XML for Data Architects: Designing for Reuse and Integration (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems) [Paperback]

James Bean (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1558609075 | ISBN-13: 978-1558609075 | Publication Date: July 3, 2003 | Edition: 1

"The book addresses a sorely missing set of considerations in the real world... This is a very timely book."
-Peter Herzum, author of Business Component Factory and CEO of Herzum Software

XML is a tremendous enabler for platform agnostic data and metadata exchanges. However, there are no clear processes and techniques specifically focused on the engineering of XML structures to support reuse and integration simplicity, which are of particular importance in the age of application integration and Web services. This book describes the challenges of using XML in a manner that promotes simplification of integration, and a high degree of schema reuse. It also describes the syntactical capabilities of XML and XML Schemas, and the similarities (and in some cases limitations) of XML DTDs. This book presents combinations of architectural and design approaches to using XML as well as numerous syntactical and working examples.

* Designed to be read three different ways: skim the margin notes for quick information, or use tables in the appendix to locate sections relevant the to a particular issue, or read cover-to-cover for the in-depth treatment.
* Contains numerous tables that describe datatypes supported by the most common DBMSs and map to XML Schema supported data types.
* Unique focus on the value added role and processes of the data architect as they apply to enterprise use of XML.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The book addresses a sorely missing set of considerations in the real world... This is a very timely book."
-Peter Herzum, author of Business Component Factory and CEO of Herzum Software

Book Description

The Data Manager's perfect choice for Application Integration and Web Services.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 270 pages
• Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann; 1 edition (July 3, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558609075
• ISBN-13: 978-1558609075
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,789,808 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Q: So who am I ?
A: I am a long time SOA, Enterprise and Data Architect. I've authored 5 books and seen them in print, as well as numerous magazine articles. I am also a patent holder in the technology and SOA spaces.

Q: What do I speak to and write about ?
A: SOA, Web Services, SOAP, WSDL, XSD, XML, Enterprise Architecture, Governance, IT Strategy, Data Services, Data and Metadata.

Q: Is ReST better than SOAP ?
A: Both ReST and SOAP have advantages and disadvantages. It is more important to identify the requirements and patterns, before jumping to a specific solution.

Q: Why is SOA so important ?
A: SOA has become a critical architecture that enables business solutions. It plays a role is process management, service compostion, data access, information services and integration.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Should have been named "XML Schema primer", March 24, 2004

By 

Ajith Kallambella (JavaRanch.com) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: XML for Data Architects: Designing for Reuse and Integration (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems) (Paperback)

In a nutshell, this book is all about understanding XML schemas. As the use of XML transactions to exchange, share, and move data among enterprise systems grows, enforcing data standards and structural efficiency plays a critical role for ensuring overall flexibility, robustness and extensibility.

The author starts the book with a discussion about various XML application scenarios and attempts to classify the use of XML data containers into three forms viz., a document, transaction or a message. He argues that any form of cross platform exchange and sharing of enterprise data falls in to one of the three.

He then convinces how the use of highly reusable structures and custom data types affects data architecture. If you are wondering, data architecture is a term used to describe XML structures that plumb disparate enterprise systems. Here are two new buzzwords - Application to Consumer (A2C) and Application to application (A2A). Since XML also used to describe data extracts from, insertions into, and exchanges between application systems and databases, it is important to understand variation in database data type support.

In the chapters that follow, XML schema is introduced as the singular standard for achieving maximum reusability and enforcing data standards. For each of the three XML usages, he quotes XML snippets and critiques on various approaches. The focus remains on a designing an XML schema for maximum reuse and extensibility.

The book should have been named as "XML Schema primer". Most of the chapters are dedicated to discuss application of XML schemas. The amount of material covering actual process, challenges and strategy recommendations to achieve optimal data architecture does not do any justice to the title.

Ajith Kallambella [...]

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent resource for my needs, November 8, 2005

By 

Data Guy working with SOA (MN, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: XML for Data Architects: Designing for Reuse and Integration (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems) (Paperback)

At first I was somewhat skeptical due to a couple of negative reviews. However, I was desparate. The other XML books I've read (and fallen asleep with) seem to be restatements of the W3C specifications. I am a DBA/Data Architect in the midst of an international Web Services and SOA project and I needed something fast. As it turns out, this was probably the best investment in reference materials I've made in a long time. I guess I am not really sure what the other reviewers missed, but this book was perfect for me. I hold mixed roles of DBA as well as Data Architect - data modelling mostly. Recently, I was tasked with trying to determine why and how all of this XML stuff fits in a SOA project, and from the data perspective. Although I've been a DBA for too many years to share, I've positioned myself mostly at the persistence layer. This book really opened my eyes. Thorough, concise, and very focused on what "data folks" need. Five stars were a must for me.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great job!!, May 30, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: XML for Data Architects: Designing for Reuse and Integration (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems) (Paperback)

In the evolving world of technology, and the 'do more with less' mentality, this book has helped me tremendously in expanding my Data Administration responsibilities in a major financial institution. This book is easy to follow, provides great guidelines and techniques for incorporating and expanding metadata into this new technology, XML. I would recommend this book to any Data Administrator whose company is embarking, or expanding, their web presence, and is concerned about maintaining the quality of the data.