Beginning XML with DOM and Ajax: From Novice to Professional (Beginning: From Novice to Professional) (Paperback)

~ Sas Jacobs (Author)
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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

The book remains a must-have resource for introductory programming, and a useful tool for more intermediate developers.

— Jason Salas, Guam's Mr. Media

The introduction on XML is succint and concise.

— Phu Ly, If ..Else

Dont waste time on 1,000-page tomes full of syntax; this book is all you need to get ahead in XML development. Renowned web developer Sas Jacobs presents an essential guide to XML. Beginning XML with DOM and Ajax is practical and comprehensive. It includes everything you need to know to get up to speed with XML development quickly and painlessly.

Jacobs begins by presenting an overview of XMLits syntax, rules, vocabularies, and the hows and whys of validity. She also covers the current state of XML support in todays web browsers. Next, Jacobs covers all of the basic essential uses of XML. Youll learn how to display XML data using CSS, and transform XML data using XSLT. Youll even learn about dynamic XML scripting using the XML DOM.

The last part of the book covers advanced server-side XML uses in real-world applications, including displaying XML data in Flash, and XML-driven PHP and ASP.NET applications. And last but not least, Jacobs provides a perfect introduction to Ajax development.

About the Author

Sas is a Web developer who loves working with Flash. She set up her business Anything Is Possible in 1994, working in the areas of web development, IT training and technical writing. The business works with large and small clients building web applications with ASP.NET, Flash, XML and databases. Sas has also spoken at conferences such as Flash Forward, MXDU and FlashKit on topics relating to XML and dynamic content in Flash. In her spare time, Sas is passionate about travelling, photography and enjoying life. One of her most fervent wishes is that Flash will take over the Web!

Product Details

• Paperback: 456 pages
• Publisher: Apress (June 5, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590596765
• ISBN-13: 978-1590596760
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #101,342 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #15 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Programming > Languages & Tools > XML
  #16 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Programming > Languages & Tools > Ajax

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Works for both beginning and experienced developers, July 20, 2006

By	Jason A. Salas (Dededo, Guam Guam) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The book is an excellent introduction into XML, what in today's world of distributed, multi-platform applications development, is an unavoidable and critical technology. An essential amount of foundation is provided on the basics of XML and XHTML (DTDs schema, structuring rules, web vocabularies, etc.), it also delves into CSS, DOM scripting, remoting via XMLHTTP for AJAX interfaces, server-side XML in ASP.NET 2.0 and PHP, and using XML in Flash applications. Each chapter has a good amount of web-based resources to check out. Even experienced developers will find something useful in this book.

Author Sas Jacobs features a great discussion about using some of the lesser-known niche features of CSS with XML, and provides healthy, practical examples you can replicate or download and instantly implement in your own web projects.

My favorite chapter, and the one I've broke the spine on for my own copy, is Chapter 7 - "Advanced Client-Side XSLT Techniques". There you'll find the necessary information for building sophisticated (if not universally supported by all browsers) web UIs through integrated transformations. This includes demonstrating how to use extension functions/objects, generating JavaScript through XSLT, and dynamic client-side sorting. Most of these are MSIE-dependent, but the chapter also takes into consideration proper testing for graceful degradation in Firefox, Mozilla, Safari, etc. For similar reasons, I likewise got a lot out of the "DOM Scripting" discussion.

In criticism, I would have liked the chapter on XSLT - in my opinion the section most people reading this book will need the most - to be longer. It's rather rudimentary even and doesn't cover some of the more time-saving features of XSLT. Also, I found the "Web Vocabularies" to be extraneous; interesting but not warranting an entire chapter in today's WWW. The book would also benefit from an appendix of the resources mentioned for various tools, URLs and technologies available to speed XML-related development.

But beyond these minor concerns, which I'm sure will be modified in forthcoming revised versions, the book remains a must-have resource for introductory programming, and a useful tool for more intermediate developers.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clearly written with great coverage, July 24, 2006

By	MD Dundon (Emeryville, CA) - See all my reviews

Being a developer who uses XML extensively but for very specific applications I was interested in reading this book to help expand my understanding of XML-specific issues as they relate to Ajax and the browser environment.

I feel that Sas has accomplished her mission in giving a very thorough overview of the topic of XML. This book was very well written, clear and concise. Of particular interest to me were the examples of developing with XSLT, using the CSS functionality and developing in tandem with server side scripting. I thought the examples were relevant and the sections that were shorter led me to other resources where I might continue my explorations in depth. I prefer that the author accomplish the stated task and leave deeper explorations for other books - I felt that what was covered was perfect for the length of the book and gave me the information I was looking for based on the title. Interestingly, it's one of those books that I really did read from cover to cover. A rare event for me with computer books.

This is an excellent book for those who are looking to expand their use of XML in development projects for the browser.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Has everything!, July 21, 2006

By	Joseph Topjian (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Sas Jacobs writes in the Introduction that she wanted this book to be a one-stop shop to learn how to build XML web applications. I think she reached her goal.

Besides being a mouthful, Beginning XML with DOM and Ajax is crammed with just about every XML topic you can think of from both the client and server side. The topics on the client side cover all the usual suspects such as XSLT and DOM. There're also a few odd client side topics covered as well -- such as mixing CSS and XML and using XML with Flash. The server side section of the book is noticeably shorter than the client side. It's really just one chapter doing a quick overview of ASP and PHP related XML tools. At the very end, there are two case studies -- one for ASP and one for PHP -- in which a full XML-based web application is built. These two studies are really great and definitely build on the server side chapter.

All of these topics are covered in a book just over 400 pages long. Now this might be the only time you hear me say this, but I think this book is a little short for all the topics it covers. Don't get me wrong, the coverage is excellent, the examples are numerous, and the case studies are detailed; however, reading this book was a bit like eating incredibly rich chocolate -- even small portions were more than enough to handle.