insight into how XML technologies are being employed today, as well as a view to the future of XML. The authors come from a diverse set of industries and so you get a rich set of views on how XML is being used in the real world.

2. What area do you think XML isn't currently well represented in, and do you think this book helps to address that?

Although they are emerging technologies, I think the whole e-Business and Web Services integration is going to become rapidly important in the Enterprise. This book gives a good overview and understanding of the technical implementation requirements and issues, as well as some coding on how to achieve this.

3. This book describes the current W3C Recommendation for XML Schema, do you think this technology will have a large effect on XML usefulness?

I am a big fan of XML Schema. Everything should be associated with a schema to simplify issues from development to integration and maintenance. Integration is one of the keys. Even internally integration, or understanding the data, often proves to be difficult. In the Internet it doesn't get any easier. XML Schema will prove to be a big success in simplifying these areas, although I still see way too many standards and vocabulary registries out there, which will hopefully settle down as certain ones are adopted at large by user communities.

4. Which XML technology do you think it is most important for 'programmers' to become familiar with? (eg: Schemas, XSLT, etc)

Schemas are the building blocks for understanding XML as a whole. Without understanding this, you don't really know WHY you would want to use XSLT for example: why would you want to transform something? In essence, schemas define the domain of XML and although there are many directions you can go in, most will involve XML Schema in some manner.

5. In your opinion what is the most exciting XML technology, and why?

For me, Schemas is the most important. Now, the most exciting for me is probably how these become employed worldwide. As it is so easy to create a new Schema, the challenge exists in reusing and incorporating schemas from other vocabularies and applications. Why have 7 million address vocabularies when all we need is one good one? I don't ever expect to see just one, but perhaps one day a few instances of such a schema fragment will be used in millions of applications worldwide !

6. What got you into XML?

I had been fiddling about with XML for content mark-up and thought it was pretty neat. However, I always saw XML doing something more and as I got involved in XML RPC and started looking at many of the emerging XML technologies for ways to improve on what XML RPC offered. That has now expanded into many of the newer areas of XML such as RDF and the Semantic Web stuff coming out of the W3C at the moment.

About this edition

• Publisher: WROX Press Ltd
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 1861003110
• ISBN 13: 9781861003119
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 1179