Learning XML

Learning XML

by Erik T. Ray
Released January 2001
Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 9780596000462

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Book description

The arrival of support for XML--the Extensible Markup Language--in browsers and authoring tools has followed a long period of intense hype. Major databases, authoring tools (including Microsoft's Office 2000), and browsers are committed to XML support. Many content creators and programmers for the Web and other media are left wondering, "What can XML and its associated standards really do for me?" Getting the most from XML requires being able to tag and transform XML documents so they can be processed by web browsers, databases, mobile phones, printers, XML processors, voice response systems, and LDAP directories, just to name a few targets. In Learning XML, the author explains XML and its capabilities succinctly and professionally, with references to real-life projects and other cogent examples. Learning XML shows the purpose of XML markup itself, the CSS and XSL styling languages, and the XLink and XPointer specifications for creating rich link structures. The basic advantages of XML over HTML are that XML lets a web designer define tags that are meaningful for the particular documents or database output to be used, and that it enforces an unambiguous structure that supports error-checking. XML supports enhanced styling and linking standards (allowing, for instance, simultaneous linking to the same document in multiple languages) and a range of new applications. For writers producing XML documents, this book demystifies files and the process of creating them with the appropriate structure and format. Designers will learn what parts of XML are most helpful to their team and will get started on creating Document Type Definitions. For programmers, the book makes syntax and structures clear It also discusses the stylesheets needed for viewing documents in the next generation of browsers, databases, and other devices.

Table of contents

  1. Copyright
  2. Preface
    1. What's Inside
    2. Style Conventions
    3. Examples
    4. Comments and Questions
    5. Acknowledgments
  3. Introduction
    1. What Is XML?
    2. Origins of XML
    3. Goals of XML
    4. XML Today
    5. Creating Documents
    6. Viewing XML
    7. Testing XML
    8. Transformation
  4. Markup and CoreConcepts
    1. The Anatomy of a Document
    2. Elements: The Building Blocks of XML
    3. Attributes: More Muscle for Elements
    4. Namespaces: ExpandingYour Vocabulary
    5. Entities: Placeholders for Content
    6. Miscellaneous Markup
    7. Well-Formed Documents
    8. Getting the Most out of Markup
    9. XML Application: DocBook
  5. Connecting Resourceswith Links
    1. Introduction
    2. Specifying Resources
    3. XPointer: An XML Tree Climber
    4. An Introduction to XLinks
    5. XML Application: XHTML
  6. Presentation: Creatingthe End Product
    1. Why Stylesheets?
    2. An Overview of CSS
    3. Rules
    4. Properties
    5. A Practical Example
  7. Document Models:A Higher Levelof Control
    1. Modeling Documents
    2. DTD Syntax
    3. Example: A Checkbook
    4. Tips for Designing and Customizing DTDs
    5. Example: Barebones DocBook
    6. XML Schema: An Alternative to DTDs
  8. Transformation: Repurposing Documents
    1. Transformation Basics
    2. Selecting Nodes
    3. Fine-Tuning Templates
    4. Sorting
    5. Example: Checkbook
    6. Advanced Techniques
    7. Example: Barebones DocBook
  9. Internationalization
    1. Character Sets and Encodings
    2. Taking Language into Account
  10. Programmingfor XML
    1. XML Programming Overview
    2. SAX: An Event-Based API
    3. Tree-Based Processing
    4. Conclusion
  11. Resources
    1. Online
    2. Books
    3. Standards Organizations
    4. Tools
    5. Miscellaneous
  12. A Taxonomy of Standards
    1. Markup and Structure
      1. XML
      2. Namespaces in XML
      3. XML Schema
    2. Linking
      1. XLink
      2. XBase
      3. XInclude
    3. Searching
      1. XPath
      2. XPointer
      3. XQL
    4. Style and Transformation
      1. CSS
      2. XSL
      3. XSLT
    5. Programming
    6. Publishing
      1. DocBook
    7. Hypertext
    8. Descriptive/Procedural
      1. SOAP
      2. RDF
    9. Multimedia
      1. SVG
      2. SMIL
    10. Science
      1. MathML
      2. CML
  13. Glossary
    1. A
    2. B
    3. C
    4. D
    5. E
    6. F
    7. H
    8. I
    9. L
    10. M
    11. N
    12. O
    13. P
    14. Q
    15. R
    16. S
    17. T
    18. U
    19. W
    20. X
  14. Colophon
  15. Index

Product information

  • Title: Learning XML
  • Author(s): Erik T. Ray
  • Release date: January 2001
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9780596000462