XML by Example is practical through-and-through: the first book to teach XML from the standpoint of Web and software developers. The book introduces the features of XML through a real-world e-commerce application that's used as a running example throughout the book. Using this ongoing example, learn how to create XML documents, parse them, display them, link and store them. Understand how to build client- and server-side XML applications. In Part III, you'll look at today's most important XML applications, including Channel Definition Format, Open Financial Exchange, Wen Interface Definition Language, Cold Fusion Markup Language and many others. The accompanying CD-ROM includes an extraordinary wide range of tools for creating and deploying XML applications, including Microsoft's Java-based XML parser for use with Internet Explorer 4.0; Microsoft's implementation of XSL stylesheets; Microstar's XML Parser AElfred, the Cold Fusion Evaluation Edition from Allaire; the Amaya XM Web browser, and much more.

Table of Contents:
About this book. Part I—Jumpstart. Part II—XML by Example. Part III— A Closer Look at XML and Related Standards. Part IV—Commerce Initiatives Based on XML. Acknowledgments. A Note about URI and URL. Disclaimer. I. XML JUMPSTART. 1. XML—An Executive Summary. Can you explain XML in less than half a page? Where did XML get its name? What does it do? Sounds complicated. Can you explain the term “markup language?” So XML is just another markup language? What does XML look like? So XML is extensible because I can use it to make up my own tags? But why would people bother to invent their own XML-based markup language (DTD)? Is some philosophical stuff going on here that I need to know? Ah! So that is what they mean by “structured documents!” Did someone just sit down and, you know, “invent” XML? Is something wrong with SGML? Can you draw me a picture of how all these languages are related? Can the structure of an XML document be checked somehow? What if I do not want my structure checked? But how do I make XML look nice in a browser? What about hypertext? So XML is based on truly international standards? Where does all this leave HTML and the concept of a browser? Why not just let people invent proprietary languages — why base them on XML? Where does XML fit in with other information technology standards? If XML is so clever, how come the Web was not designed that way in the first place? Okay. Sounds good, but let’s cut to the chase. Who out there is using XML and for what purposes? 2. XML in Action. Push Technology with Microsoft Active Channels. Online banking. Software distribution. Web Automation. Database Integration. Localization. Intermediate data representations. Scientific Publishing — Chemical Markup Language. 3. The Commercial Benefits of XML. Letting the browser do the work. Authors should generate content, not formatting. To summarize. 4 Gaining Competitive Advantage with XML. Setting up shop. Creating the product catalog. Publishing the catalog. Keeping the catalog accurate. Keeping it pretty. Helping surfers to help themselves. Keeping customers informed. Enhancing the experience. Money matters. Integrating existing systems. Saving on browse time. Keeping ahead of the customer. Working the market. Preparing for change. 5. Just Enough Details. The big picture. Two views of an XML document. Two classes of XML documents. Two classes of XML processors. Introducing msxml. A minimalist XML document. Creating XML documents. Creating XML DTDs. Entity declarations. Putting it all together. Validating an XML document against its DTD. II. XML BY EXAMPLE. 6. Using XML with Internet Explorer 4. Displaying XML in an HTML browser. Converting XML to HTML with XSL. 7. Database Publishing with XML. Generating XML from a database. Serving up the XML to a Web browser. 8. Web Automation with WIDL (Web Interface Definition Language). Creating the WIDL document. The WIDL service definition document. Advantages of the WIDL approach. Further capabilities of WIDL. The complete Java program for the Disk Selector Service. 9. Push Publishing with CDF (Channel Definition Format). A simple channel. Adding a new item to the channel. Scheduling. Personalization. 10. Developing XML Utility Programs. The ESIS parser output format. To parse or not to parse —that is the question. Read-only utilities. Read/Write Utilities. III. A CLOSE LOOK AT XML AND RELATED STANDARDS. 11. The XML Standard. Design goals. The big picture. Some more terminology! Constraints on special characters. White space handling. Comments. Processing instructions. CDATA Sections. The XML declaration. Start-tags, end-tags, and empty elements. Attributes. The Document Type Declaration. Element type declarations. Element Type Content Models. Attribute List Declarations. Attribute defaults. Entity declarations. Notation declarations. Conditional sections. 12. XML Hypertext Linking with XLL. Some hypertext terminology. Relationship to existing standards. Link recognition. LINK information attributes. The show and actuate attributes. Specifying the addresses of resources. Xpointers. Extended links. Using fixed attributes. Attribute mapping. 13. XML Formatting with XSL. The purpose of XSL. The need for a scripting language. Relationship to CSS. Relationship to DSSSL. Relationship to HTML. Design principles. XSL architecture. Construction rules. The root rule. Multiple target element patterns. Ancestor patterns. Descendant patterns. Combined ancestor/descendant patterns. Wildcard patterns. Attributes. The position qualifier. Solitary element qualifier. Multiple elements in any order. Style rules. Style macros. Actions. The import element. The define-macro and invoke-macro elements. The default rule. Scripting. Built-in functions. 14. The Unicode Standard. The origins of Unicode. Unicode and the World Wide Web Consortium. Unicode overview. Unicode and ISO 10646. Design goals. Surrogates. Transformation formats. The Byte Order Mark. Unicode and programming languages. Unicode and XML. UTF-8. 15. The Document Object Model (DOM). Design goals. The DOM specification language. DOM object types. Node objects. Element objects. The document object. The DOM object. The DOMFactory object. The NodeList object. The EditableNodeList object. The NodeEnumerator object. The AttributeList object. The Attribute object. The Comment object. The PI object. The Text object. HTML-specific components of DOM. XML-specific components of DOM. 16. Raiding the SGML Larder. Useful features of SGML not in XML (a personal choice). The NSGMLS parser. A simple SGML document. SGML-to-XML conversion. Some examples. SGML viewers. The Jade DSSSL engine. IV. E-COMMERCE INITIATIVES BASED ON XML. 17. OFX — Open Financial Exchange. Some of the design principles of OFX. OFX architecture. For more information. PC Application software supporting OFX. 18. XML/EDI—XML and Electronic Data Interchange. XML/EDI. XML as an EDI format. Data manipulation agents (databots). XML/Editors. Electronic Catalogs. For more information. 19. Open Trading Protocol. Design of OTP. Benefits of OTP. Trading types in OTP. Structure of an OTP message. Miscellaneous points. For more information. Appendix A Some Details. White space handling. System and public identifiers. Attribute value normalization. Language identification. Deterministic content models. Pernicious mixed content. Character encoding in external entities. Recognizing character encodings in XML. Rule arbitration in XSL. Appendix B About the CD-ROM. The software subdirectory. The gallery subdirectory. The docs subdirectory. Appendix C Open Trade Protocol. Preface. Commerce on the Internet — A Different Model. Benefits of OTP. Baseline OTP. Objectives of the Document. Purpose. Scope of Document. Intended Readership. Document Structure. Related Documents. Index.