Product Description

The SMIL 3.0 language is the W3C’s standard language for web-based multimedia. This book provides a comprehensive guide to all of SMIL’s elements and attributes for all versions, from the complete SMIL Language profile to SMIL Tiny. Driven by dozens of examples and illustrated code fragments, every aspect of SMIL is treated in this book.

Starting with essential background on XML and the streaming media infrastructure, this book considers recent features – such as smilText and smilState – as well as the structuring, layout and timing aspects required to master SMIL. In addition, the book describes advanced SMIL functionality, including transitions, animation and embedded metadata, all from an application-oriented perspective.

Customer Reviews (2)

Comprehensive, clear, and attractive
This is a colorful and attractive book that tells you everything you may ever need to know about creating multimedia presentations using SMIL 2.0, the second release of the World-Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language Recommendation. SMIL is an XML language for creating multimedia presentations, integrating media, temporal control and interactivity. A SMIL presentation can contain a combination of any types of media. SMIL itself is media "agnostic", and includes most media types by referencing their URL's rather than embedding them in the SMIL file itself.

The authors, Bulterman and Rutlege, are respected multimedia researchers and were key contributors to both the SMIL 1.0 and SMIL 2.0 Recommendations. They were personally involved in drafting and testing a significant portion of the standard, and the company that Bulterman used to lead, Oratrix, developed one of the first full implementations of the SMIL 2.0 language, Grins. So these guys know what they are talking about.

While the W3C SMIL 2.0 Recommendation (http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/REC-SMIL2-20050107/) is primarily written for SMIL implementors and XML language designers incorporating SMIL features into their XML-based language, the book is written for multimedia content authors. The book begins with an overview of SMIL 2.0, with six example presentations that show how SMIL can be used, some history, and a guide to the organization of the SMIL 2.0 standard. The next chapter gives a brief but useful introduction to SMIL 2.0 code including the major components of the language: structure, media, layout, timing, linking, and control.

Further chapters go into each of these areas in much greater depth, explaining all of the options and features in each component (terms module in SMIL 2.0) of the language. And there are many! To support fully featured, interactive, and attractive multimedia features that allow infinite flexibility in the look and feel of a multimedia presentation, SMIL 2.0 has a ton of features and options. In addition to the components already listed, there is animation (my favorite), transition effects, media clipping, advanced layout, extended control, and metadata. Bulterman and Rutlege do a good job of presenting a lot of material in an organized and attractive manner, with lots of examples.

By and large, the features in SMIL 2.0 are straightforward and intuitive to use, However, as is true in any standard developed to meet the needs of many separate groups (SMIL 2.0, for example), SMIL 2.0 is a large language with some potential pitfalls, and there are some also "doozers" and "gotchas". By necessity, the SMIL timing model is complex. While usually intuitive, in some particular cases the timing elements and attributes can interact in initially surprising ways. For another example, there are two kinds of SMIL XML for representing transitions, and all transitions may not be available in all platforms. The authors calmly guide the reader through all this. Backward compatability between versions of SMIL, including the oddly named 'skip-content' attribute is another complex subject clearly presented.

This book is both more comprehensive and much more attractively presented than any other book on SMIL that I have seen. The "insiders" view of SMIL that authors have is used to round out the explanations and rationale for things to good effect. Overall this is a great book for any multimedia content developer who is using or considering using SMIL 2.0. It will also be useful to SMIL implementation developers as another source of information when reading and implementing the recommendation documents. Lastly it should be of interest to students studying multimedia as an in-depth guide to a specific comprehensive multimedia presentation architecture.

Aaron M. Cohen
Chairman of the W3C Synchronized Multimedia Working Group (produced the SMIL 2.0 Recommendation)

An essential reference for authors and implementers
This is a remarkable book, and by far the most authoritative guide available for the SMIL languages. It serves a broad audience, and combines a readable style with complete expertise in the subject matter.

For authors, the book provides an easy-to-understand explanation of the language principles and syntax. Many useful examples illustrate the features, and provide useful authoring templates. Bulterman and Rutledge's experience with multimedia authors and authoring comes through in the many tips and hints for addressing real-world issues and avoiding potential pitfalls. All examples are provided online as well, along with demos and other resources.

For the serious student or implementer, the book provides detailed explanations of the underlying models for layout, timing and animation. These sections benefit from the combined experience of the book's authors as leading members of the W3C standards group that developed the SMIL languages. Their understanding of the details is clearly beyond that of most other authors on this subject.

The book design itself is interesting and fun. Graphics in the margins mark the chapters, with key chapters featuring flipbook-like graphic "animations". It has a comfortable layout and organization and an excellent index. If I have a complaint, it is that I do not find the graphics summarizing syntax features to be very intuitive. Fortunately, the text and examples provide sufficient syntax reference.

Authors of web multimedia as well as academics and professionals integrating or implementing SMIL language features will find this an invaluable addition to their reference bookshelf - I strongly recommend it.
... Read more

Product Description
Pro XML Development with Java Technology has been written to help you, the professional Java developer who needs a practical hands-on guide to marrying these technologies together effectively. There are a lot of books out there, but none really explore the combination deeply, and they are largely theoretical. The main objective here was to consolidate the theory and practice of XML and Java technologies in a single, up-to-date source, that is firmly grounded in underlying XML concepts, and can be consulted time and again to rapidly speed up enterprise application development!

It covers all the essential XML topics, including XML Schemas, addressing of XML documents through XPath, transformation of XML documents using XSLT stylesheets, storage and retrieval of XML content in native XML and relational databases, web applications based on Ajax, and SOAP/HTTP and WSDL based Web Services. These XML topics are covered in he applied context of up-to-date Java technologies, including JAXP, JAXB, XMLBeans, and JAX-WS. You will find this book useful in building contemporary, service-oriented enterprise applications. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Nice coverage of XML in Java 5
The title is misleading. It is not yet another book on Java and XML. While some of the topics have been covered elsewhere this book deals with JAXB 2.0, DOM 3, XPath in Java SE 5. Also the authors provide the source as Eclipse projects. A very useful and concise book.

Passable
It's a decent book for people that want to get a quick summary of the different technologies that exist to combine Java with XML. But it mostly fails as both a learning book and a reference: it simply doesn't explain things in enough detail for people to really learn the ins and outs of a technology.

That being said, the basis is solid and the book does contain useful informations. The early chapters are informative and fairly elaborate, and the chapter on web services gives a very good and useful overview.

Unfortunately, the book is brought down by chapters that are very lacking in detail (JAXB, XSL:FO) and/or don't add anything. The chapter on translating XML to XLS is a low; It's basically a very long and very trivial Apache POI tutorial that has next to nothing to do with XML.

Also, many pages are wasted on examples that explain how to set up Eclipse to run certain example projects. These examples go on forever, are mostly trivial, are unlikely to of much use(since they are not base on Maven) and most importantly, have nothing to do with XML.

Since there aren't that many good books on this subject, I guess this one is worth a look. Just don't expect too much

author's sarcastic language mocks "idiot-reader"

Information in the book is great.

Author's sarcastic tone of voice often mocks/belittles the 'dumb reader'

"We will not describe this schema definition in great detail.By now, you should be familiar with schema constructs; if you need to review this material, please refer to Chapter 1." pg. 375(ch 14)

"At this point you may be wondering ..how it knows what this message is requesting.From an intuitive standpoint, the answer to this question is that the.... pg 361

"If you examine the response message, again from an intuitive standpoint, you may notice the following points" pg 362

Good book on XML with Java
This is a very decent book on XML with Java. Lots of examples and it is pretty well organized. Good coverage of SAX, StAX and JAXB. Be aware that if you are looking for in depth coverage of XSLT or XPATH this is not the book ( and doesn't purport to be). Although examples are for Eclipse IDE I was not fazed by this at all and readily translated them to my IDE.

Get java & XML instead
This book is titled 'THE EXPERT VOICE IN JAVA TECHNOLOGY'. But this book is full of something like how to use eclipse(window pictures in many pages), which most of experienced programmers already know. It repeats this again and again. Another book 'Java & XML ' is much better than this one. ... Read more

Product Description

Dont waste time on 1,000-page tomes full of syntax; this book is all you need to get ahead in XML development. Renowned web developer Sas Jacobs presents an essential guide to XML. Beginning XML with DOM and Ajax is practical and comprehensive. It includes everything you need to know to get up to speed with XML development quickly and painlessly.

Customer Reviews (10)

great resource
this book is good for both beginners and for more advanced people. well organized and methodical. easy to scan and pinpoint items.

WEB Services SOAP and XML
I thought this was a great book. My firm was embarking on developing a web service that was using SOAP and XML. We had never developed using these tools and protocols. SAS did a fine job of making it short and sweet on what needs to be done.

This books is well written with good examples and without over complicating the technology. I really am tired of books that are long and say a lot and say nothing. I feel this one is an excellent HOW To Book.

John J Krzysztow
www.cjk-consulting.com

the book for XML in the browser
The book do the right job for who want to learn the XML in the context of the browser , and i consider it XML in the Browser defenitive guide , beginning with the fundamentals of XML for writing well formed XML documents , then illustrate what you need to know about XSL , XPath , XPointer , xhtml , MathMl , SVG , WSDL , SOAP , RSS , VoiceXML , SMIL and Database output formats , then illustrate how to manipulate XML in the client-side using W3C DOM , XSLT and ADOBE flash XML class and AJAX then end up with server side XML manipulation using PHP and .NET .

Informative But, Deceptive Title
I am a beginning web designer as i was assigned by the church i work at to pick up books and learn how to make a website. I bought this book after deciding to follow through a roadmap series, provided by apress publishers, that i found on the back of Beginning CSS Web Development, which by the way is a great book for those wanting to learn CSS and enjoy doing so. Simon Collison is very entertaining and knows how to properly instruct and teach you in the arts of CSS web development.

Maybe i should have read Sas Jacobs Beginning XML with DOM and Ajax before reading Simon Collison because after reading Simon's book first i was very disappointed in Sas Jacobs way of teaching XML. This book is full of theory which isn't necesarily a bad thing, but it also shoots code out there and half the time there is no explanation as to where it came from. XML isn't applied very well to web development in this book so if you are looking for ways to tie XML into web design don't expect much out of this book.

I guess what i'm trying to say is that this book isn't going to get you going asap into utilizing XML in your dreamweaver program or Flash CS3. I would like to compare this book as a very borring Junior level college lecture class. the kind of class that forces you to go out and learn stuff on your own.

The book impliments different coding techniques and languages to impliment with XML such as CSS and XSLT and Javascript. There is a whole chapter on CSS which isn't bad but i had also already read a book on CSS so i was ready to go, but the XSLT chapters were quite dreadful. I had no clue what was going on or how to properly form an XSLT stylesheet. Its something that i'll have to look at on my own from other sources. The book showed examples of things you could do with XSLT rather than show you how to write XSLT.

I really wish the book wouldn't waste so much time on code that isn't going to work on cross browsers. Jacobs repeatedly will show you an example that will work on IE 6 but wont work on Mozilla or Opera or Safari. Or it will work on Mozilla and not the others. Either way it just seems like she could give you the examples that work on all of them and then say if you do it this way it won't work on these browsers because... there never really is much of an explanation.

The plus in the book is that Sas Jacobs does know what she is talking about. She gets too indepth for having the book labeled as "Beginning XML". So maybe they could have picked a better title for the book and it would be alright. The book is more intended for those wanting to expound on XML beings it is a Metalanguage and has a vast amount of capabilities. Its a book for those who are very intuitive when it comes to coding. People that are good problem solvers and already have a web portfolio started.Its a book for people that are not me, and thats someone that is looking how to build a dynamic website from scratch with no prior experience in web design and web development.

So if you are a beginner looking to pick up on XML watch out for this book. Maybe try somewhere else. The book will give you a good lecture on XML and will help you understand XHTML better as well as a few other languages, but you won't be utilizing XML very well any time soon.

Other books i own and have read and would recomend to beginnig web designers:

"The essential Guide to Dreamweaver CS3 with CSS, Ajax, and PHP" -good book.
"Beginning CSS Web Development from Novice to Professional" -great choice buy it.
"Foundation Actionscript Animation" -great book.
"Learning ActionScript 3.0"-good book.

Convoluted XML, From Novice to Lost
The book barely touches XML, and when it does, it keeps comparing it to XHTML.In fact, a lot of examples are about XHTML (and I thought this book was about XML).There aren't any real-world examples in how to use XML, just theoretical talk on ideas of use.I can understand that XHTML is the marriage of HTML and XML, but does the book have to use more examples of XHTML than explaining what XML is?Obviously I was still lost about the use of XML.The book also covers formatting XML with CSS, for presenting XML in certain formatting light.Um, isn't that what XHTML is for?Presentation?I know XML is for holding data, even configuration files, but this book doesn't even introduce you to such ideas, nor does it explore those type of concepts.Just more focus on presenting XML as a displayable document in the web browser (XHTML anyone?)I found myself skimming pages until I reached the end, and felt ripped-off.I was also lost on the whole idea of using namespaces for XML, which the book did a good job of not explaining the use of it in real-world scenarios.Do yourself a favor and stay away from this book. ... Read more

Product Description
DocBook is an SGML format for writing structured documents and it has been adopted by a large and growing community of authors writing books of all kinds.DocBook Publishing provides clear, concise information on how DocBook can be used for publishing in-house documentation projects, academic purposes, and much more.This comprehensive reference covers all aspects of using DocBook, from writing a book or article to using Jade to convert DocBook files to finished products.Writers looking to publish a book, an article, or Web content will find all they need to know in this hands-on resource. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Fluff and Errors
Save your money and spend your time on the Linux Documentation Project web site.
This book does not contain a single useful detail on how to install and configure the software used to render documents, so make sure you're using a distribution of Linux which includes the tools. Windows users are out of luck.
None of the Chapter 5 example links work on the CD-ROM. The examples in the book and on the CD-ROM are not very complete or useful. The book and CD seem slapped together without organization or quality control. I'm sorry I bought it.

Once over lightly
For a complete beginner, this book is OK, otherwise I think people are going to find it light on the details. Of course, it's the details that are hard to discover and get right.

Also, space was devoted to topics that are not really germane, like CVS, Emacs and vi. Of course one has to edit DocBook files, but devoting 3 chapters (out of 12 total) seems like padding. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (10)

On par, but nothing special... good for testing, though
While the samples are straight-forward, to the point and easy to follow, the book doesn't really provide enough under-the-cover view.Generally speaking, if you are looking for some insight into WS used with Google, eBay, FedEx, etc. this is a wonderful book.

If you are looking into information for things such as "using Axis for real-world WS", this just scratches the surface.

However...

This book provided a wonderful set of quick, easy test setups for use against generic WS implementations (such as those provided in B2Bi software) for comparative results.The peer into the provider-specific details made it wonderful to have provide expected output and check the diffs on files.

Recommended for QA, unit testing, automated testing, etc.
Recommended for those interested in quick samples but not in a core understanding of the technologies.

Very specific
I thought that this is a book very specific to certain aspects of web services and examples are overly detailed...I dont expect the book to be compiled mostly with elaborative examples.

Decent Book
Real World Web Services by Will Iverson is more of a "here's an example of something someone might want to do" type book.The book contains a lot of Java source code to connect to some web services from big names like eBay, Google, and FedEx.Whether these examples are useful or whether the reader can glean out other uses of the code depends on the skill the reader has in programming.The book also goes over some basic concepts and tools the reader can use to get started with web services.All in all, Real World Web Services will give you a taste of what web services are, yet leaves out the low level details of how it works.

Great bridge from theory to practical...
Since Domino 7 will start to incorporate web services more readily into application development, I figured it was time to start getting a little more versed on the subject.To that end, I got a copy of Real World Web Services by Will Iverson (O'Reilly).Coupled with a detailed tutorial/reference manual, this is a really good selection.

Chapter List:Web Service Evolution; Foundations of Web Services; Development Platform; Project 1: Competitive Analysis; Project 2: Auctions and Shipping; Project 3: Billing and Faxing; Project 4: Syndicated Search; Project 5: News Aggregator; Project 6: Audio CD Catalog; Project 7: Hot News Sheet; Project 8: Automatic Daily Discussions; Future Web Service Directions; Index

While the book is smallish (206 pages), there's a lot of value packed in it.Iverson takes you from the beginning of simple HTTP request and responses, through data scrapping, into RPC technology, and then finally into web services.The overview really helps you to understand how we got to where we are.He explains how to set up a simple test development environment as well as what you'll need, and then it's directly into the example projects.Here's where the book shines.These projects connect to live data sources such as Amazon, Google, FedEx, and eBay, so you're not dealing with simple examples that don't translate to the real world.Each of the projects are applications that you could easily see yourself using on a daily basis, either exactly as written or with some moderate tweaking.And since you're learning the mechanics of connecting with that service, it's easy to extrapolate the information into the areas that might interest you more.

If you have no background in SOAP or WSDL, I'd recommend you get a foundational book that has a good tutorial and reference material.You won't get it from this book, nor should you expect to.It's not his intended purpose for the book.But this is the book that will help you go from theoretical to practical, and that's worth its weight in gold.

Very good book if you're looking to take the next step in your web services development...

not what I was hoping for

I was very disappointed with this book.I was hoping for something that would go into detail of the various Web Services solutions offered by Amazon, Google, etc.Instead it is just another Java book filled with mostly code (is it a sin to use prose anymore?) and lacking in any kind of detailed discussion at all.It basically talks about very specific problems, offers some code, then moves on to another specific solution.I found it completely uninteresting.

The only person I would suggest this book for is someone who wants code to Cut and Paste without really understanding what they are doing.And good luck to them ;-) ... Read more

Product Description

 This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed joint post-proceedings of the VLDB 2002 Workshop on Efficiency and Effectiveness of XML Tools and Techniques, EEXTT and the CAiSE 2002 Workshop on Data Integration over the Web, DIWeb.

The 10 revised full papers presented were carefully selected during two rounds of reviewing and revision. The papers are organized in topical sections on XML languages, XML modeling and integration, XML storage, benchmarking XML, and data integration over the Web.

Product Description
XML is a completely platform agnostic data medium. Flash is able to make use of XML data, which is very useful when you are creating Rich Internet Applications – it allows you to populate Flash web interfaces with data from pretty much any source that supports XML as a data medium, be it databases, raw XML files, or more excitingly, .Net applications, web services, and even Microsoft Office applications such as Excel and Word!

In this book, Sas Jacobs first introduces XML itself – what it is, its syntax, its associated technologies (such as CSS and XSLT,) and how to get XML out of your applications in a format Flash can use.

Then she shows how to use the XML object to stream XML data into Flash, and how to use the XMLConnector component and XML Sockets to build advanced Flash/XML applications. Numerous example applications are built throughout the book, including an MP3 player, XML photo gallery, an Excel-driven web catalog, Access and Word-driven content management systems, and an XML-driven chat application. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Great Book
I really do not understand what the negative reviews are all about for this book. Even if you do not want to use office to generate your xml, you can still read over those chapters use the xml file created and learn HOW TO USE xml in flash which is what this book is about. I would probably not use office but I learned alot about processing the xml files that were created by the office program. Anyways this book took me from 0 knowledge about xml in flash to becoming fairly copmpetent in this subject. I highly recommend this book.

Horrible Book
I had to purchase this book for a class I'm taking, and now it's 8 weeks into the semester, and I seriously got nothing at all from this.I'm having better luck looking for tutorials than reading this worthless book.Pictures are horrible, chapters drag on forever, and it's just plain not worth the 40 bucks i lost for this.Find a different book if you're just learning xml and flash, worst purchase in my college years!

Not exactly what I expected...
I was actually hoping that it would be the perfect companion to the 'PHP for Flash' & 'Advanced PHP for Flash' series but it's more on the intergration between XML/Flash/MSOffice which in the web-designing industry is kinda/sorta useless since seeing that most of the technology used is PHP/ASP and MySQL.

The book is great for learning the basic functionality of XML with Flash but doesn't really give you the in-depth functions that are so widely used today.

Hopefully there will be an 'Advanced' series out soon.

Happy flashing!!!

Learning to use XML structured data in Flash projects
This clearly written and well-organized book provides an overview of XML and how to use XML structured data in a variety of Flash projects. Anyone who is interested in working with XML in Flash and would like to learn more about how to get started will benefit from the easy-to-follow examples and the range of topics that the author has chosen to cover. Beginning with an overview of XML the chapters quickly move on to show how Flash can use XML data. The content is addressed to both Flash designers and developers. While Flash developers may already be familiar with the uses and specifications for XML schemas, Xpath, and XSLT; many Flash designers will gain an appreciation for many of the complexities of XML, as well as insight into the Web Services model.Later chapters, for example, reveal how to use Microsoft Word, Excel and Access to create XML content.

As one who can manage Flash ActionScripting, but who does not have a strong programming background, I found the background into the various XML types to be quite helpful. The book does an excellent job of explaining entities, relationships, schemas and how to navigate an XML object in order to show the how to use XML content with Flash. I was particularly interested in the many applications for e-learning and found the blend of author's screenshots, code examples and main text to provide a nice balance of learning styles.

I learned a lot from this work and am sure that it would be useful to people who are already familiar with Flash and want to learn more about how to use XML with this program.

Really nice book
How to use the XML in the Flash? This is one of the doubts most recurrent in lists and forums of quarrels. Who already tried work in Flash with XML created in one of programs of the Office Package definitively already lost the patience, much calm is necessary to reach the accurate node of the correct skill.

Sometimes we obtain alternatives, but almost always having to lose much time to carry through simple tasks. There the book "Foundation XML for Flash" of the Friends of ED publishing company enters, it presents simple solutions for who works with this type of archive, shows as to work with archives of the Word, Excel, Access besides instruct to work with Web services and much more.

It is a perfect book for who wants have complete reference regarding about the Flash and XML theme.
... Read more

Product Description
The masters of XML show how to unleash the language's vast potential. Less complicated than SGML and more flexible than HTML, XML (Extensible Markup Language) is fast becoming the language of choice for Web developers and programmers. Readers are looking for a clear-cut roadmap to this new technology's exciting terrain—its advantages, capabilities, and little-known shortcuts. XML Specification Guide is what the Web world is waiting for. After a concise overview of the purpose and scope of XML and its principles, the authors—renowned XML experts—provide an in-depth, annotated specification guide, complete with sample applications. Beyond comprehensive coverage of the XML specification, the book discusses the new "namespaces" technology from W3C, the Tiny XML subset, databases and object-oriented models, and much more.Amazon.com Review
In XML Specification Guide, authors Ian S. Graham andLiam Quin don't attempt to reinvent the wheel by teaching XML in theirown words. Instead, they present the actual 1.0 specification from theWorld Wide Web Consortium and enhance it with useful backgroundinformation, definitions, and reference tables.

The book beginswith a "bootstrap" tutorial that examines basic XML documents andoffers an overview of Document Type Definitions (DTD). This sectionleads the reader through discussions of entities, DTD subsets,tokenized attribute types, CDATA, and string normalization--all of thetongue-twisting terms that make up the heart of XML. Plenty of codesnippets illustrate the concepts, but the writing is aimed at adeveloper-level audience.

The second part of the book is the XMLspecification itself, buttressed with inserted notes, annotations, anda limited number of examples. Since you're reading from the actualstandard, you can rest assured that you're getting the instructionright from the source.

The third section of the book presents aseries of additional technical appendices that the authors feel areimportant. These include style issues, character sets, comparisonsbetween HTML and XML, a discussion of schemas versus DTDs, and aglossary. Augmented by a companion Web site, this is a fine resourcefor any Web developer's desk. --Stephen W. Plain ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

The only possible reference for XML
This is the only possible reference for XML. You will not find here XSL, XLink, etc., but you will find an help to understand the XML specification itself (with the annotation of one of the authors), and an 'hard' tutorial to go in depth in the bare XMl language. If you had still doubts after reading other XML titles (is it possible to represent this, to represent that, how to model this, can the DTD do that, etc.) you have absolutely no choice. Not for newbies.

XML pure
Clear, precise, pure, systematic. Imagine an ice mountain in a cold, blue ocean. That same clarity for XML arises in your mind, when you read this book. (Still, don't forget "The XML Handbook", if you want toknow, how to apply XML in business applications :-)

Very technical reading ...good book and very detailed
This book is not for a novice. You must have experience regarding technical books with lots of jargon. If so, you will like this book immensely.

A very clear, precise, and accurate book on XML specificatio
I like this book very much. I have gone through this book cover to cover, and have found no technical errors or typos of any kind. The definitions and explanations are very precise. The discussions on Entities, Notations,Processing instructions, and many other complex topics are very precise andclear. The author has done a very careful job at writing this book. Most ofthe red computer Wiley books are embarrassingly full of technical errorsand errata. This book is an exception. Anyone doing serious work with XMLneeds a clear, precise and accurate book like this. There is no shortcut tolearning and clearly understanding the finer points of XML specifications.Actually, reading the first 100 pages of this book (Part I) is the closestshortcut to understand even those subtle details of XML specifications,which are needed to write serious XML applications.

Best Guide to XML on the Market!
Any organization that is working towards developing an e-commerce presence must buy this book. ... Read more

Product Description
Tutorial-type coverage is given of XML programming--taught through real-world examples. Topics include creating your own design time controls; migrating HTML documents to XML; and using XSL style sheets.Amazon.com Review
XML in Record Time offers a comprehensive look at theExtensible Markup Language (XML) and provides rather lengthy coverageof HTML as well. Author Natanya Pitts uses several chapters of thisbook to lay a foundation of HTML knowledge and then builds upon itwith the ins and outs of XML.

After covering the basics of markuplanguages, Pitts presents XML document-type definitions (DTDs) and XMLdocuments in the broad context of hypertext documents. The book thenmoves into the more detailed aspects of XML with in-depth discussionof DTDs and content models. The author describes the various entitiesand introduces you to XLink and XPointer--specifications governing XMLlinks.

Next the author presents XML processors, cascading stylesheets (CSS), conversions from HTML to XML, and a look at the presentlandscape of XML tools and client support. Then it's on to the topicof building XML applications and working with XML vocabularies such asWeb Interface Definition Language (WIDL), Channel Definition Format(CDF), Open Software Description Format (OSD), Open Financial Exchange(OFX), and Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL). Thetitle finishes with practical discussions of the implementationchallenges of XML, the tools to choose, and Web sites to watch forupdated information. If you want to learn about where the Web isheaded and stay on the bleeding edge, this guide is foryou. --Stephen W. Plain ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

This book will make you cry tears of pure boredom
A horrible book. Possibly the worst ever written. If you want to learn XML, please go somewhere else, or at least read through some of this book before buying. It's mostly just a HTML textbook, and the author has no idea what they're talking about. If it were possible to give negative stars, BELIEVE ME!!!! I WOULD!!!

Oh Boy! It finished teaching HTML....
I thought this book was supposed to be teaching us XML but it goes on about HTML and how it is the distant cousin of XML and how XML is soon going to be the parent of HTML. The author hasn't even tried to get in-depth of the whole XML concept it seems as though the author just wanted to get a book out and here was a great opportunity for her. The author gets into a subject and does not explain it there and then instead you are referred to another "Skill" in the book. That becomes frustrating. If you really want to learn XML better get another book, you will be wasting your time, money and mind on this book.

OK... nothing great!
The book is intended for beginners with little or no knowledge of HTML / XML.The book is long and it takes a while before you get to introduce the XML code.

After that, the book just offers a lengthy explanation for every sample bit of code.The book does not give any hands-on practice.The author keeps mentioning that "it's time to get your hands dirty" with some XML code, but never tells you to write a sample code.

The book is ok, but you would need another book to give you some hands-on experience.

Overall, the book is nothing to rave about!

One of the worst book
From the beginning of the book, the author stated that the buyer of thebook will eventually "get their hands dirty" in later chapter.That's what I have been hoping for. After I have finished almost threequarter of the book, I still have not seen any hand-ons tutorial that Icould do. All I got from the book was long-winded explaination.

Myadvise is, find another book if you really want to learn XML.

XML in "what..." time?
Warning:Do not buy this book! This was one of the worse technical books ever printed.If you are a serious programmer (which you should be if you are learning XML) you will be wasting your money if you purchasethis book.For the first 150 or so pages, it is about HTML and it'sbasics.It attempted to explain about XML and DTD like other XML books butit seemed like the author lack the knowledge of XML.For every 10 lines ofsample XML codes, there are 30 pages explaining each code and syntax. Examples are useless; they have no real world functions besides fordisplaying on a web browser.If you are looking to learn XML forintegration and real world applications, DON'T WASTE MONEY BUYING THISBOOK. ... Read more

Product Description

Pro Apache XML thoroughly introduces several subprojects found under the Web Services–driven API umbrella. The book begins with a concise introduction to XML and Web Services. Subsequent chapters devote themselves to specific subprojectscovering their purposes, APIs, implementation, and practical uses through appropriate code examples. Additional material includes

• Introductions to several of the Apache Foundation’s hottest projects, including Xerces, Axis, and Xindice
• Building XML–driven websites using the popular Cocoon project
• Transforming XML–based documents into a variety of formats, including PDF, SVG, and PS, using the Formatting Objects Processor (FOP) project

You’lll learn to perform tasks like validation, parsing, transformation, and storage and how to work with this information through a programming interface. You may either read this book from cover to cover or jump to any desired subproject for a detailed study of its implementation. All programming examples use the Java programming language.

Customer Reviews (1)

Title should Apache XML Quickly
Show you how to apply XML in various scenarios. All scenarios are made simple with very good example. Obviously this is a not a reference book for the technologies mentioned. But to start up with those XML technologies mentioned this one is great book. You will able to quickly go through all chapters. I started with the free chapters available in their web site and decide to try other chapters.
Obviously this not expert's voice but a very good beginners tutorials with excellent example. Again I liked their examples a lot as it is easier to understand.
Note - It is not like Wrox books usually with too verbose in theory or too complex examples
... Read more

Product Description
How will the tools of the social web affect technical documentation? Industry expert Anne Gentle explores these and other questions in Conversation and Community. She looks at the most important Web 2.0 tools, including blogs, wikis, micro-blogging, and syndication, and shows how they can be used to foster conversations and a community with your customers and with fellow writers. Through examples and her own hard-won experience with these technologies, Gentle provides practical guidance for technical communicators, marketers, and anyone who wants to use the Social Web to interact with customers.

Inside, you'll find:

• Reasons for using content in blogs, wikis, forums, and other social media tools for technical documentation
• Descriptions of the many types of social media tools and best uses for each tool
• Strategic suggestions for fitting technical publications into a wider social media plan
• Ideas for integrating conversation and community in your current documentation set
• Metrics for measuring the success of these connective methods for documentation
• Best practices for wiki authoring and building community around a wiki
• Collaborative authoring strategies that work
• Models for wiki publishing that work for end-user documentation

Customer Reviews (4)

Broad Overview of Tools and Best Practices
Should you buy this book? If you're a technical writer (or technical writing manager) and have been wondering how wikis and other social media trends could impact your product's documentation (or vice versa!), yes. Anne walks you through the existing and emerging tools, technologies, best practices, and things to consider when you mash up the worlds of social media and product/technical documentation. It's a vast landscape which means there's a lot of information in here, so to fully digest it you might need to read the book twice. While helpful, the broad scope means you won't get a huge amount of detail on every subject. And the subjects on which you do get detail match up with Anne's experience (such as book sprints), which may or may not match up with your own needs. Thankfully, the text is peppered with external resources for further, more detailed reading.

But even at a high level, the book's sections serve as checklists of things you should think about when thinking about releasing documentation on social media platforms. This design means you can use the book to offer assurance to outside parties (managers, legal, marketing, R&D, etc) that you have a plan and aren't just jetting off into the wild blue yonder. Further, a lot of the tips can be applied to non-work, non-technical-writing situations, such as if you wanted to start a blog or join an existing online community. So with these additional use cases, the book's even more useful.

(This review was based on a copy provided by XML Press. Further, my blog is excerpted on pg. 130)

A clear view of the future of documentation
When I heard this book was in production, I was excited. Anyone who writes documentation for a living has likely been asking the questions it addresses, and has wondered what roles will be available to technical writers as Web 2.0 becomes more pervasive and community-generated documents become widely available.

The author does a great job of getting readers up to speed on the technologies that are shaping the documentation industry. This initial material may be review for some, but you can always skip past it if you don't see any Web 2.0 tools that are unfamiliar. Next, the author demonstrates her experience and knowledge by asking exactly the questions writers need to consider when stepping into community-generated documentation. What roles can the writer play in such communities? How can a writer get involved in a community and provide authority without threatening the openness and non-corporate feel? How can writers assess whether their community efforts are having a positive impact?

Gentle provides insightful answers and detailed suggestions based on her experiences with FLOSS Manuals, corporate blogging, and other Web 2.0 endeavors. The tips she provides in the latter sections of the book are golden, and I plan on re-reading them a few times and sharing the ideas with others in my field.

As the barriers between writers and consumers fall and transparency becomes increasingly vital to the success of products, this book provides the guidance writers need to be successful. I consider it an investment in my career, and will highly recommend it to others.

Excellent Guide to Community-Enhanced Product Documentation
The major premise of this book is that expectations for documentation have shifted from bookshelf to search. This means your documentation is no longer the sole, authoritative source of information, and people won't go through it in your intended sequence.

Instead, you need to update frequently to stay at the top of search results, invite the community to interact with you and their peers, and use the results of that interaction to inform further development of the documentation.

The book includes a good reference guide to the major concepts and tools that technical writers might consider using. Anne's use of terms like syndicated content in place of more technically specific terms like RSS reinforces the theme of thinking abstractly about uses before getting caught up in the nuances and details of specific technologies.

Regarding wikis, examples in the book focus on public-facing sites like wikiHow, the World of Warcraft Wiki, Adobe Labs, Apache, and SugarCRM. This makes sense in the context of sharing documentation with a community, but it's also important to keep in mind that external audiences shouldn't always have the ability to directly edit the contents of wiki pages.

The commenting or threaded discussion capability on wiki pages can be a more useful means of interaction because it reduces the risk associated with making content editable by anyone, and it can focus peoples' interaction on asking questions, getting clarifications, and suggesting improvements.

The book spends a considerable amount of time defining the roles that technical writers can play in a community participating in the development of documentation. Anne suggests that there are two distinct roles for technical writers: Sage on the Stage (instigator of conversation), and Stagehand (enabler of conversation)

An instigator, she says, can spark activity by introducing a hotly debated topic or decision and soliciting feedback. Where the instigator draws out responses from the community, an enabler of conversation makes sure that enough information is available to community members so they can offer authoritative, informed responses to issues and questions raised by others.

Whether playing the role of instigator or enabler, Anne says technical writers must listen to the conversation to bring ideas, requests, and needs into the process of refining and updating documentation. These two factors - high quality information and a high level of discourse - establish the community as a worthwhile, useful place to interact, and encourage people to come back when they need new information.

This section of the book reminded me of ongoing conversations in higher education instructional design and educational technology circles about the shifting role of the college professor or teacher from "sage on the stage" to "guide at the side". Curriculum development and technical writing are certainly similar in that both aim to develop materials that teach people how to do something well, and both can benefit from involving the learner in the ongoing refinement and evolution of those materials.

The role for technical writers is expanding into one that can involve significant community interaction and management in addition to simple producing documentation. To be clear, not all technical writers will want to do this, and in large communities a dedicated community manager may be a better option. However, those technical writers that directly manage communities or work closely with community managers have an opportunity to tap into a rich resource.

An engaged community can guide the evolution of documentation into a resource that goes far beyond the traditional notion of bookshelf documentation or "guides for dummies". This is the era of guides for smart, discriminating, highly engaged people who place high value on information that they can both use and help to evolve. Conversation and Community is an excellent guide to making the most of this opportunity.

A very timely book
Anne is a technical writer who has done a considerable amount of work with FLOSS Manuals in documenting the OLPC laptop, and is obviously well-versed in both open-source documentation and social media. The book is designed to give technical writers and other information developers an overview of the tools and techniques available now for documenting products and communicating with end-users through social media and other non-traditional methods.

As a technical writer and community manager, I am exactly the target market for this book, so it is no wonder that I think it is an excellent resource that is long overdue. What surprised me was the depth with which she covered her subjects, the extensive yet highly selective quality of references in the book, and the sheer number of strategies that I hadn't yet encountered even as a professional in this area.

The most important point Anne makes in the book is that documentation as we know it is changing dramatically. Practically all of the basic tenets of technical documentation are in question. Users depend far more often on advice from random strangers via mailing lists, community forums, and search engines than they do on the technical documentation that comes with the product. I have seen this to be true even for highly technical concepts and tools. This is not news to anyone who has ever used Google to find the answer to a technical question rather than looking in the docs, but it was fascinating to see that phenomenon addressed in such a way that my opinions of it were actually changed. Like many technical writers, I have a lingering fear that I will someday be obsolete and that my job of communicating technical issues to users of technology will be taken over by amateurs in ad-hoc communities. Anne gently reminds us that it is the quantity of information that is skyrocketing, not the quality, and that our jobs as technical communicators are more important than ever in making that information "findable", even if that means abandoning what we traditionally think of as documentation. What I took away from this aspect of the book was the overwhelming necessity to make human connections, even in technical documentation, an idea that resonates strongly with my own role as a community builder. Chapter 3 spells it out best as "Defining a Writer's Role with the Social Web".

The book catalogs the available tools and strategies from several different viewpoints based on documentation strategy---in other words, use cases---rather than simply providing an annotated list. Anne specifically points to references and in-the-trenches stories that underscore her points in a very effective way. The subject that brought me the most "aha!" moments was that of wikis. I use wikis on a daily basis, but there were certain aspects of them that I had overlooked. There were so many interesting references in all sections that I felt compelled to stop reading the book and follow them, which is not a criticism of the writing but rather of the sheer amount of information out there. The consistent, confident, professional tone kept me riveted to the book, but I am now going back over every page and following links.

I highly recommend this book to both technical communicators and those involved in social media and community. My copy is going straight to my boss' desk. ... Read more

Product Description
The SGML FAQ Book: Understanding the Foundation of HTML andXML is similar, but not quite the same kind of thing as an onlineFAQ or `Frequently Asked Questions' list. It addresses questions frompeople who already actually use SGML in some way (including HTMLauthors), and people who are about to use it. It deals mainly withissues that arise when using SGML in practice. A very brief introduction to SGML is included as Appendix A. The questions discussed in The SGML FAQ Book are repeatedlyheard by people who make their living serving the SGML community.SGML experts spend many hours teaching these details, sometimesrepeatedly because some questions do not seem important --until you run into them. So one benefit of this book islearning more of the art of document creation and management, both bygeneral reading before questions arise and by specific reference whena question arises. For the latter use, the appendices, glossary, andindex are particularly important. A second benefit of this book is that it provides a common theme toits answers that you can apply in your use of SGML, HTML and relatedlanguages in general. The fundamental answer to many of the questionsboils down to `simplify': many questions do not show up if you use thesimple, elegant core of SGML without worrying about optional features.The credo of this book is simply, `SGML doesn't need to becomplicated'. SGML has the potential for complexity at certain points.But much of the complexity comes from optional parts and can beavoided. SGML methodology and its primary benefits suffer no loss evenif you skip many features, which speaks well for the quality of SGML'soverall design. Many of the questions discussed involve those optionalparts, and therefore can be avoided by judicious designers andauthors. The two key goals of the book are (1) to answer questions that you mayactually encounter as an SGML user, and to help you get `unstuck' andbe as productive as possible in using the language and (2) to showproactive ways you can simplify your use of SGML, and get its verysubstantial benefits with minimal complexity. ... Read more

Product Description
From the only official publisher of Oracle Press books comes this unique resource--Oracle XML Handbook. This one-of-a-kind reference explains the XML standard, how to create XML documents, and how XML will transform legacy systems integration involving e-commerce initiatives. As more corporations migrate to an eBusiness model using Oracle8i--THE database for Internet computing--it's crucial for all of you Web developers to learn to use XML in the Oracle environment. This is your book.Amazon.com Review
The Oracle Corporation has made XML a key component of its overall strategy and product architectures. Unfortunately, like most Oracle technologies, XML is multifaceted and adorned with numerous names and acronyms. The Oracle XML Handbook is a small title with a big mission: to put XML in perspective as it exists in the Oracle universe.

The book follows the familiar style of other Oracle Press documentation, presenting the "big picture," followed by chapters devoted to the various individual products and technologies involved. This title is meant for those already familiar with Oracle; it would be confusing for readers looking for an overview of Oracle's XML capabilities.

This isn't a tutorial per se, but there are plenty of small code examples that illustrate the basic techniques involved. For example, in the discussion of the Simple API for XML (SAX), the authors include Java code that illustrates how to use SAX to pluck information from an XML document. The higher-level topics, such as development for Oracle8i databases by using the XSQL Servlet, are accompanied well by flow and architectural documents.

One of the most useful sections of this book is the "Oracle and XML in Action" chapter, which presents some real-world examples. An accompanying CD includes Oracle's XDK for Java components, as well as trial versions of Oracle8i and JDeveloper for Windows NT and Windows 2000. Oracle developers--especially those working on the Web--should make a little room on their bookshelves for this new handbook. --Stephen W. Plain

Topics covered: XML Parser for Java, Java Class Generator, XML-related beans, XML Parser for PL/SQL, XML Parser for C, XML development with Oracle8i, development with Oracle Application Server, Oracle Internet File System (iFS), XML and interMedia text, and XML on the Oracle Technology Network. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

should be a whitepaper on Oracle's web site
There is very little of value in this book that shouldn't be posted on Oracle's web site as a tutorial or whitepaper.It is expectedly Oracle centric, but only covers their products in a very broad manner without much meat.For example, Chapter 4: "Developing for an Oracle Application" is only 16 pages and simply provides definitions for the variety of Oracle-side web apps/extensions.

If you really want to buy an Oracle XML book, then get the O'Reilly "Oracle XML Applications".Now there's a 5* book.

should be a whitepaper on Oracle's web site
There is very little of value in this book that shouldn't be posted on Oracle's web site as a tutorial or whitepaper.It is expectedly Oracle centric, but only covers their products in a very broad manner without much meat.For example, Chapter 4: "Developing for an Oracle Application" is only 16 pages and simply provides definitions for the variety of Oracle-side web apps/extensions.

If you really want to buy an Oracle XML book, then get the O'Reilly "Oracle XML Applications".Now there's a 5* book.

Technet on paper
If you've ever tried understanding Oracle's XML offering from the technet documentation, you've probably given up in despair, as the information is available, but it's totally disorganised.

Unfortunately, this book suffers the same problems. Many of the examples can be found on technet, and the organisation is no better. Like many Oracle Press books, this layout is poor, and the examples are either superficial or non-existent.

Instead, try Steve Muench's "Oracle XML Applications." It's superb.

A primer for XML support in Oracle
There are several problems with this book.One is that very little coverage is given to the Oracle XML SDK.I could not find useful documentation on TechNet regarding use of the XML SDK via PL/SQL.I had hoped that this book would provide examples of SDK and a more complete set of documentation.To my disappointment, this book does not provide much more than an overview.

The other problem with this book is that it was written with examples for Oracle Application Server, which has been replaced by iAS.Bottom line, this book reads like it was written for the first release of Oracle's XML SDK.Your better off on TechNet and the newsgroups.

Oracle-centric XML development overview
The book provides an overview of XML from Oracle's standpoint. Chapter one is a basic introduction to XML itself, but from that point onwards it is more about how Oracle integrates XML into its products & how you might use them to put together a technology solution.

If you are already vaguely familiar with what Oracle offer, then there this is a good starting point to determine how to solve problems using their fairly extensive toolset. Then you will probably want to purchase another title that focuses more upon the individual tools you choose. ... Read more

Product Description
XML by Example, 2nd edition has been revised and updated to include the newest standards, more robust examples, and better tools for developers to make the most of XML as they learn it.Building off readers¿ knowledge of HTML, JavaScript and web development, this book teaches XML using practical, real-world examples every step of the way. The book starts with a broad overview of the technologies and standards that make up XML.Following chapters teach each of these topics in depth, including new coverage of: more robust tools for parsing and manipulating XML, modeling with XML Schemas, managing extensibility with Namespaces, the latest version of XSL transformations (XSLT), applying style with XSL Formatting Objects and Cascading Style Sheets, object models including SAX 2 and DOM 2, and working with existing XML models: XHTML, WML and RSS.The final chapters design and build an XML-enabled e-Commerce application, putting together the concepts mastered earlier in the book.Amazon.com Review
XML books are a dime a dozen, but many are quite tedious in the way they methodically step through all of the various standards. Que's Example series helps you learn by doing with countless examples that build your knowledge through hands-on experience. XML by Example covers an impressive amount of material in relatively little space, providing critical XML knowledge using a reader-friendly format.

This second edition has been updated to cover the latest and greatest features of the ever-evolving XML standard. It includes coverage of the final XML Schemas recommendation and the latest developments of XSL.The book is quite suitable for anyone with basic HTML knowledge.

The book steps its way through all the key topics--namespaces, models, transformations, formatting, etc.--with a style that keeps you engaged in what each topic looks like in real code, versus in theory. Plenty of notes and cautions highlight important points and pitfalls. There is an excellent presentation of how XML can be used to render formatted HTML using Cascading Style Sheets and XSL--one of the first areas many developers want to tackle when wading into the XML universe.

Advanced topics such as SOAP and three-tier architectures are presented, albeit only at a level of detail sufficient to familiarize you with the concepts. XML by Example is an excellent place to start to learn XML and a strong preparatory text for more extensive reading on the subject. --Stephen W. Plain ... Read more

Customer Reviews (67)

Average
I'll keep this brief.Most of the reviewers claim that this is either a great easy-to-follow book or it's too difficult to understand for beginners.I'd say that the truth is somewhere in between.It's not hard to follow, but it's not exceptionally clear.Fortunately, the examples are pretty good.Unfortunately, the book is definitely not comprehensive.You'll learn quite a bit about XML and XSL, but you'll have to seek out a more advanced reference if you plan on doing this stuff professionally.If you want to learn the basics of XML, go with "XML Weekend Crash Course".If you already know the basics and want a more comprehensive reference, go with "XML in a Nutshell".This isn't a bad book, but there are better choices out there.

XML presented clear and concise
XML by Example describes XML (Extensible Markup Language) along with Document Type Definitions. This book has great code samples and understandable explanations. If you have no idea how XML works, XML by Example is a good beginning to the syntax and structure. Marchal has written a fine book. It has something to offer anyone curious about XML.

Find a Better Book
I am well grounded in HTML and CSS, but I found the book to be confusing. Most of what I didn't like about this book stems from the fact that there are no exercises, chapter summaries, and the "examples" weren't very clear to me. There is probably a better book.

Great Way To Learn XML
'XML By Example' is a great book if you are looking to learn XML for the first time or freshen up if you haven't used the technology for some time.Having never used XML when I got this book, I quickly dove in and was able to grasp what XML is used for, what makes it's simplicity such a necessity, and how it is used in the real world.After reading this book you should be able to read an XML document, understand what a schema/dtd is, understand how XSL is used to take XML and generate HTML from it, as well as be able to write your own XML files.

In the 1990s, 2 of the most important technologies were the release of Java by Sun and the birth of XML.Both inventions have changed the way programming and data manipulation/transaction are handled in the world and this book is a great introduction to learn how to use XML in your every day world.I highly recommend this book to anyone.

**** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Not the Right Book
I read the first 6 chapters of the book in 12 hours then I stopped and gave up from it, because I got lost and confused, and I feel like I need much more than that to know what's there in the XML world, well the book name is learn by example but actually it is not that, it is "get confused by examples", the examples are so easy to look at but after reading them and read the little tiny bit explanation about them if any, you don't know what is going on there and don't know what is the point, don't know why we want to do that, why we need that from the first place ??
I'm not a new programmer but I just started learning XML and I really don't need a book from the very beginning but still I grabbed this book because I thought It will get me somewhere by practicing with the examples,
there isn't enough examples showing clarity
After that I started reading XML Bible 2nd addition, it has a lot of information and it has a lot more details about each topic compared to this book but still difficult to read and has lots of Errata !!!.
I'm still looking for a book in XML that makes me really understand Schemas, namespaces, XSL, and XSLT, Xlink, relations between them and CSS,
I'm using xmlSpy, and there you will find everything there regarding XML and how to make XSL, XSD, Schemas and DTD then the XML files and XSL and XSLT which really need to understand how they all work together but you find nothing about them in XML by example book, I'm not saying the book should explain xmlSpy but you have to know all these technologies to work on XML project.
I couldn't give this book 2 stars because I can't recommend it to anyone. I can't understand why others can give it 5 stars, I don't believe they can do something with xml just by reading this book!!!
In the end if you think you want to start with this book then don't, read w3c.School and get all the definition for XML technologies then get a much more detailed book for it which I'm still looking for. ... Read more

Product Description
"The book addresses a sorely missing set of considerations in the real world... This is a very timely book."
-Peter Herzum, author of Business Component Factory and CEO of Herzum Software

XML is a tremendous enabler for platform agnostic data and metadata exchanges. However, there are no clear processes and techniques specifically focused on the engineering of XML structures to support reuse and integration simplicity, which are of particular importance in the age of application integration and Web services. This book describes the challenges of using XML in a manner that promotes simplification of integration, and a high degree of schema reuse. It also describes the syntactical capabilities of XML and XML Schemas, and the similarities (and in some cases limitations) of XML DTDs. This book presents combinations of architectural and design approaches to using XML as well as numerous syntactical and working examples.

* Designed to be read three different ways: skim the margin notes for quick information, or use tables in the appendix to locate sections relevant the to a particular issue, or read cover-to-cover for the in-depth treatment.
* Contains numerous tables that describe datatypes supported by the most common DBMSs and map to XML Schema supported data types.
* Unique focus on the value added role and processes of the data architect as they apply to enterprise use of XML. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Excellent Book - Excellent Content
This book hit the spot for me.They provide a wealth of ideas and recommendations on how to create well structured, reusable XML schemas, along with good guidelines on the various strengths and weaknesses of different choices.It definitely gave me a lot of good information, and a good feeling for what is possible and what is important in designing XML data models.It's not an easy read, as it requires a reasonable comfort with XML Schema, and the terminology is fairly technical, but once you get used to their style, it's quite clear.

Meagre content disguised by vague writing and padding
There isn't much real content in this book and you have to trudge through a lot of vague and cumbersome writing to get to it.

Here's a representative extract:

"What should be obvious to any practitionaer is that effective engineering of a schema requires expertise with metadata and related data archtitecture disciplines.Wihtout a metadata and data architecture focus, the broad proliferation of nonstandard and ad hoc XML transactions and schemas will be seen, resulting in increased data disparity, integration complexity, and a failure to reduce related technology costs." (page 197)

It also has a very poorly produced index, which makes it far less useful than it might have been as a XML schema reference book.

Excellent resource for my needs
At first I was somewhat skeptical due to a couple of negative reviews. However, I was desparate. The other XML books I've read (and fallen asleep with) seem to be restatements of the W3C specifications. I am a DBA/Data Architect in the midst of an international Web Services and SOA project and I needed something fast. As it turns out, this was probably the best investment in reference materials I've made in a long time. I guess I am not really sure what the other reviewers missed, but this book was perfect for me. I hold mixed roles of DBA as well as Data Architect - data modelling mostly. Recently, I was tasked with trying to determine why and how all of this XML stuff fits in a SOA project, and from the data perspective. Although I've been a DBA for too many years to share, I've positioned myself mostly at the persistence layer. This book really opened my eyes. Thorough, concise, and very focused on what "data folks" need. Five stars were a must for me.

This book is not ... a lot of things
The content of the book is very appealing, but I found many problems:

- a good knowledge of XML schema is required
- a good knowledge of data modeling topics is required

If you have the required knowledge, you will find a lot of obvious things, that you maybe already know. Some hints and methodologies are useful, but they represent only a small portion of the book.

If you don't have the required knowledge, you will find difficult understanding the "big picture" from which the ideas in the book are derived.

I don't suggest buying this book.

What a Waste of Time & Money !
I must not have gotten the same book that the other reviewers got.I rarely write bad reviews.I've normally researched the books I buy pretty thoroughly.But I screwed up this time

It reminded of those "C" language style guide books.Some people get into that stuff I guess.... ... Read more

Product Description
Tutorial brings you up to speed on both technologies with clear and concise explanations. Presents a number of important Web technologies, including PHP, MySQL, and sockets. Softcover. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (22)

Update and Caveat
Please note this book's publication date of 2001.

If, like most people in late 2009, you are still using ActionScript 2.0, you will find the Flash code in this book quite relevant. (But do yourself a favor and move on to AS 3.)

This book was written for PHP 3. It references functions that were promised for 4.0 and finally work well in 5.0. These are only needed for the realtime multiplayer projects at the end of the book. The book does not anticipate sophisticated class-orientedPHP.
The XML, HTTP and SQL chapters are all still valid.

The code for all these is still available on the web. http://bigfun.net/book

There are certainly more modern books available. The enduring value of this book is that it will patiently introduce you to each of the many technologies required to make a data driven Flash application. (But remember: the book does not use ActionScript 3.0... and you should.)

Not supported any longer
Don't waste your money. This book isn't supported any longer by the author and publisher so the code is no longer on the web. The code inside the book is so disjointed that I found it impossible to follow. They shouldn't be selling expired books.

Read this BEFORE you read any other Actionscript books
This book was suprisingly useful. I bought it to understand how to connect Flash to XML server back ends, but it quickly taught me much more that I was not expecting. The true value of this book is teaching how to use Actionscript 1.0 to make Flash Clients talk to servers with the fastest, leanest possible code (Not necessarily XML.)

The author does a great job of teaching how to make reusable, tiny, elegantly structured modules to build a trivia game. The lessons in here should be required reading for any Flash Actionscript programmer BEFORE they can use any fat Actionscript 2.0 components.By reading this book, you can avoid torturing your users with the "Loading Forever" progress bars which result from using Flash without understanding it's elegant, fast loading, optimized roots.

A great end- to-end guide
I used this book to add database capabilities to our flash app, and could not have done it with out it. Well, perhaps that's an exaggeration, but it would have taken *significantly* longer.

Getting flash connected to a database requires a combination of good strategy and lots arcane nitpicking details that span multiple knowledge domains. The book brings you along, step by step, in making the app dynamic. The discussions of database design and implementation via PHP and mySQL were very useful.

The book was written during the day of Flash 5, but aside from a couple of outdated screen shots, the ActionScript is current with the version 7.

There were a couple of places where some explanations were a little light, but all in all, it was worth many times the price I paid for it.

A disappointing tome
I have to agree with other users who point out the book's awkward construction. It's sort of a mutant blend of a hands-on how-to book and a broader discussion of Flash and XML. As the authors ramble through the creation of an XML-based quiz engine, they abruptly propose different ways of addressing coding issues, then move on to the discussion of another coding aspect without telling you which of the two or three or four options you should have plugged in in order for the next set of code to work with it.

By mid-2004 this approach is even more awkward as you discover that some of the hands-on steps they tell you to carry out no longer work in Flash MX or Flash MX 2004; there's nothing on the cover or the introductory material to warn you that the authors wrote this for Flash 5. ... Read more

Product Description
Originally created for page layout, XSLT has grown into one of the core technologies for processing XML. XSLT brings XSLT's many functions together in a concise, comprehensive treatment of the technology.This book covers XSLT and XPath, a critical companion standard, and addresses subjects ranging from basic transformations to complex sorting and linking. It explores extension functions on a variety of different XSLT processors, and methods for combining multiple documents with XSLT. Examples demonstrate each technique.Useful as it is, XSLT can also be extremely daunting. Getting started is difficult, and advanced techniques require a through understanding of how XSLT templates work and interact. Doug Tidwell, a developer with years of XSLT experience, explains XSLT by building from the basics to the more complex and powerful possibilities of XSLT, so that whether you're just starting out or looking for advanced techniques, you'll find the level of information you need.Amazon.com Review
XML is an elegant and straightforward way to define data-centric documents to feed almost any kind of data processing or rendering system. The linchpin of many XML solutions, however, is XSLT. This standard provides a way to transform your XML documents into other XML formats, HTML, and almost any other format you wish. XSLT is an excellent tutorial on this critical technology, a must-have text for developers getting serious with XML.

This book is targeted at busy developers who want to learn standards-compliant skills with XSLT and learn them fast. The author uses the Apache Xalan XSLT engine for demonstration, but the material in the book is equally applicable to the XSLT engine in Microsoft's MSMXL parser, Saxon, and many other equivalent XSLT processors.

The material is presented logically from the transformation of a simple "Hello World!" XML file to an HTML document onto XPath locations, branching, linking, combining XML documents, and extension functions. After laying the groundwork for what XSLT can do, the author presents a fairly sophisticated case study--an online tutorial generator that generates HTML files, PDF files, and Zip files.

Aside from being a subject tutorial, XSLT is also an excellent reference that comes in handy for daily coding. The appendices cover XSLT, XPath, a function reference, and a frequently asked questions section. These reference sections include complete examples that make each concept quite clear. XSLT provides the horsepower behind XML, and this book provides the perfect vehicle to master transformation techniques. --Stephen W. Plain

Topics covered: Basic style sheet structure, XPath data model, branching and control elements, links and cross-references, sorting and grouping, combining XML documents, XSLT extension functions, case study, XSLT reference, XPath reference, function reference, XSLT guide (FAQ). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (38)

My favorite XSLT reference
This is by far my favorite XSLT reference.I like the Kay book, but it seems more like a dictionary than anything else.This book includes descriptions and examples (yes, they are long, but not that long) that help illustrate the how to write transformations.It will teach you the language, and it doesn't pretend to be anything else.

One of the biggest advantages of this book is the language.It is extremely clear and concise.The book is so easy to read that you will find yourself frequently remembering not only the location in the book, but the examples used, and even the solution.In contrast, the language in Tennison's book was confusing and disorganized.That distracted from the concepts and made learning far more difficult than it should be.

This book does not go into the details of implementation, but I don't believe that it should.The book is specifically about the language, and should be platform/implementation indifferent.

I truly believe that if you are trying to learn the language, you need this book.If you have learned the language and are attempting to debug, you would be better off with Kay's.But for learning the language, I can't think of anything better.Highly recommended.

Well organised chapters but be prepared to persevere if you're a beginner
Coming from a tech writing background, I bought this book back in early 2007, wishing to develop practical programming skills in XSLT 1.0, which I was utilising to transform single-sourced XML documentation into multiple outputs, such as HTML/Java Help and PDF.

Without an apparent specific target audience in mind, this book initially gives the appearance it's written for those wishing to learn XSLT with little or no prior XSLT programming knowledge. It has topics organised in a manner that covers the basics of XSLT programming principles in early chapters to more complex XSLT concepts further on. There are several appendices: an XSLT reference for all elements in the XSLT specification, an XPath reference and an XSLT and XPath function reference, all of which should prove useful once you start making headway into XSLT programming. The structure of this book is commendable.

Whilst Tidwell comes across as an intelligent, knowledgeable and enthusiastic XSLT programmer, describing XSLT concepts is not one of his strengths. Initially, XSLT can be a difficult programming language to get into, but unfortunately Tidwell frequently fails to put himself into the shoes of the novice, making assumptions about certain XSLT concepts in his descriptions that fail to come across clearly. One major weakness of this book is its insufficient coverage on XPath. Sure enough it has reference material to XPath axes and functions, but little coverage on HOW XPath is actually used in XSLT. This is a shame, considering that XPath is such a fundamental component of XSLT.

Tidwell uses fairly good XSLT code samples and snippets to help explain specific XSLT concepts. However, some of the early samples make use of XSLT code whose concepts are not covered until much later chapters in the book. Often, there were no clear indications as to whether one should read ahead to understand these concepts first or put them mentally on hold. I found this potential need to forward reference rather distracting. In other XSLT samples, code from different programming languages (such as Java) was utilised more than necessary.

In one chapter, Tidwell makes three successive attempts to explain the somewhat complex "Muench Method" for grouping XML nodes! Whilst I almost grasped the concepts involved after the first explanation, the subsequent explanations just plunged me into further confusion. Between each explanation, he adds comments such as "Well, that's crystal clear, isn't it?". This style of writing only contributed to the frustration felt upon making a sincere attempt to actually understand this concept. I ended up having to search material elsewhere to find an explanation I could actually understand.

After having practiced a little more XSLT myself and having reread a few more chapters, this book became easier to understand, partly because I developed a clearer understanding of the concepts involved and partly because I felt more acquainted with Tidwell's style of writing. With perseverance, a beginner can make substantial headway into XSLT programming using this book, although I wouldn't rely on it as a sole XSLT learning resource. I found that the XSLT 1.0 Pocket Reference by Evan Lenz a fantastic little reference book - it's concise, explicit descriptions of XSLT concepts really helped me understand some of the ones which were lacking in this book.

I guess if you come from a programming background and know a little about XPath, this book would probably work well for you. Otherwise, I strongly suggest supplementing it with another XSLT learning resource or Google searches on the Internet. There are loads of helpful code-snippets out there with decent-enough explanations to supplement them and XSLT programming principles can be learnt well by example.

Let's hope that Tidwell's next edition of this book is an improvement upon what is potentially a good learning resource.

Its actually a good book
I was able to use this book on a new project I was assigned to at work. I had previously read a bit about XPath, but other than that, I had no experience with XSLT. Within 2 days of reading, that being the first 4 chapters or so, I was able to fix the issues I had been assigned.

This is a book for programmers, and for people who know a bit about XML. It is not a school textbook. It does reference some topics before it details them, but if you are a programmer, you are used to reading the context of something unknown to figure out what it does. This book is no different. The examples it includes are non-trivial, and they give you a good idea of the power and correct usage of XSLT.

I highly recommend this book. It helped me do what I needed to get done, quickly and correctly.

A book I really use regularly
I've been programming in a system that uses XSLT for reporting for about three years now.This is the book I actually use.It's getting beat-up and battered and has a couple of pages bookmarked - mostly in Chapter 3.I found the initial Hello World examples - where the same XML is processed for text, SVG, Java, and VRML - to be a really fascinating read.

The core functional programming block in Chapter 4 is worth the skull-sweat it takes to work through it. One useful feature is a number of examples that don't work - that seem right but are misleading.

On the downside, the index is fairly poor, but that's typical.

A Disappointment From O'Reilly.
This book is one of the most frustrating technical books I have ever read. The fact that it is from O'Reilly just makes it doubly insulting. The author doesn't bother to explain concepts. He just lists out the syntax for the various elements without bothering to explain how the instruction works. This book might be useful as an XSLT reference but it is useless as a learning tool. I totally agree with the other reviews of this book about the "huge honking examples" To give you an idea of how bad it is, the first XSLT example in this book is the obligatory "Hello World" example which is less than 20 lines. The second example is 3 pages long and uses concepts that have not been introduced at all!! The book also suffers from too many forward references. He keeps mentioning concepts that have no relation to the topic at hand. Sure, it might be great for completeness, but it just gets in the way when you're trying to learn a new concept and he keeps throwing additional, esoteric (by his own admission) stuff at you. In my opinion this is a very poorly written book. ... Read more

Product Description
As our Internet devices become more portable, it's becoming increasingly essential that Web pages be designed in a way such that users can access sitesclearly and effectively from a variety of remote devices and Web browsers. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style of Web language that uses common printingand display terminology to allow HTML and XML authors to control the way Web pages look, regardless of the browsing device. Styling Web Pages with CascadingStyle Sheets will cover the entire CSS2 specification, which was released from the World Wide Web consortium in May, 1998. Through the use of hands-on projects,code samples, and screen shots, users will create style sheets in real-world exercises and master the skills to create effective style sheets on the Web. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Is it worth buying?
Pretty good books as Web Programming books go, but do you need it? If you are taking a course and this is the text book then buy it, as good as any available.

...

Good textbook
I teach a community college course in CSS and chose this book over many others after an agonizing review. Not necessarily because it is the absolute best book out there, but because it is well organized (at least for the 8 week course I teach), starts from square zero, and covers CSS well enough, with decent explanations and short tutorials to practice skills, and, from an instructor's point of view, there are a host of teaching materials that can come with the book to ease the burden of coming up with everything from scratch. The number of errors is kept down to a tolerable level too, and it is recent enough to have Netscape 6 info. It has a supporting web site as well, the "online companion", at http://www.course.com/downloads/webwarrior/css/index.htm. No other book out there offered all that. If you are not a teacher, you will probably find the book to be pretty solid, but you also may be able to find more knowledge for a cheaper price with another book, such as those written by Callihan, Pence, Teague, or Lie and Bos, which, for one reason or another didn't fit into my requirements for teaching this course but impressed me with other aspects. Negatives with this book for me include 1) uppercase html, 2) less than professionally inspiring examples, 3) price. ... 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
Text focuses on publishing FileMaker data to the World Wide Web. Introduces major web technologies that can be used with FileMaker and general principles of designing data-driven web applications. For users with intermediate-level FileMaker skills. Softcover. DLC: FileMaker pro. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Excellent
If you are working with Filemaker Pro files on the web, this book is essential. Although the title says, "Advanced," I think it would be perfect for beginners also.

Good book, flawed, but only source for this topic
This is a very good book, and if you're looking to web-enable your FileMaker 6 application, this is pretty much the only source for in-depth information that's available.

However, this book definitely left me wanting more. I have been building a fairly sophisticated web application in CDML using the Web Companion, the web toolkit that comes built into FileMaker 6. This topic gets less than 50 pages, and feels light. Many of my questions went unanswered. This topic could have been 100 pages, easily.

Two other toolkits, Lasso and PHP, while great options, require you to acquire and install add-on software. Each gets 60+ pages in the book. It's great that there's additional information (possibly required to cover installation), but devoting that much space to things not built into FileMaker, while not giving enough depth to the built-in component, seems like the wrong focus.

Another flaw with the book is that it doesn't really cover larger-scale applications. You get information about how to access, search, modify, and delete data, but you don't really get advice about how to structure a full-blown web application. Things like managing user sessions, authentication, etc., really are not covered at all. You'll need another book (which won't use FileMaker as an example at all) to get information about these basic web application topics.

In the end, this book gave me enough information that I could get started, and a good enough CDML reference that I've been able to figure out a lot more on my own. That makes it quite a good book, well worth the money spent. I would love to purchase an expanded 2nd edition.

I should note that it remains to be seen how well this book will hold up after FileMaker 7 Advanced Server is released. There's a lot of changes in FileMaker 7, and all of the web functionality has moved to the Advanced Server (not yet released), so many things may change...

Great for Intermediate to Advanced FMPro Developers
I particularly appreciated the expository style of the book. In a way that I haven't found in many other computer manuals, the authors start with a real problem the reader has and show how to solve it, adding interesting general commentary along the way. For example, I had a problem developing an XSLT document to import variable numbers of repetitions of a field - there, on pp. 330-333 is a brief statement of the problem, specification of a solution, and clear explanation of the code. I recommend this book to any FMPro user who wants to work with FMPro and CDML, PHP or XML/XSLT. Well done! I hope these authors produce other books of the same calibre.

An excellent course in web development
This is more than a book, it is really a course in web development.The authors communicate the material in a way that is easy to understand, and the book is filled with examples that you can do as you read.Although the focus is on FileMaker, the knowledge you'll glean will apply to web development efforts with other databases as well.I reviewed and skimmed the chapters out of sequence in order to get a sense of what the book had to offer.Once I had that overview, I began to read the chapters in sequence and I think that's the best approach, as material in succeeding chapters builds on the previous chapters.No stone is left unturned as XML/XSLT, Instant Web Publishing, CDML, Lasso, PHP and Web Services are covered concisely, yet in depth.Take your time with this book; after working through the material you'll be prepared to do web development using any of the aforementioned technologies.

Finally a book that goes beyond the basics
This is one of the first books that goes beyond a mere rehash of the manual, like most FileMaker books out there. This book is a treasure trove for those who already have their feet wet in FileMaker and are looking to go to the next level. ... Read more