XML by Example (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

~ Benoit Marchal (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

XML books are a dime a dozen, but many are quite tedious in the way they methodically step through all of the various standards. Que's Example series helps you learn by doing with countless examples that build your knowledge through hands-on experience. XML by Example covers an impressive amount of material in relatively little space, providing critical XML knowledge using a reader-friendly format.

This second edition has been updated to cover the latest and greatest features of the ever-evolving XML standard. It includes coverage of the final XML Schemas recommendation and the latest developments of XSL. The book is quite suitable for anyone with basic HTML knowledge.

The book steps its way through all the key topics--namespaces, models, transformations, formatting, etc.--with a style that keeps you engaged in what each topic looks like in real code, versus in theory. Plenty of notes and cautions highlight important points and pitfalls. There is an excellent presentation of how XML can be used to render formatted HTML using Cascading Style Sheets and XSL--one of the first areas many developers want to tackle when wading into the XML universe.

Advanced topics such as SOAP and three-tier architectures are presented, albeit only at a level of detail sufficient to familiarize you with the concepts. XML by Example is an excellent place to start to learn XML and a strong preparatory text for more extensive reading on the subject. --Stephen W. Plain

Product Description

XML by Example, 2nd edition has been revised and updated to include the newest standards, more robust examples, and better tools for developers to make the most of XML as they learn it. Building off readers¿ knowledge of HTML, JavaScript and web development, this book teaches XML using practical, real-world examples every step of the way. The book starts with a broad overview of the technologies and standards that make up XML. Following chapters teach each of these topics in depth, including new coverage of: more robust tools for parsing and manipulating XML, modeling with XML Schemas, managing extensibility with Namespaces, the latest version of XSL transformations (XSLT), applying style with XSL Formatting Objects and Cascading Style Sheets, object models including SAX 2 and DOM 2, and working with existing XML models: XHTML, WML and RSS. The final chapters design and build an XML-enabled e-Commerce application, putting together the concepts mastered earlier in the book.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Que; 2 edition (September 17, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789725045
• ISBN-13: 978-0789725042
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (67 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #802,303 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

72 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally...A book for the real world, January 31, 2000

By	Michael Joseph Waluk (Rhode Island) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: XML by Example (By Example) (Paperback)

The best XML book out there! It thoroughly explains XML and its uses, but any XML book can do that. What makes this book special is its chapters on XML's companion standards, which actually make it useful.

The book begins with XML syntax, DTDs and Namespaces. It then moves on to the fun stuff: XSL, CSS, using the DOM and the SAX API in parsers.

With that foundation, it walks you through creating XML documents inside applications. The book wraps up with a detailed N-Tiered Architecture example, which was thankfully written in Java. The author was kind enough to include a crash course on Java in the Appendix.

Overall, the examples were excellent and interesting. I have read four other XML books, including one with the same title, and this is the first where I could actually apply the examples in my real world projects.

My office has a copy of most of the XML books out there, but this is the only one I'd recommend to developers at any level.

84 of 90 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good book to start., May 28, 2000

By	ZhongDan LAN (Newark, New Jersey, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: XML by Example (By Example) (Paperback)

This book is excellent for someone who knows HTML basics and who wants to learn XML. The author does not use only examples, but also comparisons, which are really helpful. For example, XML is structure-oriented and not presentation-oriented, compared to HTML, this book explains the advantage of this difference. The presentation is clear, key notions as Namespace, Style Sheets, Dom and Sax, XLink and XPointer are all introduced in chapter one with examples, and explained in more detail in later chapters. It tells you also how to read this book, for example, chapter 3 is a little abstract, and at the beginning of this chapter, the author suggests you to skip half part and read this chapter later. The author repeats some notions several times, it may be helpful for beginner, but not for advanced. This book covers lots of topics, but not in depth. Overall, it is best suited for beginners. Int/adv readers better read <<Professional XML>>, <<XML unleashed>>, <<XSLT programmers reference>>, <<XML Elements of Style>> and other java/asp xml related books.

96 of 104 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars <? XML Version Super deluxe!>, January 29, 2000

By	"mrhassell" (London, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: XML by Example (By Example) (Paperback)

Some books have a heavy tendency to become immersed in the exciting technologies that they are writing about, without leaving much scope for the human aspect of learning. XML by example is without a doubt one of the most useful and easy to understand books that I've read in ages. The e-commerce and web based email examples alone are worth the price of the book and it is totally comprehensive. What impressed me about this book most is that it covers more than just the essential aspects of the DOM and XSL, by providing an introduction to Java, Java Server Pages (Jsp's), Java web servers, translation and e-commerce applications (all the code you need is right here). Also the links to resources and applications / tools that are free or open source, which guarantees you'll be up and running with the most cutting edge technology in no time. In a word the most straight forward and to the point book that I have had the pleasure of digesting for a long time. Delicious!