XML Programming Bible

Book Description

Covers all the most recent XML core and related specifications including XML 1.1, J2EE 1.4, Microsoft .NET's latest iteration, as well as open source XML items from the Apache project.
Strong coverage of XML use with databases, transactions, and XML security.
Discusses both Microsoft (.NET) and Sun (Java) programming integration with XML, an approach not taken in any other book.
Presents extensive business examples, including several major applications developed throughout the book.
No previous exposure to XML is assumed.

Download Description

* Covers all the most recent XML core and related specifications including XML 1.1, J2EE 1.4, Microsoft .NET's latest iteration, as well as open source XML items from the Apache project.
* Strong coverage of XML use with databases, transactions, and XML security.
* Discusses both Microsoft (.NET) and Sun (Java) programming integration with XML, an approach not taken in any other book.
* Presents extensive business examples, including several major applications developed throughout the book.
* No previous exposure to XML is assumed.

Customer Reviews:

A good description of XML.......2004-11-27

This book does a great job at describing XML. It does not contain any exercise (although it contains some codes) to help you get your feet wet.
This is a good reference book. If you are a beginner, you will still need another book to help you get started.

Excellent book!.......2004-07-04

As a follow-up to the XML 1.1 Bible review, I took a look at the XML Programming Bible by Brian Benz with John Durant (Wiley). For those who want to use XML within their application development (as opposed to just web pages), this is the perfect follow-on book to have.

The chapter breakout...
Part 1 - Introducing XML - XML Concepts; XML Documents; XML Data Format and Validation; XML Parsing Concepts; Parsing XML with DOM; Parsing XML with SAX; XSLT Concepts; XSL Transformations; XSL Formatting Objects
Part 2 - Microsoft Office and XML - Microsoft XML Core Services; Working with the MSXML DOM; Generating XML from MS Access Data; Creating an Excel Spreadsheet from an XML Data Source
Part 3 - XML Web Applications Using J2EE - XML Tools for J2EE: IBM, Apache, Sun, and Others; Xerces; Xalan; XML APIs from Sun
Part 4 - Relational Data and XML - Accessing and Formatting XML from SQL Server Data; Accessing and Formatting XML from Oracle Data; Accessing and Formatting XML from DB2; Building XML-Based Web Applications with JDBC; Transforming Relational XML Output into Other Formats
Part 5 - Introducing Web Services - Web Services Concepts; SOAP; WSDL; UDDI; Microsoft Web Services; J2EE Web Services
Part 6 - Microsoft .Net and Web Services - Creating and Deploying .Net Web Services; Accessing .Net Web Services; Building a .Net Web Services Client
Part 7 - Web Services and J2EE - Web Service Tools for J2EE: IBM, Apache, Sun, and Others; Web Services with the Sun Java Web Services Developer Pack; Apache Axis; Access Web Services from Java Applications
Part 8 - Advanced Web Services - Accessing Relational Data via Web Services; Authentication and Security for Web Services; Index

I think I got finger cramps just typing all that! :-)

Seriously, there's really good material here. The assumption is made that you already understand basic XML technology. Benz doesn't spend an inordinate amount of time covering introductory material. Part 1 does do a bit of that, but only enough to establish the basic direction for the rest of the book. There is much more attention paid to XML concepts that come into play for programmers, such as the document object model of XML and how the two types of parsers (DOM and SAX) work. The rest of the book is highly practical, with examples of how to generate or access XML data using a variety of platforms, such as Microsoft Office, .Net, J2EE, Oracle, etc.

For me personally, I appreciate the emphasis on code and working examples. I have always learned more by taking something that works, tearing it apart, and using it as the basis for my own efforts. Benz has provided many examples that provide just that opportunity. Being that he doesn't restrict his writing to a single platform (like .Net or J2EE), this is one of few books that have a cross-over appeal to many technology platforms. If you happen to work in a shop that uses both Microsoft and Java technologies, you'll be able to get a single book that will assist you on both sides of the fence.

Basically, there's nothing I can find fault with for this book. It's solid writing of essential information you need for using XML in your various applications. This is a book that gets my highest recommendation.

Great Book!.......2004-02-23

Brian covers the topic areas complete, with examples and walkthroughs. Anyone who will touch more than 1 or 2 implementations of XML should have this book in their library.

Going from "heard of" to "knowing about" XML in a few mins.......2004-02-01

As a graduate student who had "heard of" XML and was given a brief (as in a half of a powerpoint slide) introduction, I found myself in need of a XML reference book for the new job I had taken. My first choice was unavailable at the local Barnes & Noble so I picked up a few book and browsed the pages that were related to what I was going to be doing (updating parser and API code). Not only was able to find what I was looking for in this book, but in the twenty second glance that I gave it I noticed that the physical layout of the book was easy on the eyes.

The books pages seemed to be made of the same material most for-pleasure reading books are composed of instead of the college textbook type material. While that may seem trivial to some, what good is a book if the pages within it evoke memories of long, don't-want-to-read-five-more-chapters-but-I-have-to-study-for-test-in-six-hours days? Its still a reference book but every little bit helps.

Like the original, this bible uses examples to help illustrate the various topics covered in the book. The examples are to the point and pretty easy to understand, and where necessary, some screen shots are provided to help as well. The book also has a very comprehensive listing of methods, their parameters, details of their usage, and what APIs/languages/libraries support them. The contents are well laid out, most of the time you can simply just start skimming and quickly find what your looking for without even visiting the index.

In all honesty, if you have never programmed anything more than a VCR in your life, this book is probably not something that you should start with. However, if you are going to be doing anything XML related then this a very good book to have within arms reach.

Iýve found my new favorite XML resource........2004-01-28

Because I do a lot of XML and XSLT my shelves are littered with XML and XSLT books. Although the information I am looking for is somewhere on the shelf, I sometimes have a hard time finding it. The first part of the XML Programming Bible largely fixes this problem. It provides the core information in an easy to find manner. For example, the XML Schema (XSD) elements are alphabetically listed as a group instead of broken out on the basis of there task. It also includes the type of minutiae I occasionally can't avoid - like the long list of the current DOM working drafts. This part of the book hit the right slot for me between a primer and deeper reference texts that sometimes obscure basic information with more details than I want to accomplish a given task.

The second and third sections offer an overview of using XML in Office and J2EE respectively. The fourth section is an overview of interacting with relational data. This part is a light reference into technologies like SQLXML but it should be enough to get you started, such as interacting directly with SQL Sever with FOR XML and updategrams. The book ends with four sections on Web Services. The nice thing about the WebServices sections is that it covers a bunch of technologies used on both .NET and Java/Unix platforms. The coverage of individual technologies isn't deep, but it's enough to understand the basic approach and capabilities of each tool. I don't need this type of information often, but nothing previously on my shelf covered this range of technologies.

Book Description

An expanded, updated, and retitled edition of HTML Bible, examining HTML, XHTML-a set of extensions to HTML to make it more like XML-and cascading style sheets (CSS), which provide a simple way to add consistent formatting to HTML Web documents
Focusing on reader feedback and changing industry trends, this new edition is a major overhaul that addresses the extensive changes in Web development
Shows readers the best, most efficient way to use HTML and examines which peripheral technologies are worth learning for the long run
Features "before and after" pictures that show the results of improved Web page coding
Offers continued coverage of key topics, including site administration, dynamic data-driven pages, and many others, in addition to new sections on hot new topics such as blogs and content management

Download Description

An expanded, updated, and retitled edition of HTML Bible, examining HTML, XHTML-a set of extensions to HTML to make it more like XML-and cascading style sheets (CSS), which provide a simple way to add consistent formatting to HTML Web documents
Focusing on reader feedback and changing industry trends, this new edition is a major overhaul that addresses the extensive changes in Web development
Shows readers the best, most efficient way to use HTML and examines which peripheral technologies are worth learning for the long run
Features "before and after" pictures that show the results of improved Web page coding
Offers continued coverage of key topics, including site administration, dynamic data-driven pages, and many others, in addition to new sections on hot new topics such as blogs and content management

Customer Reviews:

Not a Reference.......2007-08-23

If you are an experienced coder looking for an strict HTML, XHTML, or CSS reference, I suggest you move on to another title. If you are a novice in HTML using a WYSIWYG editor and want to start getting into the HTML code itself, then this is a good book for you. I bought this book to refresh myself in HTML, and CSS being away from it for several years. I program in VB and VC++ and have many programming references that are excellent and very concise. Unfortunately this book is neither. The writers persistently wander off on long winded tangents that seem to ramble on and on.... and on! The analogies had me scratching my head wondering just what exactly the comparative was? There are many small chapters in the last half of the book that are nothing but fluff and offer no real information.
In closing, there is useful information in this book for the novice. However it is not complete or in any particular order. Happy hunting.

Beginners Bible.......2007-08-15

This is a bible for beginners, written in clean and simple language. For me, it has been the ideal reference. For somebody just beginning in web design, I recommend pairing "Head First HTML..." with this book, as the "Head First" series takes more time teaching certain basic concepts.

It is both a reference and a chapter by chapter teaching guide. All in all, it has been very helpful.

DO NOT BUY!.......2006-07-22

This book is not worth your money. It is poorly written, does not explain code, and is very incomplete. Bible in its title is very misleading...

Perfect Textbook for Beginners.......2006-01-05

I have used this book as a textbook for an "Introduction to HTML" class I taught. I looked at several references prior to choosing on one, and this was by far the best formatted and most appropriate for those with little to no existing knowledge of HTML.

The previous reviewer's complaints are mostly unfounded, in my opinion. The appendix contains a more or less comprehensive listing of all HTML tags and their usage, etc. The chapters are well organized, easy to read, and comprehensive. If this book spreads itself a little thin at times trying to cover so much ground, it is necessary due to the inherently connected nature of HTML, XHTML, and CSS. Covering only HTML would not be useful for beginners who want to gain a basic understanding of these technologies. I assume the "HTML 4 Bible" by the same publisher is more what the previous reviewer was probably looking for.

I highly recomend this book to anyone wishing to learn HTML.

Disappointed.......2004-12-30

The title is misguiding. It's everything but an HTML, XHTML & CSS Bible. Title should read "Become a webmaster in a month". I expected to have: - The full HTML Specification with an example for each definition - Same for XHTML (DTD, rules to respect, validation, etc...) - Same for CSS and *PLEASE*, at least the basics of tableless CSS layout If the book were to expose the aforementioned information, it would exceed the 800 pages, and the author wouldn't have had to put some more information that is useful, I agree, but it's off-topic, sorry. The author should stress a lot more on standards. Standards are important, and one can't call a book a "Bible" if it only covers 75% of HTML, 50% of XHTML and hardly covers basics of CSS. It lacks information on the PNG file format (open source). Mention of the Opera Browser is almost non-existent, even if it's the most standard-compliant browser. Using tables to create a layout is old-fashioned and many good books (by Dan Cederholm, Jeffrey Zeldman or Eric Meyer) proove that one should *NOT* use tables for layout so that structure and content are clearly seperated from presentation. Without this discipline, the web won't be able to evolve toward XML. The book talks about image retouching, which again is off-topic, pretty much like SMIL, multimedia, FTP, maintainance, databases, weblogs, PHP & MySQL. I noticed several errors, and then I stopped writing them down. These are some of them: - p.93 PNG, is stored without being compressed doesn't loose color or image quality, and does support transparency. At least this can be achieved in Photoshop CS. - p.108 I find it sad that the author doesn't show how image maps are done with circles and polygons - chap.9 "Special characters" should show a sample for every single entity - p.184 The author puts the e-mail address into the code. How is it possible?! With all the spam problems people keep complaining, how come the author doesn't display the e-mail address thanks to a javascript to hide it from spambots? - p.188 in Part III instead of in Part II - p.210 He forgot that the label tag can nest the radio button and the text without ID. - p.284 div.div1 table should read div.div1>table - All examples are shown in IE or Netscape 4. Why not show modern browsers (Opera 7.8, Mozilla 1.8, Firefox 1.0) - p.379 user agent is not Opera but Firebird This is not a bad book, it has a lot of useful information, but what drove me nuts is that I wanted a "Bible" for these 3 languages. I had to buy other books. I hope now people who buy this book know it's a general-purpose book on web design.

Average customer rating:

Useful but becoming outdated
This book is difficult
In-depth and practical

Movable Type 3.0 Bible Desktop Edition
Rogers Cadenhead
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0764573888

Book Description

If Movable Type can do it, you can do it too

By its very nature, the Web encourages change at a frenetic pace. Movable Type helps you manage that pace, and this is your indispensable guide to installing and using the most popular server-based personal publishing tool. From exploring Movable Type's template-driven publishing system to developing your own plug-ins, here's what you need to know to create and maintain sites as adaptable as the Web itself.

Inside, you'll find what you need to know about Movable Type

Prepare your Web server and install Movable Type
Set up and configure a weblog, using archives and categories to create a more sophisticated site
Add visual elements with photos and graphics
Design a weblog with templates and use template tags
Establish communication among sites using trackback pings
Add search capabilities and import content from other blogs
Develop Perl-based plug-ins to enhance Movable Type
Configure Movable Type to receive and manage comments from site visitors
See what's new in Movable Type 3.1 in a bonus Movable Type 3.1 appendix

Download Description

Movable Type makes it easy for Web publishers to create sites that are constantly updated
Shows Web developers how to update a site automatically with Movable Type¿and avoid the labor of editing individual pages
Takes the mystery out of setting up a Movable Type system, which is a challenge¿even for experienced Web publishers¿because it requires Perl, CGI, a database, and other advanced skills
This book carefully walks readers through all of the needed steps in a way that all users can follow
Presents solid coverage that moves beyond the default configuration into advanced areas such as template design, plug-in use, plug-in development, and database maintenance

Customer Reviews:

Useful but becoming outdated.......2006-01-05

This book is great for experienced and curious users. It's quite technical for lay users and the way information is presented isn't terribly user-oriented.

But the biggest problem is that Six Apart has updated Movable Type in ways that make this book obsolete in some aspects and that make it necessary to translate concepts in others. At this point, it's probably not worth the trouble to buy the book, and also probably not worth the trouble to write this kind of book when updates are so extensive and frequent.

This book is difficult.......2005-03-18

Unless you already have solid experience writing software, you will find this book overwhelming. But it is better than the program documentation. There are few other choices. It looks like it was rushed to press and many of the examples don't quite work on my provider's server configuration, e.g., I don't have access to the unix command line so isn't always easy to envision the file structures. (If you didn't understand the last line, you might consider paying the folks at Movable Type to build your blog.)

But in all fairness, this is a difficult subject to explain. Since personal blogging is so new on the scene, it seems like the blog jargon is still a little fuzzy. Liberal use of Google helps. Since many of the concepts in blogging software are new to me, I would have appreciated a clearer explaination in the introduction, perhaps with some graphic illustrations. Some of the topics here, "Publishing with Movable Type" for example, are filled with examples and terminology that belong in a later section of the book. It would suffice to just give the reader a broader overview of how the software works.

In-depth and practical.......2004-11-21

Anyone who uses Movable Type on a regular basis needed the book. It covers all of the basics around installation, setting up blogs and writing entries. But then it goes into more advanced topics like alternating the template and adding plugins. And even more advanced topics like RSS, Atom, and writing your own plugins. This is thorough book that is well written and will cover everything you need to know to blog with Movable Type.

Average customer rating:

Good Reference
I Keep Grabbing This One Off the Shelf
Not So Good
Horrible book
Found a number of new things and a few shortcuts as well.

HTML 4 Bible (with CD-ROM)
Bryan Pfaffenberger , and Bill Karrow
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0764534734

Amazon.com

In HTML 4 Bible, you'll find a comprehensive definition of what is considered state of the art in Web-publishing languages. The book explains HTML tags and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) thoroughly, and it gives some attention to JavaScript as well.

Authors Pfaffenberger and Gutzman use a helpful problem-and-solution format that provides straightforward answers to common problems--they show you how to build image maps and create attractive forms, to cite two examples.

What's special about the book's approach is that it doesn't get sidetracked by the universe of detail that HTML 4 presents. Rather than choosing to ploddingly document the characteristics of one tag after another, Pfaffenberger and Gutzman explain their subject by describing how it is applied in practice. They explain, for example, how to arrange textual data so that people are more likely to read it.

The downside to this holistic approach is that HTML 4 Bible isn't the absolutely comprehensive HTML reference many readers will expect it to be. Books like that exist, and you may want to supplement HTML 4 Bible with one of them. But if you want a text that provides informed explanations of how to get the results you want with HTML, this book is for you. --David Wall

Book Description

HTML 4 Bible, 2nd Edition is your comprehensive reference to the latest standard for Web page construction. Build internet and intranet documents that are fully compliant with the rules of HTML 4.01, making them suitable for inclusion in xHTML applications. Once they're in xHTML, they can be integrated with SMIL, MathML, and SVG technologies to create full-featured Web applications.

The book's CD-ROM holds the Amaya, Internet Explorer, Netscape Communicator and Opera web browsers, allowing you to readily test your pages for cross-browser compliance. Also on the CD-ROM is TidyHTML, the best tool for validating your 4.01 source code.

Customer Reviews:

Good Reference.......2004-11-28

I bought this book a while ago, I think sometime in 2000. It's been very helpful as a reference. I wouldn't recommend this book to someone with no knowledge of HTML. It doesn't teach you HTML so much as it reiterates things the author assumes you already know. It's nice to have if you know HTML and CSS and need to brush up. I find myself pulling it out pretty frequently when I'm building a page and my brain farts out and I need to jog my memory. But for a beginner, this book will likely cause frustration.

I Keep Grabbing This One Off the Shelf.......2004-08-10

This book truly is my HTML bible. I've been doing HTML constantly for the past four years and have used a lot of resources, both printed and on the web, and when I got this book I didn't need to use any other resources because this book always had the answers to my multitude of questions. I admit that this book would be a little hard to follow if you're completely new to HTML but if you're familiar with HTML and are hungry to become very good at it this book will satisfy you. If you're totally new to HTML I reccomend the book on HTML published by Visual (it's white with a blueprint of a bridge on the cover). It was my first HTML book and it served me well until I learned everything in it and wanted a book that would teach me more. That's why I got this HTML bible.

I have to say I disagree with an earlier review. This bible book explains syntax very very well and gave me a great understanding of it. It would actually break it down and tell you what was what in syntax. No other HTML book I've read did that. I also found that, unlike some other bible books, it was written in language that was easy to understand and follow.

The appendexs in this book are utterly devine. I use them ALL THE TIME. You can look up any tag in html, any attribute for CSS, how to make special characters, and even more, and get information on how to write them, how to use them, what they effect, and what attributes go with them. I think this is just so awesome.

Now, no book is perfect, but this one comes very close :)

Not So Good.......2003-03-24

Comparing to other books of the Bible family, this book is not satisfactory. It's short of enough figures that can give readers a vivid description of what these codes can make. And the real-world codes are also insufficient. The book is divided into too many chapters, which makes the whole book disordered. The 150-page Appendix is the only highlight of the book. Readers can easily query the usage of keywords. For sure, the book is not suitable to a beginner.

Horrible book.......2002-12-16

This book is very poorly organized. The author get so excited about CSS and the new coming XML that they neglect to explain the HTML fundamentals, syntax, and capabilities. The author has a tendency to jump from topic to topic without any warning or explanation. I would definetely not recommend this book to advanced programmers nor beginners, it's just too difficult to follow.

Found a number of new things and a few shortcuts as well........2002-10-28

Teaching HTML for the past 5 years I have certainly found that there very few really in depth reference manuals, this book does have some really nice features, however at the same time there things that confused me about the book.

One thing I found odd was the 4 pages covering XML/XSL, after reading this I think the author could have left this out of the book and expanded and very good section on severs and server options.

Part III, development of pages with HTML is very good with fairly good coverage of each section. In the next edition they should bring some of the web editors more up to date. One section I found to very well written is Part IV or CSS, the authors seem to have everything covered here.

Part VII - cross browsers, deal with DHTML and JavaScript, I found this section to be okay but certainly more, much more information should have been included. One of the most impressive sections of the book is Appendices A through G, which is by far the best breakdown of attributes, CSS syntax, color and hex conversion I have ever seen.

Amazon.com

The emergence of XML is having an enormous impact on Web development, and scaling the learning curve of this new technology is a priority for many developers. The XML Bible offers a superb introduction to the subject and the groundwork to understand XML's future developments.

Author Elliotte Rusty Harold uses a patient, step-by-step discussion that clearly points out the potential of XML without boring his readership with tons of SGML spec-speak. Harold opens quickly with a "Hello World" example to get the reader coding early, and follows that with a simple but powerful example of XML's data management benefits--presenting baseball statistics. Once you've coded your first XML documents, you'll be hooked on the technology and motivated to learn about the more sophisticated topics.

Style sheet languages are covered comprehensively to illustrate the presentation possibilities and pitfalls. An unusually long list of real-life XML applications also shows how XML is already being used, and there is in-depth coverage of the Resource Description Framework, Channel Definition Format, and Vector Markup Language. The book wraps up with a section that helps you design your own XML application from scratch.

Titling a book a bible is a bold move, but this engaging and informative guide is entitled to make this claim. --Stephen W. Plain

Topics covered: XML background, example XML applications, type definitions (DTDs), style languages, Xlinks, Xpointers, Namespaces, application planning, and XML 1.0 specification.

Book Description

Updated and better than ever, this more focused revision provides comprehensive coverage of XML to anyone with a basic understanding of HTML and Web servers
Featuring all-new examples, this book contains everything readers need to know to incorporate XML in their Web site plans, designs, and implementations
Continues expert Elliotte Rusty Harold's well-known track record for delivering the best XML guidance available
Includes coverage of the most recent XML 1.1 specification and the latest trends in XML Web publishing
Companion Web site includes additional examples and reference material found in previous editions that readers may find useful

Download Description

* Updated and better than ever, this more focused revision provides comprehensive coverage of XML to anyone with a basic understanding of HTML and Web servers * Featuring all-new examples, this book contains everything readers need to know to incorporate XML in their Web site plans, designs, and implementations * Continues expert Elliotte Rusty Harold's well-known track record for delivering the best XML guidance available * Includes coverage of the most recent XML 1.1 specification and the latest trends in XML Web publishing * Companion Web site includes additional examples and reference material found in previous editions that readers may find useful

Customer Reviews:

Verbose.......2006-02-20

I bought Harold's book to help me move from XHTML to XML and to handle data with PHP which does not fit well in a relational database / SQL. This book bogs down quickly in very long explanations & examples which could have been a fraction of the size. I think it has good coverage, but Harold uses too many words every time he approaches a subject. To paraphrase someone else, Harold could write 10,000 words on the color red.

The problem with Wiley's Bible series (I have several of them) is that the goal seems to be to make them as big and heavy as a boat anchor. This results in verbose books, which may be ok for use as a reference but way to hard to read cover to cover for initial learning. The time needed to read these books cover to cover exceeds the value of the book itself. If you buy books by the pound (or kilo), this is a good buy. But if you value your time more than you value impressive size, there are better alternatives.

On a positive note: I have not found a bunch of typo or editing errors and Harold seems to know the subject. I'm just frustrated by the slow pace, although I will continue trying to read it at least a little longer.

Warning: [Some opinions given here appear to be by paid reviewers. ie: Feb 3, 2005, and others. How many others are also raw attempts to sell books without honor? Can you trust anyone who writes hundreds or thousands of 5 star opinions?? Heck no! Hint: Check out the person writing the review before actually reading it. Look for how many opinions he/she writes and how many stars. Distrust all high opinions in the first few months after publication, all high opinions by people who have only written a couple of opinions, and all high opinions from people who only write high opinions. Thanks for the lack of honesty Elliotte &/or Wiley &/or big A. (my opinion, 2 cma).]

Doesn't cover DOM and SAX.......2006-02-07

I haven' read the book, only browsed its TOC. It doesn't cover the Document Object Model (DOM) and the Simple API for XML (SAX). It also discusses CSS in too much detail. These days, web development professionals will probably have a knowledge of both HTML and CSS before starting with XML.

Consider "Beginning XML" or "Professional XML" instead, both published by Wrow.

Pulp paper.......2005-10-10

I have purchased many books from Amazon, but this one is printed on the lowest-quality paper I've ever experienced. Though it's relatively new, the yellowed pages look like a 1960's pulp novel. There is literally a 2mm yellow border surrounding each page. Come on "Hungry Minds" publishers, you can do better than this.

Sola Scriptura.......2005-06-24

Review for XML 1.1 Bible (3rd Edition):

Elliotte Rusty Harold is that rare technical author who can write about anything and make it interesting. In this case, he has written 1,000 pages on XML providing us with an excellent guide book to this technology. Whether you are a beginner or advanced user of XML, there will be something in this book for you.

The book is divided into five parts. The first part discusses the basics of XML giving us an introduction to what XML is, what it is used for, and explaining the basics of creating a well-formed XML document. Part two discusses DTDs and explains how namespaces are used. Part three looks at various style languages including CSS and XSL. The section on CSS will be useful to anyone wishing to use CSS to format their HTML documents. Part four gives us a tour of some supplemental XML technologies including XLinks, XPointers, XInclude, and Schemas. The chapter that most interested me was on Schemas and the explanations were clear and complete, leaving no mystery about how to use this technology. The final part looks at a few XML applications including XHTML, RDDL, and SVG. The book does not cover writing programs to process XML documents using SAX or DOM, for example. The author has another book on that topic if that is of interest to you.

Each part of the book does an exceptional job of explaining the topic. The author gives us plenty of examples to make the text crystal clear. The author writes as a colleague helping out fellow programmers and not as an instructor droning away at a blackboard. You really get the idea that the author enjoys XML and enjoys explaining it. If you are interested in working with XML this book is truly an indispensable guide.

Surprisingly Good, Surprisingly Useful.......2005-02-04

When I first saw this book I thought that someone must be kidding. There's no question that XML is clearly the language to use when you want to transfer data using the standard web communications protocols. But a book that's more than a thousand pages, get serious.

They I opened it, low and behold, links, style sheets, specialized forms of XML for specialized purposes that have been agreed upon by multiple competing companies. It turns out that there's a lot more to XML than I thought.

Then in conjunction with XML other languages have been developed, some have proved not so useful and have faded away, others have evolved and changed to be more useful.

All in all, this is a very useful book, well written and has given me some ideas about how to solve some problems. That's all you can ask out of a book.

Average customer rating:

Not worth the time, not worth the money
disappointing
Out of Date?
Save your money unless your going to use it as a reference
Sloppy editing, otherwise not really bad

Java XML and Web Services Bible
Mike Jasnowski
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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JAX: Java APIs for XML Kick Start

ASIN: 0764548476

Book Description

This title provides a comprehensive reference/tutorial for Java programmers who want to tap the synergy of XML and Java in key Web development tasks.

The Java, XML, and Web Services Bible serves as a reference/tutorial for a variety of XML and Java related topics. It covers areas such as B2B, Instant Messaging, Java and XML Binding, Scalable Vector Graphics, and Application development with XML and JSP. It discusses some commercial and open technologies used with Java and XML such as Cocoon, Batik, and Xerces.

Customer Reviews:

Not worth the time, not worth the money.......2003-01-12

I bought this book based on the 4.5 stars that the original reviews had given it. It must have the author's friends. None of the examples work and could never work no matter what platform. It is obvious that the author never actually worked through these issues although it looks good enough that it faked me out. Examples: he uses virtual base classes as if they were implementation classes (DOMImplementation class), he uses methods that dont exist (System.out.null()), he fails to declare or instantiate items that he uses in the examples, ..., ..., ... It took me a month to work my own way through the 2nd chapter. Not worth the time, not worth the money.

disappointing.......2002-10-14

The book isn't really for beginners. I don't think Java beginners can make sense of the Reflection or servlet code. The XML/XSLT part is hard to follow even after you've already read other books on the subject. The site [url] doesn't seem to exist (I tried on Oct 12 and Oct 13, 2002), so there's no source code available to download. If you're serious about Web Services I recommend you look at Jesse Liberty's books on C# and .Net instead.

Out of Date?.......2002-09-26

This book is full of good information about XML and Java, and almost any developer using XML for the first time would find it useful. However, I think it is a little out of date. A lot of the "extension" packages it talks about have actually been encorportated into the Java platform in one way or another, and there are a few new XML-Java initiatives that it does not cover. Also, some of the examples in the book are a bit contrived, and not very practical for real world applications. But on the whole, I think this is a very good introduction to the subject.

Save your money unless your going to use it as a reference.......2002-06-23

Making a claim to be the Java, XML, and Web Services Bible is a big one, and one that this book fails to deliver on. While the author clearly knows the subject matter, his coverage of the basics is sometimes terse and confusing. I have some familiarity with xml, but the author takes just over 200 pages covering xml, xsl with Xalan, and xslt. Considering the scope of the subject, the author would have been better served to split this book into 3 or 4 volumes and cover the material more in depth in each volume. As it stands, the book lightly covers the basics then moves into more advanced examples, giving a feeling of being rushed through the material.
However rushed the book may feel, it is organized in a logical manner from start to finish. Although there is a slight detour in the middle of the book to cover the fairly new SVG, each section of the book builds upon the preceding sections. But I found that at the end of sections that I wasn't familiar with already, I felt lost because I hadn't been adequately prepared.
I was dissappointed with the sample code also. The code was written using software from the Apache Project, which was fine, but like most software books, the code was outdated before it was published. While the code was written using older versions of Xalan, Cocoon, and others, I also found that many of the samples didn't work. The sourcecode is downloadable from the publisher's site (no cd), but there are no compiled versions of the samples. There is supposedly an updated version of the sample code in a zip file, but that turned out to be fairly buggy as well.
If any of these technologies is new to you, I suggest you spend more money on other books because this one will only confuse you. If you are familiar with most of what's in here already and need an all-in-one reference or refresher without spending a lot of money, this would be the book for you.

Sloppy editing, otherwise not really bad.......2002-06-07

I bought this book for its sections on XML-RPC, SOAP and such. It had no in-depth coverage of these topics, but the overview wasn't too bad. However, the editing is bad, so you have contradictory sentences, even on the same page. Also the examples have lots of problems. If you want to use this book to get some overview, it's ok, but don't rely on it as the final word.

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