Essential XML for Web Professionals [Paperback]

Dan Livingston (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2002 | ISBN-10: 0130662542 | ISBN-13: 978-0130662545 | Edition: 1st

This concise, fast-paced tutorial teaches Web developers how to use XML to build dynamic, portable, scalable e-Commerce websites. Using hands-on projects that cover a wide range of e-Commerce site development tasks, this book focuses on the key XML technologies of e-commerce development -- notably, schemas, namespaces, XSLT, and Xlink. Essential XML for Web Professionals begins by introducing the fundamentals of XML, and explaining how to define XML using DTDs and schema. Learn how to utilize namespaces to resolve naming conflicts across multiple XML languages; then master XML techniques for building lists, tables, frames, and forms. Discover practical techniques for converting HTML to XML; using CSS in XML environments; working with links and pointers; and making the most of XSL Transformations (XSLT) stylesheets. All source code samples, images, and XML markup are available from the supporting website, where Web developers can see exactly how their pages and applications should look and work.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

• Learn XML fundamentals and build Web applications—fast!
• Focused on the XML skills Web professionals need most
• Learn by doing, as you work on a fictional e-commerce site
• Up-to-the-minute coverage includes schemas, namespaces, XSLT, XLink, XPointer, XHTML, and more
• Learn practical techniques, based on real-world scenarios

Essential XML for Web Professionals is the fastest way for busy professionals to master the XML skills needed for building dynamic, portable, and scalable applications. By completeing hands-on projects covering a wide range of development tasks, you'll master key XML technologies—including schemas, namespaces, XSLT, XLink, XHTML, and more. Start with simple examples, then work your way up to sophisticated projects. Learn practical techniques! All sample applications found in the book are downloadable from the companion Web site. You can reuse and adapt the code to see exactly how your applications should look and work!

You'll master all this, and much more!

• Mastering XML fundamentals, structure, and syntax
• Defining XML using DTDs and schemas
• Using namespaces to resolve naming conflicts
• Building XML schema utilizing complex types
• Using XHTML to bridge HTML with XML
• Working with XLink
• Using CSS in XML environments
• Linking to XML fragments with XPointer
• Making the most of XSL Transformations (XSLT)
• Using key XML applications: SMIL, SVG, and WDDX
• Manipulating XML with the DOM

Rely on Essential Guides for ALL the Web Skills You Need!

All these books share the same great format, and the same dynamic Web site... so once you've used one, they're all a piece of cake!

• Essential JSPTM for Web Professionals
• Essential GIMP for Web Professionals
• Essential WAPTM for Web Professionals
• Essential ColdFusion 4.5 for Web Professionals
• Essential CSS & DHTML for Web Professionals, 2nd edition
• Essential Flash 5 for Web Professionals
• Essential PHP for Web Professionals
• Essential ASP for Web Professionals
• Essential Design for Web Professionals
• Essential Photoshop 6 for Web Designers
• Essential PERL 5 for Web Programmers
• Essential JavaScript for Web Professionals
• with more to come!

About the Author

DAN LIVINGSTON, founder of Wire Man Productions, is a leading-edge Web designer, serving clients such as Apple, Novell, Pacific Bell, and Landor. His sites, which have garnered awards from Yahoo! and USA Today, have been featured on CNN. With co-author Micah Brown he has written several books, including Essential PERL 5 for Web Professionals, winner of Planet IT«s award as Best Book for Web Design and Development.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR; 1st edition (January 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0130662542
• ISBN-13: 978-0130662545
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,679,589 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best XML book out there, October 22, 2001

By 

Garry M (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Essential XML for Web Professionals (Paperback)

This is my fifth XML book and it is absolutely, most definitely, the best one. XML itself is pretty simple, but all of the ways it can be defined and applied can be confusing. This book makes things like DTDs, XML Schema, XSLT, XPointer, XLink and more very easy to understand. The author starts with simple, but not idiotic, examples, and builds on them throughout the book. The author is clearly both a teacher and a programmer. His goal is not to create a book of filler (like lots of others out there), but its clear he sincerely wants you to learn all about XML.

I was truly impressed by both the content and the intelligence of the presentation of this book. Even if you have a bunch of XML books already, reading this one will fill in gaps in your knowledge that you didn't even know you had.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Most useful XML reference/tutorial I've seen, October 31, 2001

By 

Reggie R (NYC, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Essential XML for Web Professionals (Paperback)

There are certainly heavier XML books out there, but this one has dropped a lot useless filler than many of those books. I only work with XML once in a while, so I really don't need to remember exactly how, say, XPath works very often. This book contains many get-up-to-speed-quickly chapters that focus on teaching the most useful and most often used aspects of XML, as well as what clients seem to expect me to know about. For example, I was recently quizzed about SMIL and SVG by a client who I'm sure knew nothing about them, but since I had just finished this book, I was able to answer intelligently, and I believe it was a factor in my getting the job.

This book covers basic XML, XHTML, XSLT, XML Schema, DTDs, XPath, XLink, XPointer, SMIL, SVG and WDDX. It's wonderfully written and very useful. Two thumbs up!

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The only book you need to get started in XML, October 27, 2001

By 

"danielbrit" (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Essential XML for Web Professionals (Paperback)

In order to keep my precarious web development job, I decided to learn XML - everyone's been talking about it for a while. As I usually do when I need to learn a new subject, I buy about a half dozen books on the subject. This book was one of those half-dozen. Suffice it to say that I returned the other five. Seriously, it's that good. It assumes nothing about your prior knowledge, and takes you step-by-step from simple XML into DTDs, XML Schema, XSLT, XHTML, and more. The content is solid and the writing style is friendly, conversational, and intelligent.