XML Books

New Perspectives on Creating Web Pages with HTML, XHTML, and XML, Comprehensive, Second Edition (New Perspectives (Paperback Course Technology))

Patrick Carey

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 2.5 of 5

An obvious retrofit 2 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

What originally attracted me to this text was that the code examples use valid XHTML. Unfortunately, the book is obviously a rewrite of an older book written with 1995-era design and structure approaches. Formatting attributes within the HTML tags have merely been replaced by inline styles, defeating the purpose of having a style sheet in the first place. Not until Tutorial 7 is there an external style sheet. There is even a chapter on how to design a site with tables; i.e., the old school way, and one can sense the author's comfort throughout that chapter. While it's good to be familiar with that approach, since one will run into such sites and have to work with them, to have such a large portion of the text devoted to it seems inappropriate in 2006 (this edition's printing). When HTML elements are employed in a modern fashion, there is some faltering, such as the label tag for an input element being followed by a break tag instead of setting its display property to block in the stylesheet, thus requiring as many break tags as there are labels. And as with many of the Course Technology books, the page numbers restart with each major section: the HTML section ends at HTML 578, then there are some additional cases (HTML ADD 1, HTML ADD 2, etc), then XML ends at XML 224, then there are appendices HTML A1 through HTML J16, then an XML appendix, then Ref 1 through 27 (reference section). At least the index indicates both the HTML and XML sections. One could complete this very thick book and be an expert at creating web sites the way we used to do it in the mid-nineties, the only enhancement being that the sites would be valid. I do think that many of the exercises could be reworked to be quite valuable, and I should mention that much of the instructional text is well done. The book is printed on very thin paper, as are many of the Course textbooks, but there is color throughout. I would not recommend this text to anyone considering adopting it as a class text.

Editorial Review:

This second edition from the New Perspectives series provides comprehensive, step-by-step instruction on coding Web pages from scratch using HTML, XHTML, and XML. Offering new case problems, tutorials, and a new appendix on Web accessibility and Section 508 compliance, this text keeps students up to date on the latest in coding Web pages.

HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide (6th Edition)

Chuck Musciano, Bill Kennedy

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 145 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In the most recent edition of this acclaimed HTML guide, Musciano and Kennedy look closely at every aspect of HTML and show how to use it wisely to create top-quality Web pages. The book is up-to-date, covering HTML 4, Netscape Navigator 4, Microsoft Internet Explorer 4, and the various extensions of each.

HTML: The Definitive Guide is aimed at beginners as well as those who have more practice in Web-page creation. The authors assume at least a basic knowledge of computers, including how to use a word processor or text editor and how to deal with files. They teach you that learning HTML is like learning any other language and that reading a book of rules can only take you so far. Readers begin writing what may be their first Web page just two pages into the book's second chapter. From there on, they provide a wide range of HTML coding to allow readers to learn from good examples. The book includes a handy "cheat sheet" of HTML codes for quick reference. --Elizabeth Lewis

Beginning XML, 4th Edition (Programmer to Programmer)

David Hunter, Jeff Rafter, Joe Fawcett, Eric van der Vlist, Danny Ayers, Jon Duckett, Andrew Watt, Linda McKinnon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 52 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Beginning XML provides a complete course in the Extensible Markup Language (XML) with an unusually gradual learning curve. In fact, the introduction states that the book is "for people who know that it would be a pretty good idea to learn the language, but aren't 100 percent sure why." Despite its recognition of the fuzziness of readers' understanding of the technology, the book delivers a rather comprehensive study of XML.

Very little space is wasted detailing the history of XML and its relation to SGML, as is the case in many other titles. The argument for the importance of XML is made quickly, and the basics of well-formed syntax are tackled right off. One notable distinction of this book is its excellent coverage of related technologies, such as cascading style sheets (CSS) and relational databases.

In addition to discussing the crucial companion standards to the core XML language (DTDs, XSL, and XSLT), the book adds a nice perspective to the broad range of applications in which XML can play a role. One section, "Other Uses for XML," illustrates how XML can be used to serialize object models, creating stateless objects and utilizing the Resource Description Framework (RDF). Case studies on--among other things--how XML can be used to build discussion groups, and provide B2B data transfer, round out the text. This book is perfect for Web programmers who are turning their attention to XML for the first time. It imparts a solid understanding of the XML forest and XML trees. --Stephen W. Plain

Topics covered:

• Well-formed XML
• Cascading style sheets (CSS)
• XSLT and Xpath
• Document Object Model (DOM)
• Simple API for XML (SAX)
• XML/database integration schemas
• Document Type Definitions (DTDs)
• Namespaces
• B2B data-transfer applications
• Discussion group applications

New Perspectives on XML, Second Edition, Comprehensive (New Pespectives)

Patrick Carey

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 2.0 of 5

Decent tutorials, very poor explanations, editing, and reference 2 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

To be fair, I am not a fan of the Thompson Course Technology books in general. But this is the first one that actually drove me to write a negative review to spare some innocent XML programmer-to-be the confusion this book will likely cause.

Our local community college unfortunately requires this text (a fair percentage of the classes seem to use Course Technology books because of the pre-fab quizzes, Powerpoints, and online supplements available to the instructors who can't be bothered to make their own).

The good: The Chapters are called "Tutorials" and in general, if you can read and copy the tutorials line for line, you will be able to get them to validate. However, you probably won't understand why in many cases.

The ugly: Like most of the Course Technology textbooks I've seen, there are significant typos and the explanations are very poor and awkward. There is little or no rigor in defining terms, the author often uses a tangential example as an adequate explanation for the entire concept.

Many explanations are as clear as mud. Case in point p. 199 (which is only partially understandable to me because I've taken a few computer classes (including C++ object oriented programming) and the concept of scope is familiar to me, even if the word is never mentioned here):

"In XML Schema, any element or attribute that is declared globally has to be entered as a qualified name in the instance document. The reason is that global elements and attributes are added to the target namespace, while local objects are not. Local objects are interpreted based on the namespace affiliation of the object in which they're nested. Because global objects are attached to the namespace, they have to be qualified in the instance document with a namespace prefix. The target namespace applies the document validation through the qualified elements in the instance document using them as the starting points for the validation process. You can't go down the hierarchy and validate only the local elements and attributes."

And that was a relatively clear passage. Even if you understand the concept, you are unlikely to get the syntax exactly correct. This book has singlehandedly caused me to consider a campaign to our department dean to stop using Course Technology books, and search for a decent textbook substitute. This book is of little use in class, and will be even less useful as a handy reference.

Editorial Review:

Updated to teach the most current XML standards, this book uses real-world case studies and a practical, step-by-step approach to teach XML. It provides extensive coverage of DTDs, namespaces, schemas, Cascading Style Sheets, XSLT, XPath, and programming with the WSC document object model.

Learning XML, Second Edition

Erik Ray

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 38 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Although Learning XML covers XML rather broadly, it nevertheless presents the key elements of the technology with enough detail to familiarize the reader with this crucial markup language. This guide is brief enough to tackle in a weekend.

Author Erik T. Ray begins with an excellent summary of XML's history as an outgrowth of SGML and HTML. He outlines very clearly the elements of markup, demystifying concepts such as attributes, entities, and namespaces with numerous clear examples. To illustrate a real-world XML application, he gives the reader a look at a document written in DocBook--a publicly available XML document type for publishing technical writings--and explains the sections of the document step by step. A more simplified version of DocBook is used later in the book to illustrate transformation--a powerful benefit of XML.

The all-important Document Type Definition (DTD) is covered in depth, but the still-unofficial alternative, XML Schema, is only briefly addressed. The author makes liberal use of graphics, tables, and code to demonstrate concepts along the way, keeping the reader engaged and on track. Ray also goes deep into some discussion of programming XML utilities with Perl.

Learning XML is a very readable introduction to XML for readers with existing knowledge of markup and Web technologies. It meets its goals very well--to deliver a broad perspective of XML and its potential. --Stephen W. Plain

Topics covered:

• XML overview
• XPointer
• XLink
• XHTML
• Presentation with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
• Document Type Definitions (DTDs)
• XML Schemas
• Transformation with XSLT
• Internationalization
• Simple API for XML (SAX)

XML in a Nutshell, Third Edition

Elliotte Rusty Harold, W. Scott Means

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

If you're a developer working with XML, you know there's a lot to know about XML, and the XML space is evolving almost moment by moment. But you don't need to commit every XML syntax, API, or XSLT transformation to memory; you only need to know where to find it. And if it's a detail that has to do with XML or its companion standards, you'll find it--clear, concise, useful, and well-organized--in the updated third edition of "XML in a Nutshell,"

With "XML in a Nutshell" beside your keyboard, you'll be able to:

Quick-reference syntax rules and usage examples for the core XML technologies, including XML, DTDs, Xpath, XSLT, SAX, and DOM

Develop an understanding of well-formed XML, DTDs, namespaces, Unicode, and W3C XML Schema

Gain a working knowledge of key technologies used for narrative XML documents such as web pages, books, and articles technologies like XSLT, Xpath, Xlink, Xpointer, CSS, and XSL-FO

Build data-intensive XML applications

Understand the tools and APIs necessary to build data-intensive XML applications and process XML documents, including the event-based Simple API for XML (SAX2) and the tree-oriented Document Object Model (DOM)

This powerful new edition is the comprehensive XML reference. Serious users of XML will find coverage on just about everything they need, from fundamental syntax rules, to details of DTD and XML Schema creation, to XSLT transformations, to APIs used for processing XML documents. "XML in a Nutshell" also covers XML 1.1, as well as updates to SAX2 and DOM Level 3 coverage. If you need explanation of how a technology works, or just need to quickly find the precise syntax for a particular piece, "XML in a Nutshell" puts theinformation at your fingertips.

Simply put, "XML in a Nutshell" is the critical, must-have reference for any XML developer.

Service-Oriented Architecture: A Field Guide to Integrating XML and Web Services (The Prentice Hall Service-Oriented Computing Series from Thomas Erl)

Thomas Erl

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 32 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Advertising for Author's Business 1 out of 5 stars.
19 of 25 people found this review helpful.

I read this book as part of a technical book club at work. The concensus of the group is that there is very little useful information in it. It contains many diagrams and charts that provide little benefit other than to increase the page count. It contains mis-information concerning competing technologies such as CORBA and constantly treats SOA and Web Services as if they are interchangeable terms. Much of the information is superficial. The bright spot in the book was that the large number of nearly identical charts made reading the chapters go very quickly. Finally, the author often seems to be using the book as advertisment for his company. There are much better resources for gaining an understanding of SOA and Web Services. Don't waste you money on this one.

Waste of verbatim 2 out of 5 stars.
11 of 19 people found this review helpful.

The entire book can be summed up on 3 to 4 pages. Mostly the book regurgitates the same concepts over and over to fill up the pages, using a plethora of technical terminology to abstract it's own meaningless. For the most part the book is intended to give you an overview of verity of technologies encapsulated in SOA architecture, but from a very distant perspective.

XSLT Cookbook, Second Edition (Cookbooks (O'Reilly))

Salvatore Mangano

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Forget those funky robot toys that were all the rage in the '80s, XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Transformations) is the ultimate transformer. This powerful language is expert at transforming XML documents into PDF files, HTML documents, JPEG files--virtually anything your heart desires. As useful as XSLT is, though, most people have a difficult time learning its many peculiarities. And now Version 2.0, while elegant and powerful, has only added to the confusion.

XSLT Cookbook, Second Edition wants to set the record straight. It helps you sharpen your programming skills and overall understanding of XSLT through a collection of detailed recipes. Each recipe breaks down a specific problem into manageable chunks, giving you an easy-to-grasp roadmap for integrating XSLT with your data and applications. No other XSLT book around employs this practical problem-solution-discussion format.

In addition to offering code recipes for solving everyday problems with XSLT 1.0, this new edition shows you how to leverage the improvements found in XSLT 2.0, such as how to simplify the string manipulation and date/time conversion processes. The book also covers XPath 2.0, a critical companion standard, as well as topics ranging from basic transformations to complex sorting and linking. It even explores extension functions on a variety of different XSLT processors and shows ways to combine multiple documents using XSLT. Code examples add a real-world dimension to each technique.

Whether you're just starting out in XSLT or looking for advanced techniques, you'll find the level of information you need in XSLT Cookbook, Second Edition.

XML 1.1 Bible

Elliotte Rusty Harold

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 67 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The emergence of XML is having an enormous impact on Web development, and scaling the learning curve of this new technology is a priority for many developers. The XML Bible offers a superb introduction to the subject and the groundwork to understand XML's future developments.

Author Elliotte Rusty Harold uses a patient, step-by-step discussion that clearly points out the potential of XML without boring his readership with tons of SGML spec-speak. Harold opens quickly with a "Hello World" example to get the reader coding early, and follows that with a simple but powerful example of XML's data management benefits--presenting baseball statistics. Once you've coded your first XML documents, you'll be hooked on the technology and motivated to learn about the more sophisticated topics.

Style sheet languages are covered comprehensively to illustrate the presentation possibilities and pitfalls. An unusually long list of real-life XML applications also shows how XML is already being used, and there is in-depth coverage of the Resource Description Framework, Channel Definition Format, and Vector Markup Language. The book wraps up with a section that helps you design your own XML application from scratch.

Titling a book a bible is a bold move, but this engaging and informative guide is entitled to make this claim. --Stephen W. Plain

Topics covered: XML background, example XML applications, type definitions (DTDs), style languages, Xlinks, Xpointers, Namespaces, application planning, and XML 1.0 specification.

Beginning XML Databases (Wrox Beginning Guides)

Gavin Powell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Very relevant combination in IT today.. 5 out of 5 stars.
13 of 14 people found this review helpful.

I work with a lot of school leavers and people outside IT and often have to advise them on how to empower themselves in IT in the right way. Surely SQL and databases are one of the first topics people should understand. HTML was also high on the list. With this book, the author has combined all of them in one making it a very relevant combination for today's beginner. I will recommend this book to school leavers, financial people and people outside IT wanting to empower themselves quickly. Another great advantage of XML and databases is the platform independence. Very well done to the author for combining these topics at the entry level in such an easiliy understandable way!

Editorial Review:

• Supported by all major database systems, XML provides an easy, standardized method of transferring data between databases and to and from the Web, independent of the software in use
• Offers database programmers and data-driven Web developers detailed guidance on how to understand and work with XML as data
• Numerous hands-on, step-by-step examples help readers learn to simplify database work using XML
• Shows how to use XML to exchange data between multiple databases either internally or with external customers and partners
• Covers XML in popular databases including Oracle Database, SQL Server, and brief coverage of DB2 Database
• Covers basic syntax for XML, the XML DOM, and XSL – with an emphasis on database use, and native XML databases
• Additional topics covered include Native XML databases, XPath, XQuery, XLink, XPointer, DTDs, XML Schemas, among others