XML Problem Design Solution (Programmer to Programmer) [Paperback]

Mitch Amiano (Author), Conrad D'Cruz (Author), Kay Ethier (Author), Michael D. Thomas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 13, 2006 | ISBN-10: 0471791199 | ISBN-13: 978-0471791195 | Edition: 1

• Offering a unique approach to learning XML, this book walks readers through the process of building a complete, functional, end-to-end XML solution
• Featured case study is an online business product catalog that includes reports, data input/output, workflow, stylesheet formatting, RSS feeds, and integration with external services like Google, eBay, and Amazon
• The format of presenting a problem and working through the design to come up with a solution enables readers to understand how XML markup allows a business to share data across applications internally or with partners or customers even though they might not use the same applications

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

This nuts-and-bolts guide shows you the power of XML by presenting an enterprise application problem that you'll design a program to solve throughout the book. Each chapter takes one part of the featured project and leads you through the design of its solution. The team of experienced authors gradually walks you through sections of increasing depth, each one developing a more advanced treatment of XML than the previous.

You'll learn various resolutions to common business and technology needs that are best solved using XML. Plus, you'll get under the hood of everyday applications and web services and discover how to tackle XML markup. By the end of the book, you will understand how to leverage XML applications in order to build a complete, functional, end-to-end XML solution.

What you will learn from this book

• How to share XML data with both internal and external users
• Ways to style XML so that it can be used for browser presentation
• Techniques for converting XML content online using XSLT, the XML transformation language
• How to search, merge, and transform XML documents
• Strategies for designing enterprise solutions using XML, workflow engines, and business process management systems
• How to create PDF output and produce RSS feeds

Who this book is for

This book is for programmers new to XML who want to grasp the concepts of XML markup and understand the diversity of its potential uses.

Wrox Problem – Design – Solution gives you solid, workable solutions to real-world development problems. Each chapter is devoted to a single application, analyzing every problem, examining relevant design issues, and implementing the ideal solution.

About the Author

Mitch Amiano began his career developing process automation applications for small businesses. Quietly using markup languages since 1994, and database management systems since 1989, Mitch has worked in process/quality teams and advanced tool departments at Fortune 500 companies, as well as consulting to small and medium-sized businesses. In 2003, Mitch founded Agile Markup Corporation where he provides XML and open source training and development services. In his spare time, Mitch plays with number theory and edible landscaping. He also serves on his town’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, of which he was 2005 Chair.

Conrad D’Cruz, an independent consultant with more than 14 years’ experience, loves to work in the area where business meets technology. He is active in the technology and business users’ groups in the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina. He was contributing author for Enterprise Integration Patterns: Designing, Building, and Deploying Messaging Solutions and coauthored Cocoon 2 Programming: Web Publishing with XML and Java. When he is not working, he can be found at the controls of a light aircraft exercising the privileges of his private pilot’s certificate or participating in search and rescue exercises with the U.S. Civil Air Patrol.

Kay Ethier is an Adobe Certified Expert in FrameMaker with long experience in structured document publishing with SGML and XML. She is also a certified trainer with WebWorks University. Kay instructs in XML and other training classes, consults, and provides hotline support for clients in a variety of industries. In 2001, Kay coauthored the book XMLWeekend Crash Course. That same year, she was technical editor for GoLive 6 Magic. In 2004, Kay was a contributing author for Advanced FrameMaker, and sole author of XML and FrameMaker. Her most recent collaboration was on a Korean-English book, Learning Korean: Martial Arts Terminology.

Michael D. Thomas is a technical architect with SAS. He has authored two other books, Java Programming for the Internet and Oracle XSQL. He is a frequent conference speaker on XML, Java, and web services topics. Throughout his career, he has designed and implemented enterprise-class web-based systems. While working at IBM, he was one of the youngest people to ever receive an Outstanding Technical Achievement Award, due in part to his work with web services.

Product Details

• Paperback: 333 pages
• Publisher: Wrox; 1 edition (June 13, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471791199
• ISBN-13: 978-0471791195
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #313,091 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #49 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Languages & Tools > XML

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book for "real-world" XML, August 29, 2006

By 

Frank Stepanski (PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: XML Problem Design Solution (Programmer to Programmer) (Paperback)

Everybody or most of everybody that are in web design in some form or another have heard about XML or even used it a bit. But personally I feel there are a small amount of resources out there that really teach you how to use XML in "real-world" scenarios. It's nice to know what it is and know that many applications use it behind the scenes, but it still doesn't help people understand how to use it for our own web applications.

This book solves that problem wonderfully by first showing you first what XML is and how to format proper XML documents. Then the author discusses how to publish XML documents in a couple web site examples (web catalog for one) and showing how to style these documents using regular CSS and XSLT, schemas as well as other technologies such as XPath and XQuery.

Each chapter presents a new problem (rendering XML to print, searching and merging documents, integrating web services, RSS feeds) and goes through step by step in how to work it out with really nice code examples. You really don't need to read this book end to end to get the most out of it. Just pick a chapter and read through it since the author re-summarizes what was previously covered to bring you up to speed.

So for example, if you have XML documents that you need to integrate into a database (DB2, SQL Server, etc) or want to learn how to create XML documents from a database table(s) it first shows the necessary SQL to pull the data you need, then how to use various tools to create your format.

The book does use one program (Stylus Studio 2006) in particular but the author mentions other open-source programs that you can use as well (in Appendix too). A great little book (under 300 pages) that shows you some great uses for XML as well as teaching you how and why you should use it.

A great buy!