Professional XML Meta Data [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)

by David Dodds (Author), Andrew Watt (Author), Mark Birbeck (Author), Jay Cousins (Author), Daniel Rivers-Moore (Author), Rob Worden (Author), Miloslav Nic (Author), Danny Ayers (Author), Kal Ahmed (Author), Ann Wrightson (Author), Joshua Lubell (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
For any developer or designer creating XML and searchable Web documents, Professional XML Meta Data covers the essential XML-based standards and concepts that will facilitate the emerging "semantic Web" of the near future. Mixing the practical side of existing standards with a bit of prognostication of this evolving technology, this ambitious book casts a wide net to highlight some standards that may very well play a role in the evolution of the Internet.

Now that XML has gone mainstream with systems like the UK Government Interoperability Framework (a system mentioned early here), standards for creating searchable content are fast becoming important. This book shows you how, with a mix of technologies that are here right now, and some technologies that are farther down the road. A good practical reason to buy this text is to get a working knowledge of the Resource Description Framework (RDF), a standard used today to label and search content from disparate vendors. After a quick review of basic XML standards including XML Schemas, XPath, and XPointer for getting around the XML-powered Internet, this volume digs in with a worthwhile tutorial to basic RDF, including the so-called Dublin Core (from Ohio, not Ireland, a standard for tagging documents with basics like creator, title, subject, and date), plus using the SAX API to parse RDF.

This text then ranges farther afield into the ideas and evolving standards that will help usher in the "semantic Web," starting with XML-based topic maps, which can help categorize XML content. More ambitious efforts like Meaning Definition Language (MDL) are surely more speculative and theoretical, but it's a strength of this book that it takes on some leading-edge academic standards and tools to point the way forward. (As the authors themselves note, not all of the technologies covered here are likely to be around in five years, but some undoubtedly will.) Intriguing topics on automatically generating topic maps and using Schematron for data mining offer a glimpse into the future.

Though at times densely packed with XML terminology, Professional XML Meta Data outlines some leading-edge tools and techniques that will surely affect the future Web. It's a challenging resource, perfect for the early adopters of the "semantic Web" who will need to contend with these new XML standards and tools for searching and categorizing XML-based data. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: Introduction to XML Metadata, metadata and the UK Government Interoperability Framework (including the Dublin Core for tagging documents), defining document structure with XML Schemas and DTDs, overview of XML linking and querying (XLink, XPointer, and XInclude), the Resource Description Framework (RDF) and syntax, RDF Schema (hierarchy of types, elements and constraints, extensions), RDF parsers (including a sample RDF parser framework using SAX), XML topic maps (XTM), the semantic Web and Meaning Definition Language (MDL), metadata architectures (including forms and embedded metadata), centralized and distributed external metadata, the Meta Data Processing Framework (MDF), advanced topic maps/RDF (automated topic map construction, combining RDF with topic maps), Schematron (data mining, associations and topic maps), process description and the Process Specification Language (PSL), inferencing systems, advanced metadata use cases, self-describing XML files, and a glossary of metadata terms.

Product Description
As we have an increasing amount of information available in electronic formats, we need a way of dealing with and managing the volume of data we store and exchange. To help us do this we can use meta data, which is simply data about data. XML's extensibility and interoperability make it an ideal format for meta data that is part of a scheme of sharing data between multiple sources. As concepts such as "the semantic web" and web services move closer to reality, a knowledge of meta data and how to use it will be of huge advantage.

There have been a number of recent developments in the field of XML meta data, and Professional XML Meta Data takes a look at some of the initiatives at the bleeding edge of the XML meta data world. In this book you will see how schemas, topic maps, RDF, and inferencing can be put to use in the field of data description, discovery, and exchange.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 600 pages
• Publisher: Wrox Press; illustrated edition edition (July 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1861004516
• ISBN-13: 978-1861004512
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,456,620 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE book for XML metadata technologies., August 23, 2001

By	"spiky_simon" (USA) - See all my reviews

If you need to know about the latest XML metadata technologies or concepts like the Semantic Web and machine readable metadata, you need this book. I found it very useful in explaining RDF (there are three excellent chapters on RDF) and Topic Maps, which are potentially difficult subjects to understand. The book also suggests some interesting uses for metadata in the future, and has a useful chapter on extracting metadata from databases.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Learn lots of new interesting things happening in XML World!, August 28, 2001

By	"darshanxml" (Schaumburg, IL USA) - See all my reviews

By now, I guess most of IT professionals have atleast heard about XML and know what problems XML can help solve, however it's challenging to keep up with fast evolving technologies around XML, like RDF, Topic Maps, Schemas, etc. I myself had heard about these technologies, but didn't quite understand them fully till I read Professional XML Meta Data from Wrox. As far as I know, this is the only book available in the market today that covers technologies useful for data description, discovery and exchange, in so much detail. The book covers XML Schemas, XML Linking and Querying, both the RDF specifications, Topic Maps and more. All the topics are explained in detail, the book is very well connected and the chapters flow nicely in sequence. I personally liked the final chapter "Advanced Meta Data Use Cases" that covers couple of areas where meta data can enhance the applications.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Minimal coupling, minimal cohesion, December 4, 2002

By	Wilfred Springer (Tricht, Netherlands) - See all my reviews

If you're looking for in-depth detailed information on RDF, XML Schema, DAML + OIL etc., then don't buy this book.
If you're interested in DAML + OIL, and applications of it, then you don't want this book. (It covers DAML + OIL, but only touches its surface.)
If you want to read about new standars rising from the XML community, and you don't have any particular preference, then this might be a book you like.
If you can't cope with minimal cohesion, then you definitely should not buy this book. There's no single message in this book.