Amazon.com
Aimed at Oracle professionals planning or doing XML work, this in-depth guide, covering Oracle8 and Oracle8i, comes from Oracle’s lead XML technical evangelist, Steve Muench. No prior knowledge of XML is required to dive into the book, but readers are assumed to be familiar with SQL and with programming using Java or PL/SQL.

Building Oracle XML Applications introduces XML, gives an overview of Oracle XML technologies, and shows what they do and how they fit together. There is a focus on JDeveloper, Oracle’s Java and XML development tool, which can be installed from the CD-ROM, and there are plenty of hands-on examples of how to use it. Then there are chapters on processing XML with PL/SQL or Java, transforming XML with XSLT, publishing data with XSQL pages, generating datagrams (XML documents used for exchanging data), and techniques for storing and loading XML data. The final section concentrates on Oracle XML applications, and topics include an XSQL publishing framework, Java extension functions, and using XSQL and XSLT to build personalized portals and discussion forums.

This fast-paced handbook is packed with example code. The presentation is clear, and the technical content is based on the author’s deep knowledge of Oracle in general and XML technologies in particular. Highly recommended. –Tim Anderson, Amazon.co.uk

Book Description
A hands-on tutorial in using XML, XSLT, and XPath, showing how to use them with Oracle using Java, PL/SQL, and declarative techniques. The CD-ROM contains JDeveloper 3.1 for Windows NT or 2000, an integrated development environment for Java. Softcover. DLC: XML (Software markup language).

Reviewer: Chris Cortes (The Woodlands, TX United States)
This book delivers on its cover promises. I was recently scheduled to consult on an Oracle XML application, and I decided to purchase this book to give me a better understanding of the requirements of the task that was ahead of me. Without this book, I would have been going into a completely foreign land without a guide. A great read for developers needing to learn about XML, and in particular the way that Oracle implements XML in their applications.

Welcome to the brave new world of XML (also known as eXtensible Markup Language), the next generation in creating interactive, cutting-edge Web pages. If you’ve ever tried to build complex Web pages that integrate multiple sources of data, you know just how limiting HTML can be. Although XML may be a little intimidating at first, you’ll find yourself quickly up to speed with XML For Dummies, a plain-speaking, easy-to-understand reference book for all things XML. XML For Dummies takes you through a basic overview of XML — its capabilities, syntax, and technologies — before moving into useable information and step-by-step methods for designing, building, and using XML’s extensible features. XML’s special “dialects” support advanced tools for using push technology, building dynamic interfaces, and managing or transmitting data across the Web. And freeware and trial software versions of XML software packages, tips for finding online XML resources, a cross-linked glossary, code examples from the book, and other cool features are included on the bonus CD-ROM that comes with this indispensable guidebook.

SXML is a text-based markup language that has taken the programming world by storm. More powerful than HTML yet less demanding than SGML, XML has proven itself to be flexible and resilient. XML is the perfect tool for formatting documents with even the smallest bit of complexity, from Web pages to legal contracts to books. However, XML has also proven itself to be indispensable for organizing and conveying other sorts of data as well, thus its central role in web services like SOAP and XML-RPC. As the Perl programming language was tailor-made for manipulating text, few people have disputed the fact that Perl and XML are perfectly suited for one another. The only question has been what’s the best way to do it. That’s where this book comes in. Perl & XML is aimed at Perl programmers who need to work with XML documents and data. The book covers all the major modules for XML processing in Perl, including XML::Simple, XML::Parser, XML::LibXML, XML::XPath, XML::Writer, XML::Pyx, XML::Parser::PerlSAX, XML::SAX, XML::SimpleObject, XML::TreeBuilder, XML::Grove, XML::DOM, XML::RSS, XML::Generator::DBI, and SOAP::Lite. But this book is more than just a listing of modules; it gives a complete, comprehensive tour of the landscape of Perl and XML, making sense of the myriad of modules, terminology, and techniques. This book covers:
- parsing XML documents and writing them out again
- working with event streams and SAX
- tree processing and the Document Object Model
- advanced tree processing with XPath and XSLT
Most valuably, the last two chapters of Perl & XML give complete examples of XML applications, pulling together all the tools at your disposal. All together, Perl & XML is the single book that gives you a solid grounding in XML processing with Perl.

Inside XML is an intelligent and easy-to-follow guide to today’s proliferating XML standards. Aside from being a road map to the latest and greatest in what’s on the horizon with XML, this book gives you what you need to know to be productive with existing XML tools right now.

The tour begins with an introduction to the XML used in real-world applications (like the Chemical Markup Language, CML, and the Vector Markup Language, VML [for graphics]). While many books give you the basics, this one excels at explaining the conventions of designing robust XML document types in detail. With dozens of short examples, you’ll learn XML conventions thoroughly, including some of the best practices for creating readable, maintainable content. The author highlights certain lines of XML code, so it’s easier to see what’s important.

After 200 pages of in-depth material on how to design XML documents, the book turns to using XML in actual browsers (both in Netscape and Internet Explorer). This practical focus means that you get to explore available Microsoft tools and how they sometimes differ from official W3C standards.

Subsequent sections turn to related XML standards, like XLinks and XPointers. Each section lists Web links to the latest online documents, but the emphasis isn’t on theory so much as on what you can do right now. You’ll learn how to use Java with XML, including navigating the XML Document Object Model (DOM) using IBM’s XML for Java (XML4J) package. The tutorial explaining the Simple API for XML (SAX) does a great job of explaining the advantages of this popular tool.

Final chapters delve into displaying XML with several existing standards, including XHTML (for Web browser content), VML (for drawing shapes), and the Resource Description Framework (RDF) for allowing XML-based content searching. Final sections look at combining XML with Perl and Java (through servlets and JSPs) and give a glimpse at wireless content created with the Wireless Markup Language (WML).

Suitable for any developer or IT manager who needs to understand and use XML, Inside XML provides an authoritative yet approachable source of information on a fast-changing set of standards that are almost sure to revolutionize computing over the next few years. –Richard Dragan

Topics covered:

* Comprehensive introduction to XML basics and tools
* Designing XML documents (including “well-formed” XML, tags and elements, and attributes and namespaces)
* Document Type Definitions (DTDs)
* Entities and attributes (including design documents)
* XML Schemas (using Internet Explorer)
* Introduction to JavaScript
* Using JavaScript with the XML Document Object Model (DOM)
* Cascading style sheets (CSS)
* Overview of basic Java programming
* Parsing XML with IBM’s XML for Java (XML4J)
* Java and the Simple API for XML (SAX)
* XSL transformations (XSL style sheets and XSL formatting objects)
* XLinks and XPointers
* Introduction to XHTML
* The Resource Description Framework (RDF)
* The Microsoft Channel Definition Format (CDF)
* The Vector Markup Language (VML)
* Using XML with Java
* Perl and ASP on the server
* Quick introduciton to the Wireless Markup Language (WML)
* Reference to the XML 1.0 Specification

Book Description

The XML explosion hardly needs any introduction-it’s everywhere and there just seems to be no end to what can be done with XML. While writing to the W3C standards, and keeping up with the pace for corporate implementation, you, the programmer or web developer, will need a comprehensive guide to get you started and show you what XML and its related technologies can do. A thorough guide is imperative to success because you will need to know and understand the full scope of XML from day one in order to work with it successfully. With your time constraints and impossible project schedules, you need a comprehensive guide that fulfills your needs in one complete book. Inside XML is an anchor book that covers both the Microsoft and non-Microsoft approach to XML programming. It covers in detail the hot aspects of XML; such as, DTD’s vs. XML Schemas, CSS, XSL, XSLT, Xlinks, Xpointers, XHTML, RDF, CDF, parsing XML in Perl and Java, and much more.

In addition to being a tutorial for learning how to use XML as an effective way to represent and transmit data across the Web, Professional XML Databases also covers how to work with XML in the current generation of Microsoft tools, like Internet Explorer and SQL Server 2000. For any developer or manager who works with databases on the Windows platform, this book shows how you can delve into XML today for real projects.

With endorsements from virtually every major vendor (including Microsoft), XML looks to be a compelling standard for sharing corporate data between organizations. Professional XML Databases examines how to integrate XML into your organization’s database infrastructure. Early sections concentrate on the rules and strategies for designing effective XML documents (DTDs) that mimic traditional tables (including links between tables). By providing almost a dozen rules on how to do this correctly, the book assures that you’ll learn not only the basics of XML syntax but also the correct way to create DTDs that are efficient, easy to maintain, and readable across your business. (Further sections reverse this process and show you how to create database tables based on XML.)

Subsequent sections cover many of the standards and APIs in today’s XML, from XML Schemas, the XML W3C Document Object Model (DOM), and the Simple API for XML (SAX), to related standards like XSLT, XPath, and XPointer. A number of books cover these APIs, but this one provides a unique focus by examining Microsoft tools and their support for XML. This means there is coverage of Microsoft ADO (and ADO+, now called ADO.NET) for querying databases and packaging the results as XML. Sections on SQL Server 2000 highlight ways to use XML in this product, both as results and through XML views.

Closing sections explore options for working with XML for data warehousing and transmitting data efficiently across organizations. Sections on Java and the DB Prism (an open-source XML framework) help give this book a perspective that extends beyond the Microsoft platform.

For any database developer or designer who needs to architect XML documents in order to share data in real projects, this advanced treatise on the right way to define and use XML will prove highly valuable. For anyone who uses SQL Server 2000, this book also points the way toward using XML standards in actual shipping products on the Microsoft platform. –Richard Dragan

Topics covered:

* Hints for effective XML document design (including XML for text and XML for databases)
* Designing XML for existing database tables
* Creating database tables from XML
* Standards guidelines for XML used within (and between) organizations
* XML Schemas
* The XML W3C Document Object Model (DOM)
* Using the Simple API for XML (SAX)
* XSLT
* XPath used with style sheets and templates
* Resource linking with XLink
* Overview of additional emerging XML-based standards (including XBase, XInclude, XHTML, and XForms)
* The XML Query language
* Converting between flat file databases and XML
* Introduction to Microsoft ADO, ADO+ (ADO.NET), and XML
* Storing and retrieving XML in SQL Server 2000 (including OPENXML and XML views)
* Tutorial for JDBC programming
* JDBC used with XML
* Data warehousing
* Data transmission with XML
* The Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)
* Marshalling and presentation with XML (including a WML example for generating wireless content)
* Sample case studies for SQL Server 2000 showing XML techniques
* DB Prism (an open-source dynamic XML framework)
* XML and database primers
* References for XML datatypes and SAX

Book Description: In this book, we look at how to integrate XML into your current relational data source strategies. With the increasing amount of data stored in relational databases, and the importance of XML as a format for marking up data – whether it be for storage, display, interchange, or processing – you need to have command of four key skills: understanding how to structure, process, access, and store your data.

By introducing guidelines for how to model your XML documents in relational databases and how to model relational database information as XML, we will establish structures that enable quick and efficient access, and make our data more flexible. We then look at the developer’s XML toolbox, discussing associated technologies and strategies that will help us in describing, processing, and manipulating data. We also discuss common techniques for data access, data warehousing, transmission, and marshalling and presentation, giving working examples in every chapter.

Whether you are using XML for storage, as an interchange format, or for display, this book looks at some of the key issues you should be aware of when structuring, processing, accessing, and storing your documents.

See how XML works for business needs and RSS feeds

Create consistency on the Web, or tag your data for different purposes

Tag — XML is it! XML tags let you share your format as well as your data, and this handy guide will show you how. You’ll soon be using this markup language to create everything from Web sites to business forms, discovering schemas and DOCTYPES, wandering the Xpath, teaming up XML with Office 2003, and more.

XML is the lingua franca of the Web. All designers and developers working in a web environment need a sound understanding of XML and its role in application development. Many software packages and organizations allow for the exchange of data using an XML format. Web services and RSS feeds are now commonplace.

For those working with Flash and Flex, a thorough understanding of XML is particularly important. XML documents are one option for the data provided to SWF applications. Flash and Flex can load, display, and modify XML content. These applications can also send XML content to other applications for updating or for use in different situations.

ActionScript 3.0 introduces some fundamental changes to the way in which Flash and Flex applications work with XML. One significant change is that XML is now a native data type. ActionScript 3.0 also introduces new classes and a different framework for working with external documents. These changes are based on the E4X ECMAScript standard, and they streamline and simplify the process for working with XML in Flash and Flex.

In this book, Sas Jacobs gives you an introduction to XML and E4X. She explores the new XML and XMLList classes and explains E4X expressions, providing examples for both Flash and Flex. In addition to explaining how to incorporate XML documents in SWF applications, Sas Jacobs shows you approaches specific to Flash and Flex and explores real-world usage. The book finishes with two case studies. In the first, you will learn how to consume and display information and images from Flickr using Flash. In the second, you will work with Adobe Kuler in Flex.

Whether you are a designer or developer, this book will help you work with XML and make the transition from ActionScript 2.0 to ActionScript 3.0. It will also provide you with an excellent grounding if you are new to Flash and Flex.

• Offering a unique approach to learning XML, this book walks readers through the process of building a complete, functional, end-to-end XML solution
• Featured case study is an online business product catalog that includes reports, data input/output, workflow, stylesheet formatting, RSS feeds, and integration with external services like Google, eBay, and Amazon

• The format of presenting a problem and working through the design to come up with a solution enables readers to understand how XML markup allows a business to share data across applications internally or with partners or customers even though they might not use the same applications

XML is a tool for interacting with, describing, and transporting data between machines across networks and across the Internet-perfectly suited for Microsoft’s .NET plan to fully integrate the Internet into distributed computing. By using real-world and fully-functional examples, this book quickly brings Visual Basic programmers and developers up to speed on XML for enterprise application development. The authors include an overview of XML and how it works with VB.NET, then explain how to use it to manipulate data in distributed environments.

Companion Web site at www.vb-helper.com features the complete working code for all the examples built in the book.

Microsoft Technologies
.NET Platform: The next big overhaul to Microsoft’s technologies that will bring enterprise distributed computing to the next level by fully integrating the Internet into the development platform. This will allow interaction between any machine, on any platform, and on any device.

Visual Basic.NET: The update to this popular visual programming language will offer greater Web functionality, more sophisticated object-oriented language features, links to Microsoft’s new common runtime, and a new interface.

ASP.NET: A programming framework (formerly known as Active Server Pages) for building powerful Web-based enterprise applications; can be programmed using VB.NET or C#.

C#: Microsoft’s new truly object-oriented programming language that builds on the strengths of C++ and the ease of Visual Basic; promises to give Sun’s Java a run for its money.

Download Description
An accessible and step-by-step approach to using VB.NET and XML enterprise application development XML is a tool for interacting with, describing, and transporting data between machines across networks and across the Internet-perfectly suited for Microsoft’s .NET plan to fully integrate the Internet into distributed computing. By using real-world and fully-functional examples, this book quickly brings Visual Basic programmers and developers up to speed on XML for enterprise application development. The authors include an overview of XML and how it works with VB.NET, then explain how to use it to manipulate data in distributed environments. Companion Web site at www.vb-helper.com features the complete working code for all the examples built in the book. Microsoft Technologies .NET Platform: The next big overhaul to Microsoft’s technologies that will bring enterprise distributed computing to the next level by fully integrating the Internet into the development platform. This will allow interaction between any machine, on any platform, and on any device. Visual Basic.NET: The update to this popular visual programming language will offer greater Web functionality, more sophisticated object-oriented language features, links to Microsoft’s new common runtime, and a new interface. ASP.NET: A programming framework (formerly known as Active Server Pages) for building powerful Web-based enterprise applications; can be programmed using VB.NET or C#. C#: Microsoft’s new truly object-oriented programming language that builds on the strengths of C++ and the ease of Visual Basic; promises to give Sun’s Java a run for its money.

Ajax is no longer an experimental approach to website development, but the key to building browser-based applications

that form the cornerstone of Web 2.0. Head First Ajax gives you an up-to-date perspective that lets you see exactly what you can do — and has been done — with Ajax. With it, you get a highly practical, in-depth, and mature view of what is now a mature development approach.

Using the unique and highly effective visual format that has turned Head First titles into runaway bestsellers, this book offers a big picture overview to introduce Ajax, and then explores the use of individual Ajax components — including the JavaScript event model, DOM, XML, JSON, and more — as it progresses. You’ll find plenty of sample applications that illustrate the concepts, along with exercises, quizzes, and other interactive features to help you retain what you’ve learned.