XQuery Kick Start [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)

by James McGovern (Author), Per Bothner (Author), Kurt Cagle (Author), James Linn (Author), Vaidyanathan Nagarajan (Author) "Since its first introduction, the Extensible Markup Language (XML) has generated extraordinary interest and support in the information technology world..." (more)
Key Phrases: return concat, namespace nodes, xml document, Kurt Cagle, Semantic Web, Language Expressions (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
XQuery Kick Start delivers a concise introduction to the XQuery standard, and useful implementation advice for developers needing to put it into practice. The book starts by explaining the role of XQuery in the XML family of specifications, and its relationship with XPath. The authors then explain the specification in detail, describing the semantics and data model, before moving to examples using XQuery to manipulate XML databases and document storage systems. Later chapters discuss Java implementations of XQuery and development tools that facilitate the development of Web sites with XQuery. This book is up to date with the latest XQuery specifications, and includes coverage of new features for extending the XQuery language.

From the Inside Flap
"This book fills an important need for practical knowledge of XQuery. In addition to covering language basics, it addresses the variety of XQuery implementations currently available and gives us a glimpse at the road ahead. Practical examples, including several higher-level usage scenarios, play an important role in the development of this material. If you’re considering a project with XQuery, do yourself a favor and read this book." —Ed Peters, Software Architect, webMethods

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Sams; illustrated edition edition (October 3, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0672324792
• ISBN-13: 978-0672324796
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,411,531 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Poorly organized, random topics with little meat, June 27, 2004

By	Andrew J. Platt (Arlington, VA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I don't think I've read a computer book as poorly organized as this one. The basic premise seems to be present some random aspects of XQuery or related topics in a chapter and have no flow through the book.

There is a lot of good material in the book but try to find it - it's more or less impossible because the index is abysmal. There's no real introduction to how to use XQuery - instead we start off with XSLT. That may be OK (they are related) but it seemed a bit strange to me.

Another problem with the book is that some of it is out of date. The XQuery specification is a work in progress but the book was written after (and refers to) the final draft - but a lot of the examples are not compliant with that final draft.

The best thing that I can say about this book is that it forced me to research issues more deeply and therefore find out what I needed to know. I wouldn't buy this book - try to borrow it and see if it meets your needs.

11 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential XQuery, January 18, 2004

By A Customer

This book is about best practices, patterns and anti-patterns, and about how to use XML and XQuery correctly and efficiently. It will be useful to a professional with any level of experience. It may be used as a tutorial and read from the cover to cover, or one can enjoy reading selected items, depending on the experience and taste. The book's very detailed index makes it an excellent reference on the subject as well.

1.0 out of 5 stars Below average, November 25, 2008

By	Stanley Siu (Jersey city, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

Totally agree with previous post titled 'Poorly organized, random topics with little meat'.

The book has a amateurish feel, full of topics that are not coherent, basically just a few lines here and there to fill up the page.

Look for O'Reilly XQuery by Priscilla Walmsley, a much better book.