Customer Reviews

Applied XML Solutions

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is an improvement over Marchals' excellent 'XML By Example'. The sample programs are longer, meatier and can quickly be converted for usage in your own projects. The most impressive thing about the author is that he actually answered my email when I had questions regarding the code, which is unusual among the authors of the endless series of boilerplate Java books, many of whom regurgiate previous books/website content and then disappear into the sunset so as not to be reached when mistakes and blatant oversights are found in their books and the CDs that accompany them.

The SAMS format of this book is superior to the Que format of the previous book. Despite the ever-changing face of XML, the book appears relevant and up-to-date. If you're a Java programmer interested in exactly what XML is useful for, this book is a good place to start.

There are already lots of 5 stars here and it seems unnecessary to vote another 5 stars. Anyway, I would like to give some personal feedback.

1)This book is short in length but rich in content.

Chapter 1 convers XML in a standalone java application, SAX parser is used in this chapter; chapter 2 shows a survex project using SAX parser and servlet; chapter 3 demonstrated how to use DTD, CSS within XML editor XMetal; chapter 4 covers XML publishing, same content can be published with different style sheets for HTML, WML and RSS; chapter 5 and chapter 6 describe the conversion between XML and EDI using xsl; chapter 7 is devoted to an e-Business project, using xsl and servlet; chapter 8 can be read after chapter 4, it is also devoted to publishing, with dynamically generated xml content; chapter 9 is devoted to a stock tracking project, which uses SOAP as the communication protocol, it can be read after chapter 7.

In a whole, this book covers:

a) XML parsers in chapter 1, 2, also java, servlet, design patterns Builder, Visitor.

b) XML editor in chapter 3, also CSS, DTD,

c) Publishing (XSLT) in chapter 4 and 8, also servlet.

d) XML and EDI in chapter 5 and 6, also XSLT.

e) e-Business: chapter 7 and 9, also servlet, SOAP.

2)This books is written for java developer, good understanding of java and servlet is required.

3)There is no chapter on JSP and XML, although there are application of XML with servlet and you can transfer some servlet into JSP; there is no chapter on JMS and XML neither, you may hope to find this kind of example in a JMS book.

4)This book is surpringly easy to use. I read it several times, from the beginning to the end. I tried EVERY EXAMPLE in the book, and every example works.

To be more honest, I only find one problem in the example (I just want to prove that I really tried every example): on page 81, third paragraph, first line, the author talks about how to chnage display style in XMetal:

Choose Tools, Editor Display Style

I found "Editor Display Style" in the menu "Format" instead of menu "Tools", so maybe we shuld replace "Tools" by "Format".

5)This book uses a JDBC database HypersonicSQL, and it is on the CD. So no preinstalled database is required.

6)The servlet container used in the book is jetty, the author provided batch file to use it without any difficulty. However, if you use Tomcat or Weblogic or jrun or another servlet engine, you need to configure it.

I would thoroughly recommend this book to anybody who is frustrated from the lack of sample solutions available in XML books they've looked at. For most of us, we learn by example, it's the intuitive way to learn new concepts yeah? Well the good thing about this book is that it does exactly that and more... it demonstrates basic to advanced XML solutions to everyday problems. I have purchased many XML books now at this stage, including Java and XML and I have to say that Benoit Marchal's is by far the best. Buy it if you want to learn how to apply your XML knowledge.

Oh, and it comes with a CD with all the projects on it which is V. handy... also it has a copy of XALAN, and a trial version of XMetaL (a GUI editor) plus many more.

All round money well spent.

I am generally pretty skeptical of technical books. After glancing at most of them, I am usually convinced that the author can neither organize their thoughts nor write about them.

I was very pleasantly surprised with "Applied XML Solutions". After flipping through the pages and reading the odd sentence or two, it was clear what topics the book would cover, and that the writing was clear, simple, and comprehensible. So I sat down to read the book.

It was excellent. The examples are well chosen and the author has done a good job writing them. The code is simple, well-structured, and focuses on XML, not the ancillary technologies. I liked the structure of the chapters -- the motivation was always clear and relevant and the code generally well explained.

If I had any criticism at all, it is that there could have been five to ten more sentences per chapter (no more!) pulling the pieces of code together. This wasn't apparent to me until I hit the chapters that used servlets, which I haven't ever written or used. It then took a while for me to figure out what methods the Web server called and when. I imagine people unfamiliar with SAX or XSLT might have had similar problems, although those are explained in more depth.

In any case, given the author's stated aim of focusing on XML, not the related technologies, he has done a good job of balancing the need to keep things simple with the need to explain everything. All in all, this is an excellent book and I strongly recommend it to anybody who is looking for places to use XML or already has ideas and wants a head start.

This book contains neat projects that explain how XML can be used in different scenarios. Compare this book with "Professional XML" which claims to do the same, but contains most of the chapters written referring to one simple XML file! In my opinion this book, Applied XML solutions, is a worthwhile investment for a Java - XML developer.

This book has many projects, which gives insight into various parts of XML. Basic knowledge of XML is required though. Implementation of these projects is a good way of learning XML. Nothing like hand's on experience.

The author's writing style is also good, he gives reasons choosing any particular implementation.

If you really need to know XML, buy this book.

The author presents very practical example projects in each chapter. The project in Chapter 9 is especially clear on demonstating the SOAP concept. Buy this book to jump-start your XML/Java knowledge and experience. You'll never regret buying this book.

If you learn by example, here is the book you should have for learning (hands-on) how XML can be applied in eApplications. It was fun implementing the examples in the book. (There are seven neat mini-projects).

Good work Benoit!

This is really a very good book, very good examples, good design patterns... I would recommend it to any one having some experience with XML and java. Just grab it!

This is by far the best book on real applications using XML. The author is an expert in the field, and the book is clear and concise, yet it deals with fairly complex applications also.
I highly reccomend this