Product Description
Essential skills for first-time programmers!XML: A Beginner's Guide will teach you the fundamentals of XML programming. You'll learn to use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), XHTML, Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), and Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL).

This Beginner's Guide is Designed for Easy Learning:Modules: Each programming concept is divided into logical modules (chapters), ideal for linear learning

Goals: Each module opens with the specific programming skills you'll have by the end of the module

Ask the Experts: Q&A sections throughout

1-Minute Drills: Quick self-assessment sections to check your progress

Annotated Syntax: Example code annotated with commentary that points to the particular technique illustrated

Projects: Coding exercises contained in each module that build on one another, from simple to complex

Mastery Checks: End-of-module reviews that test proficiency using multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, and simple coding questions ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Not so Hot
I am currently using this book in a class on XML.It has been used sparingly, thank God, by our instructor.The main book we rely on for good advise and examples of XML is written by Elizabeth Castro.If you don't want to waste your money on a book which is not very clear, concise, or written in a well defined and orderly manner, don't purchase this book.I have worked in the field of computer programming and written in 9 different computer languages, as well as, learning others.Take it from me, there are better books on this subject.

CAUTION: Not really a "beginner's guide"
The book does a good job with explaining topics such as using XML as a database and using DOM to interface with XML.It is also a good book if you work in the Microsoft web technologies (ASP, VBScript), since many of the examples use ASP and VBScript to interface with the XML document.

However, I had to give it only three stars because it is not really a book for people new to programming, as this book advertises.A reader does need some kind of programming basics to understand some of the topics.Also, I think that the book glosses over the basics of XML.Even though the more intermediate topics like using XML as a database are explained well, a reader that is brand-new to XML could easily get lost because not enough emphasis was placed on the basics.

If you do work in the Microsoft technologies, and you want to learn and work with XML, then buy this book AFTER reviewing the free XML tutorial on [website]

A waste of time
This book went to the presses to soon.Every example is full of errors.Every example is lacking and fails to show what it is intended to show.To add to my frustrations, online resources are not updated either.There are far too few illustrations.Far too few cross references.I would recommend "The XML Companion" by Neil Bradley, Addison Wesley.Just flick through the books side by side for 10 seconds and you get what I mean.

what code?
just a warning- don`t be convinced by the "free code online" offer- they don`t give you a website, and if you do track it down from the publisher, you`ll discover its painful to use- that combined with the mistypes in the text and its a basket case.

other then that, the book is clear enough, but how can you learn a language without practice?

Frustrated with Examples and Coding errors
After reaching module 3 I became quite disappointed. The example in Module 2-1 is missing from the website and there are many coding and errors in the examples through out the book making it hard for a new comer to really learn what is right or wrong. Unfortunately there aren't many books out there for beginners. For a true new comer to XML and coding itself this book can be confusing. Would recommend at risk. ... Read more

Product Description
XML Schema is the new language standard from the W3C and the new foundation for defining data in Web-based systems. There is a wealth of information available about Schemas but very little understanding of how to use this highly formal specification for creating documents. Grasping the power of Schemas means going back to the basics of documents themselves, and the semantic rules, or grammars, that define them. Written for schema designers, system architects, programmers, and document authors, Modeling Business Objects with XML Schema guides you through understanding Schemas from the basic concepts, type systems, type derivation, inheritance, namespace handling, through advanced concepts in schema design.

*Reviews basic XML syntax and the Schema recommendation in detail.
*Builds a knowledge base model step by step (about jazz music) that is used throughout the book.
*Discusses Schema design in large environments, best practice design patterns, and Schema's relation to object-oriented concepts. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Useful for folks who need to move from ERM to XML based modeling
This is a useful book for analysts and programmers who are coming from an Entity Relationship Modeling background - and who need to understand the theory and mechanics of developing XML Schemas for applications.

No essence, poorly presented
You can expand relation model whatever you like, as long as you have implementation support. Does not see much value of his model, and the book does a poor job presenting the idea.

Just another useless modeling idea
The book is poorly organized. If one does not know the context of the topic ahead, it would be very hard to follow. The book did not even mention where to download, how to use its companion modeling tool. The reader has to figure that out.

There are a lot of theoretical sections that I don't see necessity to be empasized or even presented.

The author conveyed the idea of AOM (Asset Oriented Modeling), but I am still clueless about the value of this AOM modeling. I am not convinced to adopt this modeling methodology to solve a real world problem. To me, it is just another proprietary practice of modeling, with no or very little pratical value. The material is very difficult to be tied to technical implementation, thus it is only good on paper.

I don't understand why there are so many good comments about this book. But after going through the book briefly, I realized it is a waste of time and money.

The most practical book to create multi-namespace models
I just finished reading "Modeling business Objects with XML Schema" for the second time.It is the most useful book on XML modeling that I have read.After defining the ERM and UML modeling techniques, the author introduces AOM (Asset-Oriented Modeling) in a simple and thorough way.The book emphasizes on the best practices for modeling heterogeneous and multi-namespace systems.It emphasizes on the compatibility of the XML Schema with RDF and SQL.The reuse and composition of XML Schemata constitute the main focus of the book.The example given in the book is processed through several iterations and improvements, with complete and clear explanations for improving the XML code.The KLEEN Modeler tool (http://www.aomodeling.org/tools.htm) is used to create the conceptual models throughout the book.Mapping the XML Schema code into SQL, and normalization of the XSD code is clearly defined.The XML metalanguage itself, is concisely and efficiently covered in the book.I highly recommend this book; you learn a lot from this book.

Best book for XML in a corporate environment
This is the best book out there on XML.If you want an intro to XML get Mark Johnson's article "XML for the Absolute Beginner."If you want to go in depth, this is the place to go.

Unlike the hundreds of other books that just describe what XML and XML Schema are, Daum's book gets deeply into why it is the way it is, by exploring how it fits in with conceptual modeling and how you would fit it into a complex environment.

He introduces a beguiling simple example domain (jazz musicians) which he revisits over and over again throughout the book.Through this simple example he works out subtle differences in different approaches to modeling, to schema construction, to constaint definition and modeling and finally how would you map this back to Object or Relational technology.

He introduces Asset Oriented Modeling, which is a form of conceptual modeling more attuned to XML schema model creation.His treatement of polymorphism in Schema, and techniques for evolving schema are as good as I've seen anywhere.

Excellent treatment of constraints, both conceptually as well as practical approaches to realizing the constraints in XPath or XSLT.These were worth the price of the book by themselves.

It's probably too late, but if you get no other book on XML and XML Schemas, this is the one to get. ... Read more

Product Description
This text aims to cover, comprehensively, development of applications for mobile environments.The book covers issues of user interface involving voice and text user interfaces; connectivity to the network including wireless technologies; architectural issues such as mobile agent platforms, peer-to-peer systems, and N-Tier client-server mobile architectures; synchronization and replication; in-depth discussion of advanced XML related issues such as RDF; requirements gathering process; and others.Most importantly, this text does this by extending today's proven tools and methodologies, particularly UML and methodologies built around UML.Examples are given using J2ME, Windows CE, WAP, Symbian, and other mobile platforms, as well as other platforms and tools such as IKV++ Grasshopper, Object Domain's UML tool, and others. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Quick Review
I had been developing software for about 10 years... and am just finishing up a grad degree in CS after going back to school... If found this book to be a LOT better than all the hand outs that my prof put together... It's a great book to give you an overview of all the problems in mobile computing... and a lot of the answers... (not all :-)).As the other reviewer says, it's priced a bit high at $85.00, but I found it to be well worth the price I paid... hopefully the prof takes my recommendation and uses it as the text book for future classes...

My View on Mobile Application Principles
Please excuse English.This is a very good book for learning mobile applications in US and Europe.Also, a lot of good new things on UML and XML.But, I would have liked to see more on the Japanese Mobile development.I think this is good as a text book in class room or reference.I would like to have more introductions to UML than 1 chapter.The UML is more advanced in this book.Also lot of good location and voice informations. ... Read more

Product Description
O'Reilly's "XML CD Bookshelf" provides convenient online access to seven indispensable XML books--"XML in a Nutshell, Second Edition", "XSLT", "XML Schema", "SAX2", "Java & XML, Second Edition", "Java and XSLT", and "Perl & XML" -- all from your CD-ROM drive. The CD has a master index for all seven books and a powerful search engine--and all the text is extensively hyper-linked--so you can find what you're looking for quickly. Packaged with the hard copy of"XML in a Nutshell, Second Edition", it takes up less than 2 inches of bookshelf space, and when you're on the run, you can just grab the CD and go. The seven books included on the CD --over 3,000 pages of useful O'Reilly reference and tutorials-- if purchased separately, would retail for $269.65 (US), but the "XML CD Bookshelf" retails for only $119.95.They say good things come in small packages. The "XML CD Bookshelf" packs a stack of essential XML books into one comprehensive, immensely convenient, and portablesmall package. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Can they fit all of that onto a CD?
I don't know how many times I have come across a problem or a question that a colleague or I have, but are not able to recall which book the material was covered in. That problem is solved with this collection of books bound on CD. Every single one of the books on this CD are written so well and are so easy to access that if you are looking for anything regarding XML this book is a must have.

My only gripes about the series are that only one of the books encompasses the general ideas of XML. Each book, other than nutshell, has its own detail-oriented way of discussing the topic at hand. You must really read each one (read skim) to really get exactly what you are looking for. Maybe I was looking for more reference type material, but the collection is still awesome.

My goodness, this one is a whammy!!
My goodness, this one is a whammy!! Aside from a hard copy 2nd edition of XML in a Nutshell, the CD contains the complete editions of the same book XML in a Nutshell (2nd Edition), XSLT, XML Schema, SAX2, Java & XML (2nd Edition), Java and XSLT, and Perl & XML. Each one of these books is deserving of its own review, but suffice it to say that having them all on CD just makes it more convenient to carry around. (I already have reviews on XML in a Nutshell and Java and XML.)

Developing a hernia by carrying the hard copy editions of these around is not my idea of a good time, so having the CD takes the cake. Of course, you'll need a laptop to actually be able to make use of the CD, and that'll leech battery power if you don't have a socket handy, so it's a toss-up either way. Still, the CD edition is searchable, so that you don't have to wiggle through the index of 7 books just to find that reference you needed.

All in all, a great deal! ... Read more

Product Description
XML has been introduced into many enterprises by stealth, through the IT back door and with little management overview or buy-in.  This book proposes an alternative: a management-driven strategy.  Its emphasis is on the ends (information management) rather than means (technology).  It focuses on the need for high-level co-operation between all business units and services within an organisation and shows how XML can be both a technology and business integrator.  The benefits it can bring are high levels of interoperability, not only between data and text but also between application processes, business logic and entire information systems.

The books looks at:

• why information management is important
• what XML has to offer the business manager
• how to build an XML Framework
• specific areas where intelligent use of XML will pay dividends

  ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

try first implementing consistent metadata
This book offers a company a way to recast and re-implement a lot of its data handling. Surely an ambitious goal, and one that many might be reluctant to undertake. But the book strives to explain how a proper management level understanding of XML can enable these changes. It is not a book about the detailed syntax of XML and its associated standards. That is properly the remit of the programmers themselves, to understand and apply.

Rather, the book aims at a higher level. Even if your current digital data takes on many disparate formats, you can use XML to implement a consistent metadata view. This is stored in XML and at the very least, lets you do rich searching through corporate data. Without necessarily changing any of the latter.

The book discusses far more. But the above can be a conservative approach that lets you gather easy benefits from just a partial XML deployment. Just getting used to thinking about metadata can benefit you as amanager, by exposing new ways of thinking about your company's assets. ... 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
More Java developers today want to work with XML, the technology that enables data to be transported intact over the Internet, but they don't have time to become XML experts. If this describes you, then you'll appreciate data binding, the new way of converting XML documents into Java objects, so those documents can be worked on and manipulated like any other Java object, then converted back to XMLThis new title provides an in-depth technical look at XML Data Binding.The book offers complete documentation of all features in both the Sun Microsystems JAXB API and popular open source alternative implementations (Enhydra Zeus, Exolabs Castor and Quick). It also gets into significant detail about when data binding is appropriate to use, and provides numerous practical examples of using data binding in applications. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Outdated, incorrect information. Stay away!
This book was written before the version 1.0 release of the JAXB data binding API's. As a result much of the information in this book is incorrect and not current. If you follow the instruction in this book you will NOT sucessfully perform XML binding to java objects. For example, the book uses DTD's as the XML description model used by JAXB. This is wrong DTD's were dropped in favor of XML schemas. The instructions for using the JAXB jar files are wrong. The required jars have changed since this book was printed. The instructions for using the generated java data binding classes is wrong, the usage has changed since this book was written. The author tried to get to far ahead of the technology curve on JAXB and as a result authored this book too early in the JAXB life cycle. The book is of minimal value.

Outdated, incorrect information. Stay away!
This book was written before the version 1.0 release of the JAXB data binding API's. As a result much of the information in this book is incorrect and not current. If you follow the instruction in this book you will NOT sucessfully perform XML binding to java objects. For example, the book uses DTD's as the XML description model used by JAXB. This is wrong DTD's were dropped in favor of XML schemas. The instructions for using the JAXB jar files are wrong. The required jars have changed since this book was printed. The instructions for using the generated java data binding classes is wrong, the usage has changed since this book was written. The author tried to get to far ahead of the technology curve on JAXB and as a result authored this book too early in the JAXB life cycle. The book is of minimal value.

Waste of money
This does not talk about JAXB at all. What it talks is about some non standardised APIs that existed before JAXB.
The brief mention of JAXB ( 4 pages ) is only philosphical. Even that is w.r.t. an obselete version with DTD support.
( Current JAXB only supports XML schema )

JAXB section is out of date
The book describes the JAXB api based on an early access version. The definitive version is completely different form the early access version, making this book almost useless.

JAXB section is out of date
The book describes the JAXB api based on an early access version. The definitive version is completely different form the early access version, making this book almost useless. ... 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
Providing an end-to-end view of how modern web applications are built, Dynamic Web Applications takes a cohesive approach to building a software architecture from core components. It tells a development story through a running case study taking you through each phase - analysis, design and implementation - without straying into detail or trying to cover too many alternatives. Using Java server side frameworks and XML-based page generation with device-adaptive mark-up, this is a contemporary and well targeted coverage of important areas of web application development including Ajax, mobile Internet development, XML transformation, adaptive markup, web services and web application frameworks. It shows you how to build functionality into a website using standard patterns and technologies. These will work as a basic framework from which you will be able to explore more challenging developments such as porting applications to mobile devices and including Web 2.0 features. An ideal text for web programming courses, this book will help you whether you are a student or need to reskill and want a dependable and accessible self-study package. ... Read more

Product Description

XML for ASP.NET Developers first gives a solid foundation in the basics of MSXML including XML Syntax, XML Schemas, Xpath, Xlink, Xpointer, and other concepts necessary to leverage the power of XML. After the building blocks of XML are thoroughly covered, Dan guides readers through manipulating XML documents using the Document Object Model (DOM) and XSL (Extensible Stylesheet Language) both on the client and the server.Detailed examples combined with easy to follow tutorials will have readers transforming XML documents into professional looking applications quickly and easily. Providing a single source for information on a variety of XML related technologies makes XML for ASP.NET Developers a necessary edition to any developer's library and sets it apart from any book available today.

Customer Reviews (22)

Good, thorough coverage
While I've understood the basics of XML for some time, I've just not had a need until recently to dig into the nuts and bolts of working with it on the .NET platform.As an ASP.NET developer specifically, and with that need to know now on the table, I went on the hunt for books to help, and Mr. Wahlin's offering was an obvious choice.

First off, Mr. Wahlin is a terrific writer.The clear, friendly, and conversational tone of the book resonated for me, although I did find some of the verbosity and repetition a bit excessive in some spots.

The book begins with a good review of XML concepts, more than enough for a newbie, but easy to sift through for the more seasoned reader in need of a knowledge refresher.It continues through all the necessary concepts, including the XML classes in .NET, transformations, and of course, ADO.NET, the database core of the .NET platform.(On ADO.NET, it includes a general introduction, but of course focuses on it in an XML context.)

I have to say that one of the best outcomes of reading the book and experimenting with what I learned along the way is that many of the ADO.NET concepts that still seemed abstract to my not-quite-up-to-OOP brain suddenly fell into place and made much more sense to me when tied to the structures and concepts of XML.

No book is perfect, and I could have used some more detailed coverage in some areas.But overall, it's a great walk through the world of XML for the seasoned ASP.NET developer in need the grand tour.It sure was a help to me...

Where to download the example file in this book?
I just bought this book. But I don't know where to download the example code? Please help me.

Smashing Intro to both XML/XSLT and NET
I bought the book a month ago and stayed idle in my library until I started using SQL2000 Web Notifications and needed some extra help on the principles.

And that was it. I can only tell you that it kept me reading it for three consequtive days, enough time to keep myself going, understand may parts, realise many possibilities/options and even optimise some code. This is not a book to solve a particular problem but it is a book to get you all excited about XML/XSLT/XLink/XPath and realise how this have been integrated to many of Microsoft Applications... (Notifications is one, CS2002 another).

I regret that I havent had that book before hand. It would have saved me many more hours of searching.

The only minus is that it makes you so excited that you end up spending another couple $$$ on other books to get into more details so I just shopped...
1 of: XPath and XPointer
1 of: Applied Microsoft .NET Framework Programming
1 of: XSLT and XPath On The Edge, Unlimited Edition
1 of: XSLT Programmer's Reference 2nd Edition

couple this with Professinal C# (2nd Edition) or even Beginning C# and you can do most things imaginable with c# and XML.

Thank you Dan.

Should have just a little VB in there
Dan Wahlin is one of the top experts on XML, and this book is absolutely fantastic. Almost every question that I have ever had about working with XML and .NET has been answered... except that I don't use C#.So, I always need a translator.

If you use C#, this is the perfect book. If you don't, learn to translate from it, cuz this is the best book around.

Pretty good book
This book does a good job explaining the ins and outs of XML programming with the .Net Framework.

These are the types of books you need to look for.Take a small part of the .Net framework and give it a decent amount of coverage.Overall, the examples are fairly substantial and apply very well to real world programming situations. ... Read more

Product Description
XML and ASP.NET is the one book that you need to learn about a wide range of XML technologies.From validation to transformation, client-side to server-side, XML and ASP.NET covers a breadth of technology like no other resource available.Based on the released versions of Visual Studio .NET, SQL Server 2000, MSXML 4.0, and SQLXML 3.0, XML and ASP.NET provides in-depth coverage of Microsoft's XML technologies.

Providing examples in both both Visual Basic .NET and C#, this book provides ample amounts of code so that you are able to see complex concepts demonstrated in a clear and consistent fashion. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

Lives up to Title
I too found it difficult to find an XML book dealing with Specifically .NET. This book does a good job in alot of respects, but falls short and wanders off the subject a bit in some chapters (this of course can be skipped over.) The author does give alot of real world examples through out the book, which is always a plus. Overall highlights in what I learned:
Serializing / Deserializing XML in .NET
.NET XML Base classes and their Implementations
SQL Server 2000 interaction with .NET & XML
ASP.NET Web Services (you create a public Address book Web Service)

It even has a decent reference section at the end dealing with XSLT that I find I use frequently.
This book represents (at this time) a great bargain!

Not even remotely decipherable to a beginner
This book reads like a medical journal, point-by-point layout out the facts and presenting very narrow-minded interpretations of what ASP.NET and XML are designed to do. For one thing, the authors exude an opinion in their writing that ASP.NET is useless without XML, and that XML is the greatest thing to come along since the transistor. I disagree with the sentiments, but that's beside the point. This book doesn't accomplish anything in the end but to confuse the reader. It's as if the authors are trying to impress you with how many acronyms they can spit out in a single page (I counted over 30 on one particular page). This is not writing, this is not teaching, it is shooting facts at the reader with a shotgun.

In retrospect, I read this book a year ago when I was new to ASP.NET (but not to XML). I find it useful for storing read-only data in XML to be used in ASP.NET web sites. However, it's still one of the dryest books you will ever find.

An exercise in frustration
More about XML than "XML and ASP.NET."I have already read a lot on XML and this book just confused me about what I already knew.It is full of definitions that don't really define anything and is lacking in good examples.I have read many, many books on programming and on the .Net framework specifically and this is by far one of the worst.After I know XML well I am sure that I will come back to this book and understand it completely.I am very sorry that I wasted my money on this book.

Best Book on .net and XML yet
This book is by far the best information out there on xml in the .net framework that I have seen yet.(And trust me, I've looked.)

This book is well-organized and jam-packed full of useful information on a very wide variety of subjects.More than just your run-of-the mill red covered book that regurgitates the documentation.

As for other reviews, I suspect it's like many newbies in programming.Laziness is clouding their judgements.

tough to get through
This book (in my opinion) is for those more interested in XML alone than its use with ASP.NET.I was looking for a book that combined the two effectively, but found this one to be very difficult to read, with topics discussed without definitions (only references to chapters ahead of the current one), and little introduction to .NET or ASP.NET.There are very few examples, and even fewer pictures to display the effectiveness of the examples.Maybe I need to spend more time digesting the material, but there is little use of ASP.NET in this book... and even less integration of the two technologies.This is not for anyone interested in eCommerce or strictly internet programming. ... Read more

Product Description
With the XML "buzz" still dominating talk among Internet developers, there's a real need to learn how to cut through the hype and put XML to work. Java & XML shows how to use the APIs, tools, and tricks of XML to build real-world applications. The result is code and data that are portable.This second edition adds chapters on Advanced SAX and Advanced DOM, new chapters on SOAP and data binding, and new examples throughout. Following a concise introduction to XML basics, the rest of the book focuses on using XML from your Java applications. Java developers who need to work with XML, or think that they will in the future--as well as developers involved in the new peer-to-peer movement, messaging, or web services--will find Java & XML a constant companion.Includes a quick reference on SAX 2.0, DOM Level 2, and JDOM. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (27)

A book worth owning
The author covers some background, but mainly sticks to the business end of dealing with XML using java. The book is set out so you can read the parts that are relevant to getting a particular piece of technology working quickly.

Before reading this book I had never written an XML parser, but within a couple of days I was able to rework a parser to make it work both faster and with a smaller memory footprint by following the guidelines in this book. The details are not covered in great depth, but enough to get a job done, and make this a portabe reference.

Another book worth owning from the O'Reilly press.

Good but could be more.
Second editions are always great. However, I find that I dont like all of the API reference in the book. I would rather look at APIs electronically and talk concepts in the book.

Good introduction, a little diffuse
Compared with .NET and XML this book tends to wander and rat hole a little. The book covers the basics. The SAX and DOM approaches. It also covers XSLT and serving XML. It also covers advanced topics like Castor, JDOM, and web services. But most of the subjects are covered at a cursory level and do not serve as a complete introduction.

There is a small reference at the end of the book which is not as easy to read as the APIs described in the Nutshell style.

I gave this book four stars because, while it does lack focus, it is a good introduction to the XML APIs for Java. In the third release they should concentrate a little harder editing in some focus and a better reference section at the end.

No XML Security
This book doesn't have anything I couldn't find by just looking at samples on Sun's site.

Most of all, it's missing security like XML Signatures, and XML encryption.

Pleasant, but flakey
This book is great if you know something about XML and Java. For true beginners, well, it's a stretch. It also starts to show its age, and furthermore, its supporting website - both on the author's web server and O'Reilly's own servers, is sketchy. You will rely on both to use the code mentioned in the book.
Otherwise, it is just an unremarkable information piece about Java and XML. ... Read more

Product Description
This comprehensive reference guide to XML covers the latest versions of the XML specification and related specifications, tips, techniques, and examples.Written to improve your productivity, this book addresses topics from markup and DTD design, to the most popular XML-based applications and the latest software tools available for working with XML. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Wish I could give it zero stars
Put frankly, this book is terrible.No time spent teaching anything about XML, just reasons why we should use it, repeated again and again, chapter after chapter....Officially, my first and last purchase of the "Black Book" series.

Department of Redundancy Department
I want to echo another reviewer's comment that this book is excruciatingly redundant._Elementary_ concepts get repeated page after page, until you want to scream.

pretty good
I own the 2nd edition and I think this book does a pretty good job of teaching the basics and intermediate XML, especially if you are coming from an experienced HTML developer, and especially if you want to know how xml parsers work with your xml document. However, I don't think it does a good job of explaning all the different mixes of XML, such as XSL and XPath... the chapters on those topics were just plain confusing and worthless. It did however explain very well how XHTML works from an XML standpoint; very clear and easy to understand. A *fair* all-around XML book.

Amazon...please allow us to give "negative" ratings...!
If you want to get confused about understanding XML...this is the book you should be looking for. It is a waste of time andmoney for those who wants to understand XML. The book doesn't explain any fundamental concepts (of elements, attributes, entities, etc) and instead make the subject complex by poor style of it's writing. If it were not my company's book, I would have torn it and thrown straight into the trash can...!

The book has made a very bad impression of "Black Book" series and Coriolis Publishers, in general, on me.

Not Worthy to be a Black Book
I bought this book because of the great experiences I had with the ASP and VB Black Books.The 2nd edition of this book is no where close to the quality of the afore mentioned texts.Simple concepts are repeated over and over and over... !It made me want to scream!Granted, I've only covered the first 9 chapters, but I can already see the authors could of cut at least 200 pages out of this book if they would have just got to the point on subjects and didn't repeat concepts all the time!Here's a favorite line of mine (from page 194), "You use one of the values of #IMPLIED, #REQUIRED, or #FIXED to indicate to the XML processor that the attribute is either implied, required, or fixed, respectively."I kid you not; this is the type of over-simplified, uninformative comments you get.And this particular concept has been covered at least 5 times in the first 9 chapters!I think the authors purposely padded this book to make it look impressive; they even included the XML spec in the appendix.I can go online for the stinkin' spec!Give me some in depth and unique takes for crying out loud!Buy this book and expect:incorrect cross references, repetition of simple concepts, descriptive statements of the obvious, lack of interesting/complex examples, disorganized thought, continuous forward references on subjects (can't you just cover the concept thoroughly when you bring it up?), and no coverage of XML schemas (what comprehensive XML text leaves this out?).This book is an extremely frustrating read and I agree with another reviewer that the authors should refund my money for the time I've wasted on it.My time is valuable, darn it!I've never written a book review before, but this book is a joke and has yet to be of help to me. ... Read more

Product Description
This book is an introduction to XML for both beginner and intermediate Visual Basic and Active Server Page developers with over 50 pages of example code.It provides a best-practices approach to VB development and explains 3-tier concepts and UML.Also discussed are business-focused reasons for implementing XML within a company and on Web sites. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (33)

Out of Date
It is not often I pass a hard judgement on something.I read some excerpts on the web and bought this book in hopes it was very authoritive. Most of the code examples did not work, even after I downloaded the errata.I had to have one window open on the W3C site in order to track the errors and to get some example to work.When the author went the VB examples, there was no lead in.I recommend the authors' website, but not this book.

poor reference
This really is a poor reference and tutorial. But...
I haven't found anythingbetter.

Who's definition of "in-depth" are we using?
After a mere twenty-two pages into the book, I was starting to doubt the usefulness of this book.The very top of page 22 talks about "examples above" on handling special characters.Flip back to page 21, however, go to the bottom of the page and read about examples that "are described below".I give up, are the examples on the magical page 21 1/2?

While other reviewers seem willing to let slide the number of typos, omitions and code examples that simply don't work, I am less forgiving.I got this book on the assumption that I would be able to learn how to integrate XML with my knowledge of ASP.Most examples in this book, however, are for Visual Basic, and while that only requires little to moderate tweaking, the pure ASP examples in this book are almost non-existant.

Add in the fact that the book constantly interrupts a lesson to add new concepts we're supposed to either immediately understand, or bookmark and thumb through the book hoping they remembered to include the examples, makes this a frustrating book to learn from.Doing a quick search on Google for "XML help basics" gave me more insight into XML in just a few minutes than reading this book for a few hours did.

Close....but yet so frustrating
I agree with a number of other reviewers, skip this book.It is more frustrating than it's worth.Shame too, cause it starts out strong and then just fades away.

Code Examples are REDUNDANT.
Code Examples are INCOMPLETE in the book. (Even the "Complete" examples.Had to download the source code and go line by line to figure out what was "missing".VERY FRUSTRATING.

Book skips arround quite a bit and is confusing at times.The Summary Case (3 tier architecture) which I was looking forward to was pretty much......um USELESS.

Oh well, I didn't listen to the others, maybe you will listen to me.Take a pen, paper and write down the 3 useful pages in this book and save your money.

A good start on XML
This book doesn't cover all detailed XML is got for you, and it doesn't intend to either. However, Wilson's book gave me a good foundation to explore the XML world. Good choice if you want to start nice and simple, and then focus on details later. Don't get me wrong, this is not a brochure either; it does come with plenty source code and examples. ... Read more

Product Description

Written by Sun Microsystems' Java™ BluePrints team, Designing Web Services with the J2EE™ 1.4 Platform is the authoritative guide to the best practices for designing and integrating enterprise-level Web services using the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) 1.4. This book provides the guidelines, patterns, and real-world examples architects and developers need in order to shorten the learning curve and start building robust, scalable, and portable solutions.

The authors use the Java Adventure Builder application to bring the design process to life and help illustrate the use of Java APIs for XML Processing (JAXP), Java APIs for XML-Based RPC (JAX-RPC), and other Web service and Java-XML technologies.

Key topic coverage includes:

Customer Reviews (10)

An excellent book - but fast becoming obsolete
This is a well written book that covers the basics of Java Web Services according to Sun (i.e. from a Java perspective).However - things have moved on since the publication of this book 4 years ago.Will still be a good book to use for the Sun Certified Web Services Developer exam until the exam is updated.May want to look at more recent books.

Great Reference
This book is well written. It would be helpful if there were questions and the end of the chapter.

Good Web services book for a J2EE person
his book is primarily geared towards reader familiar withthe J2EE architecture. Code samples are few and far between, and the illustrations are primarily UML. That's cool. For a book from Sun J2EE team, I would like to see a little more code examples (thus the four stars instead of five.)

The book starts with XML basics, then spends the largest portion of the book on SOAP and JAX-RPC, then finishes off with an excellent chapter on security issues. There is some mention of mobile, but detailed enough.

I do suggest this book as a good reading for budding Java architects who want to learn more about this topic.

Developers are also in a certain way architects, so read it
As the title of my review says this book is intended for all the people who want to architect and develop web services in a proper way. The technology around Web Services is very splitted. I mean from a lot of separate web associations. When you want to master web services technology you have to know in detail XML, XML Schema, SOAP, UDDI and its support in J2EE.
This book gives architectual overview how these technologies depend on each other, I mean the relationships.
The book is not intended for getting detail information about source code implementation. Anyway, it is from the SUN Blueprint program team. So everybody developing and architecturing web services with J2EE technology should read this book. It is a very dry book. Very talkative. I am glad I have already read it.

Great book for the right reader.
This book provides a very good, well ordered, high-level overview of architectural decisions in a Web Services application.If you have knowledge of J2EE technologies, and want an intro to the Web Services paradigm, this is a good book.

This is not a programmer's reference nor an introduction to J2EE technology.

The book is disciplined in maintaining a high-level overview; most code snippets are purposely contracted to show only the relevant features being discussed.This keeps the code snippets focused, but means that if you are looking for a sample SOAP document that does X, you'll need to look elsewhere.

I liked the organization of the book.Rather than organizing the book around an annotated sample application, the authors
take a more didactic approach; Chapter 1 gives an intro to Web Services, Chapter 2 reviews the alphabet soup ofJ2EE development and shows how various components either use the technologies or are connected by them.

The next five chapters each take one component of the Web Services domain and review in detail the architectural
decisions to be made in designing that component. In the chapter on Service Endpoint Design, for example, the authors review
two approaches to designing a service interface definition; should you first design a Web Services Definition Language or
should you first design the Java Interfaces?The Chapter on XML reviews the pros and cons of various XML parsers and the use of XML transformations for services which must interact with numerous systems.There are similar chapters reviewing Client design, Integration with the J2EE platform, and Security.

In the last chapter, the authors review their reference application and walk through their decisions.

Throughout, the authors give good advice on the judicious use of various technologies, use of Design Patterns, and designs that will give good, reusable code.The authors several times discuss patterns that will make the application simpler to understand and build upon.

All in all, this is a well written treatment that I highly recommend. ... Read more

Product Description
As XML technologies move into the mainstream, software professionals need a far deeper understanding of the key XML tools and technologies for enterprise development. Definitive XML Application Development is the solution. World-renowned open source XML developer Lars Garshol combines practical insight into SAX, DOM, XSLT, and other advanced XML technologies, and example-rich coverage of XML application construction using Java and Python -- today's most sophisticated and productive object-oriented languages. Garshol introduces the XML processing model, document views, key processing tasks, event-based processing with SAX, and tree-based processing with DOM. He illuminates the key techniques of declarative processing with XSLT and architectural forms; and he systematically reviews today's key tools for building XML applications with both Java and Python -- including schemas, the tabproc framework, and the RSS Development Kit. The accompanying CD-ROM contains an extensive library of XML development utilities designed to simplify programming with both SAX and DOM.It also contains several real-world XML applications and frameworks -- with complete source code and detailed explanations that allow for easy adaptation. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Not for XML Novice!
Definitely not a textbook for XML newbies.

You need to learn Python Language before understanding this book, wtf?

If you are looking for a quick guide and learning book for XML, you might be disappointed by this paper-brick.

Might be a fine reference for XML veterans.

Book is god but the most companion Sourcecode is missing!!!
i agree with the previos Readers, but the most of the Sourcecode downloadable from http://www.garshol.priv.no/ is missing.
In most the RSSKIT library from the greatest Artikel in this Book.
Also missing some smaller parts like SAXTRACKER and more.
It seems also that the Code is almost out of Time.

Well Written and to the Point
I went the the bookstore - looking for a good tutor on SAX (the Simple API for XML).Unfortunately most of my choices were just overgrown reference manuals...

Not so with Garshol's manuscript.For only a little more money I recieved a lot more on general XML processing than just SAX (and more on SAX than most of those other books)."Devinitive XML Application Development" is a well written book covering the most prevailent operations in XML processing and how to implement them (using the most popular event-based, tree-based and other APIs).Also, as a testiment to Garshol's writing, I was able to understand the examples used throughout the book even though he uses Python - a foriegn language for me.There is also a quick tutorial on Python in the appendix.

One minor nit: this book doesn't have any reference material to complement the wonderful text.However, another book in the series (Charles F. Goldfarb's XML Handbook) covers that.Besides, a reference alone won't give you, "...the skills, insights, and example code you need to build [XML applications] right" (from the back cover, which says it better than I could).

Complete reference for experienced developers
This book requires a solid working knowledge of XML and associated protocols (XLST, XPath, XML Schema), Python and Java), and is written for practicing developers who are involved with web services, e-commerce and extended supply chain applications.You should also be reasonably familiar with DOM, data structures and relational databases to get the most from this book.

After a quick introduction to the XML processingthe author wastes no time getting to the meat by going into processing types in Sections II (Event-Based Processing), III (Tree-Based Processing) and IV (Declarative Processing).Each of these sections are comprised of chapters and topics that cover the strengths and weaknesses of each approach, common tools and example applications, and tips and techniques.

Section V is focused on Java development, including SAX in Java, DOM in Java and XSLT In Java Applications.This section covers APIs, tools and specific considerations for each topic.

The final section addresses XML processing in detail, and deals with alternative processing approaches (including hybrids of event-, tree- and declarative-based models), schemas, and RSS.

In addition the appendices are informative and add to the value of this book.In particular, Appendix A, A Lightning Introduction to Python, will get seasoned developers up-to-speed (augmented by Appendix C which covers Python XML Packages).Appendix B is a glossary that goes into considerable detail, making it a handy reference.

I found this book to be well written, complete and devoid of fluff. An excellent companion to this book is the three book bundle titled "The Definitive XML Professional Toolkit", which contains CHARLES F. GOLDFARB'S XML HANDBOOK by Charles F. Goldfarb and Paul Prescod, DEFINITIVE XSLT AND XPATH by G. Ken Holman and DEFINITIVE XML SCHEMA by Priscilla Walmsley. ... Read more

Product Description
For courses in Internet/World Wide Web, Java-Intro to Programming/CS1, Web Programming and Design, HTML, XML, and Internet Survey. *An introduction to the markup technology of XML, this text covers its features and abilities as well as explains the strategic importance for developing web-based applications. It: *1) helps students envision how XML can be used to gain a competitive advantage in e-commerce, *2) offers substantial hands-on experience in using and understanding the workings of XML, *3) clarifies confusing terminology that currently pervades the field, and *4) encourages the development of more sophisticated e-commerce applications. *The book also shows students the many ways that XML based applications can be deployed, using available technologies and referring to anticipated developments based on work in progress. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great book by Professor Wagner
This is a wonderful book with much information.Purchase this book if you are planning to learn about technologies in business ... Read more

Product Description
XML has become the lingua franca for representing business data, for exchanging information between business partners and applications, and for adding structure-
and sometimes meaning-to text-based documents. XML offers some special challenges and opportunities in the area of search: querying XML can produce very precise, fine-grained results, if you know how to express and execute those queries.

For software developers and systems architects: this book teaches the most useful approaches to querying XML documents and repositories.This book will also help managers and project leaders grasp how "querying XML" fits into the larger context of querying and XML. Querying XML provides a comprehensive background from fundamental concepts (What is XML?) to data models (the Infoset, PSVI, XQuery Data Model), to APIs (querying XML from SQL or Java) and more.

* Presents the concepts clearly, and demonstrates them with illustrations and examples; offers a thorough mastery of the subject area in a single book.
* Provides comprehensive coverage of XML query languages, and the concepts needed to understand them completely (such as the XQuery Data Model).
* Shows how to query XML documents and data using: XPath (the XML Path Language); XQuery, soon to be the new W3C Recommendation for querying XML; XQuery's companion XQueryX; and SQL, featuring the SQL/XML
* Includes an extensive set of XQuery, XPath, SQL, Java, and other examples, with links to downloadable code and data samples. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Like season 6 of 24, this is disappointing.
I have had this book for almost a month now. This book is painful to get through. I can usually get through a technical book within a week and try some examples. I started reading this book front to back and did not skip any sections.

I am not a NOOB when it comes to XML so I found this surprising. I am a certified XML developer (from before XQuery), an experienced programming engineer of 8 years, an MCAD.Net, and I have even written a paper on XQuery for a Master's Program and I simply have become unmotivated and am struggling to get through this book. As others have stated in reviews, this book takes a long time to get to the point. I like to get my money's worth when I buy a book though.

I kept asking myself chapter after chapter "when do we start programming some examples?" The first 10 chapters are filled with everything but XQuery. The author covers the background of XML and why we would use XQuery in detail. I see the argument for why this book may be beneficial to some but if you wish to get up and running on XQuery this is not the book for you.

I may update this as I finish off the book. I am getting more into actual XQuery syntax and grammar as of chapter 11. A flip through the TOC shows that the author covers some implementation info. My goal was to have a better understanding of how to actually implement XQuery and learn some of the more detailed points of it versus just FLWOR that the numerous online tutorials offer. I have purchased another book by O'Reilly instead.

Update: I received the O'Reilly book right after writing this review. I flipped through the TOC and first few pages of XQuery by O'Reilly for a comparison. Wow! These two books could not be any different. I am on chapter 5 of the O'Reilly XQuery book just in a few hours of off and on reading at work. It appears thus far to be the better choice. Luckily, work is paying for these books so I was only cheated out of time buying "Querying XML".

Too much verbage, takes forever to get to the point
If you need to learn XQuery or XPath fast, this is not the book, or you need to skip the first 8 chapters.XQuery and XPath are hardly even mentioned until Chapter 9.The first 8 chapters discuss everything except what is in the title.XML is a pretty boring topic, and excess verbage doesn't help.

A balanced view of XQuery with several excellent use-cases
The authors are XQuery standardization committee members with long tenures at Oracle, thus possessing an unique grounding in that 'other' query language, SQL. As a result, the book is balanced with respect to what SQL/XML and XQuery can respectively do. A number of examples are provided, to illustrate where XQuery is useful and where other query mechanisms might work.

DTD, but little Schema
My only complaint with this book is that it emphasizes DTD over Schema a bit too much. For this and other reasons, I felt the treatment of XML seemed a little dated, and also a bit shallow.

Excellent Book On XML and XQuery
Querying XML is the 800 page reference book I will now keep next to my keyboard for all things XQuery, XPath, and XML. The book has a nice and non-academic approach to learning XML and using the XML Query language (XQuery) to build application software. The book starts with data concepts and then gives in-depth explanations of the tools, APIs, and libraries available to work with the data. I wish the book covered XML-based application development frameworks and developer tools. Perhaps they steered clear of those topics to make this a book whose content will be valid and useful for years. -Frank ... Read more

Product Description
XML and PHP is designed to introduce PHP developers to the synergies that become visible when their favorite web-scripting language is combined with one of the most talked about technologies of recent times, XML. XML and PHP teaches PHP developers how to use PHP's XML functions to develop and maintain XML-based web applications and sites, and it demonstrates the power inherent in the XML/PHP combination. This book provides information on all hte major XML technologies supported in PHP, demonstrating how the XML/PHP combination can be used to deliver cutting-edge web applications through practical examples and real-world case studies. XML and PHP serves as both an implementation guide to the topic and a handy desktop reference for quick lookups-combining all the information that developers need into a single, focused package. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

dissapointed
I've been reading the book, and had a feeling it explained a lot.
Finally, i could use it, but the code used is very outdated (01-2005). That's why i visited their website.
as the book refers to the site often.
http://www.xmlphp.com/
check it yourself, no updates, the forum is closed.
why did i buy this book?

Out of Date
I've been reading this book recently (6/11/2004). With regards to DOM and XML, it's very out of date given the current development of PHP. Would advise newer, more up to date book if you're interested in DOM and XML.

Good XML code and application examples in PHP
Chapters two and three start the book with good examples of SAX and DOM use in PHP respectively. This provides a solid foundation for the rest of the book which shows examples of popular XML based technologies as applied to PHP. These include XSLT (Sablotron), XML-RPC, SOAP, XML in databases and other topics. Each of these discussions contains some real world examples to provide context.

It's a short and concise book that is well written. The use of graphics could be more effective. For example the screenshot in figure 6.8 is a single line in a vast sea of whtie browser space. The code sample could use some annotation or at the very least some bolding to hi-light the important segments.

The value of this book will depend on the degree to which you use XML in the PHP context. If you want a quick booster rocket to get you into SAX or DOM work within PHP this book will do the trick since it's far better than the documentation on the PHP site.

Covering every aspect of PHP and XML integration
Vikram Vaswani wrote a very focused book, covering every aspect of PHP and XML integration, with dedicated chapters on SAX and DOM parsers, XSL, WDDX, XML-RPC and SOAP. I think that PHP 4 is still lacking in the area of XML integration, but intermediate and advanced developers can still perform a lot of tasks using this combo. The book is clearly written; it covers a lot of different extensions and third party libraries with full code listings

0 stars.This book is crap
I decided to purchase both Wrox's Professional PHP4 XML and New Rider's XML and PHP.Now, I'm not a dumb guy.I've been programming for awhile, but I'm still learning all the time.I like to build object oriented code in PHP as I believe it's the best way to go for several tasks (although not all).I'm still learning how to apply design patterns and the like and I find that very interesting.So when I pick up a book, I really want to see an author care about objects rather than putting all his code in the toilet - That's what this book does.

Even further, the examples are so basic and the chapters don't explain anything beyond those examples either.I'm surprised people found this book useful since everything is obvious that those university computer science monkeys who are still learning Windows can figure this book out.

But where are the best practices?Where are the examples used within an object oriented architecture?Do you think we are idiot programmers who only know how to code procedural programs that all reside within a single server page.Get real.

On the other hand, I was very impressed with the Wrox book.Although some of the intro chapters were fairly useless (since they covered intro to PHP concepts and so forth), the chapters talking about SAX, DOM, XSLT and XML-RPC are much better and totally outshine this book's counterparts.They even discuss Object oriented programs in all most cases and will provide you both versions a lot of the time!Even further, the Wrox book shows you various examples about solving common problems.I actually think the authors showed me all the potential problems you can have for that matter; they were pretty detailed, especially in the SAX and XSLT chapters.

After reading some of the reviews about XML and PHP, such as "This book doesn't suck" or Manual Lemos's review (a guy who contributes a lot of PHP code to the community) stating "this book was the best on PHP and XML available", it's obvious that they have ties to the author and want to see him succeed.Don't let them pull you in - this book isn't even worth the sympathy.

Xi Chi's review was right on the bull's eye.I should have listened to it and so should you.Avoid this book like the plague and get Wrox's PHP4 XML book instead. ... Read more

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