Customer Reviews

Sams Teach Yourself XML in 21 Days (2nd Edition)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I have looked at several introductory/intermediate XML texts and really like this one as an overall programming tutorial. The abundant coded examples are really well explained and readily usable. After reading this book I converted two major applications at work to XML-based technologies complete with server-scripts, database connectivity and transformed front-ends using XSLT. (VERY COOL STUFF!) The teaching style in this book is first-rate. I enjoyed it, learned lots and highly recommend it.

Some titles tout - "Learn blah, blah in 24 hours" - but I found that this book offers a concise series of 21 lessons that were painless. It is written in such a way that I was able to just dive in and get started. The book provides clear and easy to understand exercises and examples that really worked for me! Such topics as XSL, XSLT, XPath, DOM, XLink, XPointer, XML Schema, and DTD are explained so that I knew how they are used, and when. The book also contains excellent and up to date resources.

This is a very useful and practical first book for beginners, those with HTML knowledge, or those who are curious about a technology that is transforming the Web. If you are interested in certification or just want a background in XML, this is a good book to start with.

I was looking for a book to jump-start me into the use of XML. This book is great for that purpose. What I like most is that the examples developed early in the book are carried through the whole book. You don't have to try to figure out new examples and scenarios every chapter since the examples get redeveloped as new tools are introduced. I have recommended this book to the gang I work with.

I usually don't say anything unless I have something nice to say, but I feel the positive reviews for this book are highly overrated. I'm quite stunned by how much copy the author of this book managed to churn out on what otherwise could have been a concise and to-the-point tutorial. Do I really need to read through 7 paragraphs on the decision-making process of the W3C before I can learn about XML schemas...? While some may find that kind of information thorough, I find it distracting. The reviewers who feel this book was well-written obviously don't think good writing should be compelling. The writing style, while organized and grammatically correct, is very very dry and repetitious. The tone reminds me of the more boring professors I had in college. There is no humor or person-to-person feel you get with writers like Laura Lemay. Even given the author's verbosity, the book (almost flagrantly) glosses over what I felt should have been the most important lesson: the XSD schema language, which most people agree to be the standard syntax for XML. If you want an efficient introduction to XML, you are better off running through the online tutorials offered on the w3schools website.

I really loved this book. I have read many books on HTML and other Web Development topics, but this one built progressively on examples as you went from chapter to chapter. I imagine that it is really difficult to do that when the topic covers so many different technologies. I like this approach and teh learning style. I have already recommended this book to others interested in XML.

I think the author did a fantastic job with a complex subject and I feel liked I learned enought to really use XML in my daily work.

I was looking for a book that would introduce XML and show me some real code examples of how to use it. I got that and more from this book. It is really well written - the author is more than a techies, he knows how to write and present complex concepts in understandable language.

There is a lot of material in this book. As the author points out, this is a 21-day study of XML, you can't cover every single aspect of every one of the many technologies that are part of the XML family of tools, but somehow this book manages to cover the most useful of waht is available.

There is something for everyone in this book. If you like to write Java, there are examples in Java, there are also examples in JavaScript, VBScript, VB, various databases and three or four different browsers. The parsers used include Saxon, Xalan, XT, MSXML, Apache, and all sorts of others. Best of all, as the author points out, if you can appreciate the relatively simple underlying constructs, it really doesn't matter what language you choose to write in. This is excellent since it helps to prove that XML is platform agnostic and can be programmed in almost any language and used in almost any toolset.

We have used some of the code out examples right out of the book to create a data-centric XML application for transaction exchange. The best part of this is that our business partners have different platforms and different programming environments and that doesn't matter at all, since we are all speaking XML when it comes to exchanging data. I learned how to do this by reading this book and working along with the examples provided.

My only regret with regard to this book is that it didn't include more than 21 days worth of material - I would have liked 42 days! This was such a good read, I found myself wanting more at the end of it.

I really got my money's-worth and more from this book, recommend it highly and can't wait to read whatever this author writes next. If you are looking for a very well-written survey of fundamental XML concepts, that covers a wide variety of the basic technologies, and touches various tools and platforms - try this book.

This is a best of class introductory book on XML - the author is passionate about the topic. You get a lot for your money with this book. There are plenty of hands-on examples that are well organized and totally explained. I learned enough by reading this book to undertake a major conversion to XML of an older Web system at work. Our company is going to contact the author, who apparently teaches classes as well, to provide advanced instruction on Web Services, SOAP and XML. This guys knows his stuff and the book reflects that. I highly recommend the book.

I was looking for a book that would introduce the overall concepts of the many XML technologies and give me a chance to play with them on my own. Although this book is not accompanied by a CD, I would prefer to enter the code myself and learn from making a mistake here and there. The concepts are very clearly described in concise and meaningful language in this book with a wealth of examples.

I give this book my highest recommendation. There is now a third edition out, but this one contains meaningful and approachable examples and should not be overlooked.

P.S. I got my copy of this book while attending a course being offered by the author. Aside from being well-written, Devan Shepherd is an excellent instructor. If you have the chance to take one of his courses, or attend one of his talks, don't miss the opportunity. He is entertaining and highly knowledgable.

Again the Teach Yourself in 21 Days series comes through. This book is very easy to understand. A great place to begin your XML journey.

I would like to say this book is the worst Sams teach yourself books I have ever read. Although the book is pretty well organized, it lacks lots details, any beginner for XML will find this book hard to follow. All examples the book gives is just like excerpt from author's notebook. For example, if you want to try some of example, you will find you fail again and again. Few example is complete.

There are also lot's mistake in this book. Give an example, page 144~145 people.dtd and person.xml, in both dtd and xml files there is "<!DOCTYPE People ..." declaration, this is not allowed in dtd file since xml file referenced people.dtd. I don't know how author could make this kind of mistake. The author should have added <?xml version='1.0' encoding='us-ascii'> to the dtd file also. For the first time XML learner, if you fail to add a little bit detail somewhere, the reader would take one day to try to find how.

I won't recommend this book any beginner to read this this XML book. Sams book is always target for beginner, but this book is ridiculous.