XML Family of Specifications: A Practical Guide (2 Vol Set) [Paperback]

Kenneth B. Sall (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0201703599 | ISBN-13: 978-0201703597 | Publication Date: June 10, 2002

Provides a complete roadmap for understanding how XML, XSL, XML Schema, and related specifications interlink to create powerful, real-world applications. Both a reference and tutorial, this practical guide begins with a detailed timeline that charts the history of the Internet, the Web, and XML. Softcover.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

As XML continues to mature, developers need to understand how this standard and its related technologies are revolutionizing software development. XML Family of Specifications: A Practical Guide provides a complete roadmap for understanding how XML, XSL, XML Schema, and related specifications interlink to create powerful, real-world applications.

Both a reference and tutorial, this practical guide begins with a detailed timeline that charts the history of the Internet, the Web, and XML. Next, you'll find an introduction to all of the technologies covered in later chapters. From there, focus shifts to syntax, parsing and programming APIs, transforming and displaying XML, related core specifications, and specialized vocabularies. This book is filled with useful, hands-on examples, tables, and numerous links to further information. The broad and balanced approach explains both the potentials and the pitfalls of the various XML technologies. Also included are a chapter on XSL Formatting Objects (XSLFO) by G. Ken Holman, current chair of the OASIS XSLT Conformance Technical Subcommittee; and a chapter on the Resource Description Framework (RDF) by Ora Lassila, coauthor of the RDF Model and Syntax Specification for the W3C.

Developers will find detailed coverage of:

• XML and DTD syntax
• XML Namespaces
• XML Schema
• Parsing with SAX, DOM, JDOM, and JAXP
• Styling XML using CSS and CSS2
• Transforming XML with XSLT and XPath
• XSL Formatting Objects
• XLink and XPointer
• XHTML: HTML for the present and the future
• RDF

The Big Picture of the XML family is presented in a four-color chart on the inside front cover. The colors indicate the maturity of each specification. A timeline pullout at the back of the book details the gestation period of each of the key specifications.

With its broad-based approach, XML Family of Specifications: A Practical Guide is one of few detailed and comprehensive reference books available that contains information about the entire XML family of specifications.

0201703599B05132002

About the Author

Kenneth B. Sall is an XML consultant. He has sixteen years' experience in information technology, including eight years of Web development. Sall was a key contributor to the Astronomical Instrument Markup Language for NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. In addition, he maintains the XML section of Web Developers Virtual Library (WDVL.Internet) and has written many articles and spoken extensively on XML. Sall offers XML training courses targeted for different audiences.

0201703599AB05172002

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Product Details

• Paperback: 1122 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional (June 10, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201703599
• ISBN-13: 978-0201703597
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 2.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,896,946 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is worth your attention, October 18, 2002

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: XML Family of Specifications: A Practical Guide (2 Vol Set) (Paperback)

An excellent and comprehensive description of XML. Very up to date. The author gives a clear summary of the history of XML and where the various portions stand. He is to be commended for having a colour diagram on the inside cover, summarising the many specifications that are part of XML or associated with it, like XPath, XLink, JDOM, JAXP, DOM. Affiliated with this is a large pull out colour chart, that gives the time line and status of the components. The book is near exhaustive in its description of these components. You would do well to constantly refer to these two diagrams.

Pin the chart above your computer!

This may sound trivial to some. But when you are digging your way through a detailed set of examples in the book, it really helps to have a schematic overview to place things in perspective. All the more so if you happen to be new to many of the topics. Even experienced users can benefit.

The book has a CD with full listings of the examples. A great time saver. Also, since the author did not provide problem sets, you can easily make up your own, based on the CD. For example, suppose you are looking at Chapter 8, "Parsing with the DOM". Take an example document and its DTD from the CD. Change the DTD to add more elements and attributes. Make some of these mandatory. Run the parser on the document and the DTD. You should get errors, as expected, because the document is missing some new required items. Understand the error messages. Then correct the document by adding instances of those items. Rerun the parser. Any errors? If not, then try adding more to the DTD and document. This will really help you learn. You can quickly build up documents of some nontrivial complexity.

Of course, you can, and should, do analogous things with the other chapters.

In terms of the reader's background (I'm talking to you): You can come from either a formal programming environment, or from a publishing/designer background. In both cases, you should already be well familiar with HTML. This is not a formal prerequisite, but a lot of things in the book really do come easier if you know HTML. The programming examples in the book are usually in java, but the author emphasises that XML is not a procedural programming language like java. Rather, it is a declarative language, where you make templates. In this sense, XML is closer to HTML than to java or C.

This book is worth your attention.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thorough reference for developers and architects, June 23, 2002

By 

Mike Tarrani "www.tarrani.com" (Deltona, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: XML Family of Specifications: A Practical Guide (2 Vol Set) (Paperback)

This book is a comprehensive and up-to-date (as of this review) reference on XML as defined by the W3C. Part I is more of a desk reference (with a lot of example code), which covers XML syntax, modeling and parsing, DTDs and schemas. Part II, also with many examples, is a complete treatment of parsing with APIs, with separate chapters on SAX, DOM, JDOM and JAXP. Transformation and display protocols are covered in Part III, including CSS2, XSLT and XPath. XSLFO for formatting is also covered in this part. Xlink and Xpointer to facilitate referencing operations are the subjects of Part IV, and the book wraps up the formal descriptions of the family of specifications in Part V, which covers XHTML and RDF. I have a personal interest in RDF, and found the chapter devoted to it complete, but terse. This characterizes all of the chapters in this book. What makes this book valuable is the way the information is displayed. Each chapter starts with either an overview or concepts, and each clearly explains each specification and gives clear examples to demonstrate how they work in practice.

Appendices at the back of the book are especially valuable because they summarize much of the information in the body of the book. For example, Appendix A depicts the family of specifications in a format that clearly shows the relationships among them. In addition, the web site that supports the book provides a lot of supplementary material, including over 900 links to related resources and an image map of the family of specifications that is one of the most visually appealing and informative resources one can have at their disposal. Note that the web site is not up-to-date - some information that was cited as coming in April and May were still not online as of late June.

This is not a book for learning XML as much as it's a reference. The main value over W3C material that is available over the web is the clear writing and many examples. It reads much better than dry specs and is complete in its coverage.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Comprehensive Book on W3C XML Specifications, July 22, 2002

By 

Betty Harvey (Glen Burnie, MD United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: XML Family of Specifications: A Practical Guide (2 Vol Set) (Paperback)

This book is an excellent guide to the various W3C XML specifications. This book is well-organized and well-written. It provides an easy-to-understand overview of the various W3C XML specifications. This books provides a clear roadmap of W3C XML specifications and how they relate to core XML.

It also touches on a few non-W3C XML specifications (SAX, RELAX NG, JDOM) which are important to the overall understanding of XML technologies. This book provides an informed overview of the use of these technologies.

I recommend this book as a must for any XML library.