Customer Reviews

XML in IE5 Programmer's Reference

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"XML IE5 Programmer's reference" has lots of good examples that are explained in a nice way. However, be noted that it uses JavaScript and not VB Script. I do recommend it for people who'd like to get involved with XML IE5 client side programming or people would like to get involved in XML programming and they know nothing about it. What I didn't see in this book and I was expecting to see, were ASP examples i.e. how to use the XML DOM on the server side.

The new XML features in IE5 are exciting, and we're starting to use XML to publish complicated db data on the web. This book got me up and running, so I've gotten a lot of use out of it. But my feeling is that no one has really figured out how to explain XML very well, and this book, like all of the other XML books I've read, seemed a little muddled and difficult to read. The first four chapters of the book are devoted to XML theory and descriptions of the various technologies MS uses, and I found them a little confusing, despite the fact that I was already running some of the XML-Apache code. For me, though, the bottom line is that the technology is so useful and exciting that it's worth expending a little extra effort to pick it up. If someone knows of a better book, email me and let me know. But for now, as far as I know this is an imperfect book that's the best way to learn an important new technology. For that reason, I recommend it.

Finished this book in two days and made me fall in love with XML. This is the only book I've read on this subject but it still seems to cover most of the concepts you'd be concered with XML development in IE5. One of the few technical books I've read that I actually kinda enjoyed reading. If you're looking for a first book and a great reference book on XML in IE5 then this is definately the way to go.

Author Alex Homer (NOT Horner) tackles the difficult task of explaining XML--for which the standards are not yet nailed down, but which Microsoft's Internet Explorer 5 browser supports in its own peculiar way. The book is aimed at programmers already doing Web-based programming who want to manipulate XML documents on the Web. There are two key technologies supported in IE5 and described in this book. One is the Data Source Object, which can be used to process XML documents set up like a database. It requires that each XML record have the same kind and number of elements, like records in a database. The other technology is the XML Document Object Model, an Application Program Interface that lets Web programmers manipulate XML documents of different structures (using programming script). One chapter that does not seem to require any script writing is the one covering stylesheets, CSS and XSL, with which you can display XML documents nearly anyway you want in IE5. Finally, there are several chapters of references for XML and IE5 that should be of great help to any Web programmer itching to get into XML. The hands-on examples of code are great, often accompanied by links to the publisher's Web site, where you can download updates and source-code examples.

I have to say that this book IS complete about the XML for IE5 subject. Of course, this a Programmer's Reference so it's not a book to learn and it's obviously IE5 specific. If you can live with those constraint and you are looking to do get the best out of IE, take this book and you will have all required information.

Bottom line, very practical and compact reference; but it will probably need some adjustments when Microsoft will release future XML capabilities to be conform to the W3C recommendations.

This is another example of the quality (most) Wrox publishings have. The book includes some very good and essential reference to the most useful XML technologies including core XML, XSL(XSLT), Schemas&DTD's, the MS-XML Document Object Model (DOM), ActiveX Data Objects and lots of other stuff.

It also includes a collection of very extensive reference appendices to all the techniques described above.

It makes a perfect starting point for XML beginners because:
  1) IE5 and the MS-XML parser are included in most modern PCs and their setup as easy as a few clicks with your mouse (unlike XML-Apache and Enhydra!).
  2) IE5 is a visual environment which easily creates results that can be instantly viewed.

Something I did not personally like much is that it uses JavaScript(JScript) in most of its examples except for a few ones dealing with Active Server Pages.

I 'd also wish it had a few examples on COM scripting with the MS-XML parser (yes, it's a COM server, but the book says nothing about it!). It's so important that if you use Distributed COM (DCOM) with the parser you can create client/server XML 'databases' on virtually every Win32 machine!

This book is packed with information about all the programming aspects of XML. XSL/T and DOM get thorough coverage. Code examples are concise, illustrating a point without tedious detail. Many more complete examples are available at the publisher's site. The appendices provide complete specifications of the API's.

This book also highlights IE5's XML implementation differences and extensions from the current W3C recommendations. The author also includes a discussion of many new features in the recommendations, so that one can anticipate future browser functionality.

Problem #1: The publishers say "It gets straight to the point,..." -- I DISAGREE. Typical Wrox problem.

Problem #2: In the first few chapters, sample code is either absent or in fragments that dont run as a whole program. Thus, you go thru' 110 pages and still feel like you are getting nowhere.

Problem #3: Author keeps on jumping ahead of himself in the first 3 chapters. He talks early about advanced topics ("comes to the point" indeed!) giving sketchy, partial details that dont educate an old-hat but confuse the newbie.

Now the good news: If you bear through the first 3 chapters, you will get a lot. Like most books, you will gloss over lots of stuff and learn to learn from learners.

Clear and concise. Good examples. Good warnings about features in the spec but not yet implemented in IE5. I'd also recommend "XML The Annotated Spec" by DuCharme.

The book has a lot of information about XML and IE5. However, it is all in javascript and not in VBScript, which is not what I expected from a book on IE5. The two scripting languages are similar, yet sufficiently different to make the source code un-usable. I'm disappointed that a IE5 book written in a NetScape language has no warning to that effect.