Java and XML (O'Reilly Java Tools) (Paperback)

~ Brett McLaughlin (Author), Mike Loukides (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Two hot topics come together in this developer's guide from Brett McLaughlin, Java and XML. Both Java and XML are cross-platform technologies; by using Java for code and XML for transporting data, you can build truly portable applications. This title is aimed at intermediate to advanced programmers; while XML topics are explained more or less from scratch, readers will need prior knowledge of Java.

The book begins with an overview of XML and its uses, and goes on to explain how to parse XML by using the Simple API for XML (SAX 2). Next, there is coverage of how XML is validated by using Document Type Definitions (DTDs) and XML Schema, and transformed by using eXtensible Stylesheet Language (XSL). Brief coverage of Sun's Java API for XML is followed by a detailed look at the Java Document Object Model (JDOM), a new API devised by the author in association with O'Reilly, the publisher.

The last part of the book is more advanced, and covers applications of XML and Java. There are chapters on Web-publishing frameworks, XML Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs), using XML to read and write configuration data, and generating XML with Java. There is also a short business-to-business example. Appendices provide an API reference to the various specifications discussed in the book.

The strengths of Java and XML include the author's deep knowledge of his subject, and a writing style that is both clear and enthusiastic. If you happen to know a lot about Java and not much about XML, this is the ideal title. Readers who already have a good grasp of XML basics might be frustrated by the amount of introductory material. --Tim Anderson

Product Description

Java and XML share many features that are ideal for building web-based enterprise applications, such as platform-independence, extensibility, reusability, and global language (Unicode) support, and both are based on industry standards. Together Java and XML allow enterprises to simplify and lower costs of information sharing and data exchange. Java and XML shows how to put the two together, building real-world applications in which both the code and the data are truly portable. This book covers:

• The basics of XML
• Using standard Java APIs to parse XML
• Designing new document types using DTDs and Schemas
• Writing programs that generate XML data
• Transforming XML into different forms using XSL transformations (XSL/T)
• XML-RPC
• Using a web publishing framework like Apache-Cocoon
• XML as a configuration language

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Product Details

• Paperback: 498 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (June 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596000162
• ISBN-13: 978-0596000165
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,223,499 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

62 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally! XML from a developer's standpoint!, July 17, 2000

By	Dan Sackinger (Cupertino, CA USA) - See all my reviews

I've read several books on XML that have been mainly a regurgitation of the specifications without much attempt to help a developer understand how the technology can actually be used. This is the first book I have read on this subject that actually bridges this gap and gives useful, working examples of how XML can be used in your Java applications to solve real-world problems. Instead of giving a code snippet that shows only how to call the XML parsing/processing APIs, the book gives full examples on how to use XML in applications from servlets for presentation to B2B applications for data collaboration between companies.

The book was well written and easy to follow. The author doesn't waste time reiterating the same things over and over. Links for more information on each subject are given in the text.

If you are looking to implement an XML solution in Java, this book will be a great help along the way.

39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As current as it gets, June 26, 2000

By	Jon Baerd - See all my reviews

I tried to submit a review once already, but it got ignored... in any case, this is the most current book available on XML. Not only does it cover all the stuff I was looking for (including XML Schema), it covers the latest version of the specifications (many as late as April!). I found SAX 2.0 (the final release, even) and the latest XML Schema, both of which I am using at my company, and needed up-to-date support. The book is even more accurate than some of my favorite web page resources! It also covers JDOM, something the author wrote, which makes my life so much easier - I had to use DOM before, and JDOM is much simpler. It also compares JDOM and DOM in the code samples (side by side) so I got to see exactly where the differences were. Finally, a hidden gem - this book covered RSS! Something I hardly knew about, we are now doing our entire portal site in RSS thanks to "Java and XML". Pick it up - more in here than I even knew was useful, plus all the examples work (! ) and are not silly Hello World things.

35 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing..., October 30, 2000

By	B.C. (FL USA) - See all my reviews

Reading the reviews and ratings of this book here and at other sites, I was expecting a serious, in-depth look at using Java and XML together from a technical perspective. Unfortunately, the areas of detail in this book weren't applicable to my current project, and I ended up relying more on the Xerces documentation than on this book.

Apart from a good overview of the SAX parser in Xerces and how to code event handlers for it, there isn't much more than a brief introduction to many aspects of coding Java applications for XML, followed by a sequence of one-chapter overviews of various business applications. The book simply tries to cover too many topics in too short a space. Between XSL, SAX, DOM, JDOM, stylesheets, DTDs, B2B data interchange and all the other topics, the book should have been twice as long. This book could be useful in conjunction with a more detailed technical reference or programming guide (if such a book exists), since it does provide some good skeleton objects in its various scenarios. It should not be your only book (or your first book) on this subject.