FileMaker Pro 8: The Missing Manual

Book Description

Used by millions worldwide, FileMaker Pro is an award-winning database program for managing people, projects, images, assets, and other information. It's easy to use and totally customizable--so long as you know what you're doing. But FileMaker Pro doesn't come with a printed manual, so FileMaker Pro: The Missing Manual is the authoritative, jargon-free book that should have been in the box.

FileMaker Pro: The Missing Manual approaches FileMaker the way FileMaker approaches you: it's user-friendly and seemingly straightforward enough, but it offers plenty of substance worthy of deeper exploration. Packed with practical information as well as countless expert tips and invaluable guidance, it's an in-depth guide to designing and building useful databases with the powerful and pliable FileMaker Pro.

Covering FileMaker for both Windows and Macintosh, FileMaker Pro: The Missing Manual is ideal for small business users, home users, school teachers, developers--anyone who wants to organize information efficiently and effectively. Whether you want to run a business, publish a shopping cart on the Web, plan a wedding, manage a student information system at your school, or program databases for clients, this book delivers.

Author Geoff Coffey has many years of experience using FileMaker Pro (he was, in fact, an early beta tester for the product). Author Susan Prosser is a FileMaker Certified Developer who trains other developers. Together, Coffey and Prosser show you how to:

Get FileMaker up and running quickly and smoothly
Import and organize information with ease
Design relational databases that are simple to use, yet powerful
Take advantage of FileMaker Pro calculation capabilities
Automate processes with scripting
Customize FileMaker Pro to your needs and preferences
Share information with other people (coworkers, clients, and customers) and other programs
Understand and select the best security options

What could easily come across as dry and intimidating--things like relational theory, calculations, and scripting--are presented in a way that is interesting and intuitive to mainstream users. In no time, you'll be working more productively and efficiently using FileMaker Pro.

Customer Reviews:

Missing Manual Indeed.......2007-09-13

I have been trying to use all the resources - bundled manuals, vtc, lynda.com since 2005 to learn filemaker/a database from scratch. I chose filemaker for 2 reasons - ease of use and support for OS X technologies like Applescript. I found it a bit challenging to understand concepts in Database design but with this one book things were more clear than ever before. I have finished this book and am planning to buy the latest version for filemaker 9.

If you are a newbie in database programming and need to get a well explained book to help you through building your own database. Get this book. It is well worth it.

BTW thanks for this book, I have a fully functional database to manage information related to my studies and research.

Indeed the missing manual.......2007-06-11

Why software cannot come with good manuals anymore is a mystery. This is exactly as advertised, the missing manual. Some other books will show you how to build bigger, more sophisticated solutions, but this one covers every aspect of how Filemaker works, which is what a manual should do.

Oh, and by the way, Filemaker is an amazing, underappreciated tool which helps manage a mailing list or build an entire database system. You cannot go wrong with it.

Too many mistakes to be valuable.......2007-05-16

I hesitate to write negative reviews because I always suspect that the errors I find are my own misunderstandings. In this case I felt COMPELLED to write one. I bought this book wanting it to be great and having high expectations based on the reviews I read. I doubt many of the reviewers OR the EDITORS read this book very closely. There are so many mistakes (small and large) and examples which flat out DON'T WORK, that the book has almost driven me mad. I've wasted HOURS trying to get things to work the way the authors described. The errata posted on the oreilly.com site lists maybe 1/4 of the errors. There is ONE posted review on Amazon.com which took notice of this, but all of the others seem to miss it completely. Kudos to Raymond Smith!

Two perfect examples (in case you want to save yourself a few hours of struggle):

1. The Invoice Finder tutorial on page 372 simply doesn't work using the "minimum amount" field as they describe. It will work using the date range criterion, but when you add the minimum amount match, it fails. I built a file following along with the text and thought it was MY file that was broken. Then I tried the files supplied with the Missing Manual "CD". The authors' files don't work either. They SEEM to work with the data already in them, but if you add an invoice, it doesn't work. And if you simply open the "options..." definition of the Total Due field on the "Invoices" table, then OK the dialog box, all the existing data fails as well. It must be some kind of indexing problem, but the fact that it slipped by the editors is almost impossible to believe.

2. The Repeating Fields for Multiple Results on page 417 is totally wrong. The formula they supply will not work at all, and in fact, unless the "Price" field is a repeating field as well (which they don't mention at all), you can't do any calculations using the "Get(CalculationRepetitionNumber)" that will work the way they describe. Not to mention the fact that in the second mention of the calculation they call it "Get(CalculatedRepetitionNumber)" which is wrong and won't even take. The text suggests that you "test this calculation with a few numbers", but I doubt that any editor tried it. AND THIS IS LISTED IN A POWER USERS' CLINIC.

I don't know if this is an author problem or an editor problem, but either way, it is a REAL problem for readers.

What a disappointment and a waste of many hours... Don't listen to the majority of reviews on this book. They have clearly come from people who read it but were not actually trying to learn from the DOING the examples in the text. The book is written in a friendly easy style, but there are too many errors to make it valuable. And it's been out for TOO long for these things not to be listed in an available errata or supplement.

Greatly informative, but needs a better editor........2007-04-27

I'm not a database expert, yet I'm not a beginner. This review is from a person with a basic understanding of database programs.

I'm about halfway through this book and it has been a great guide to learning about FileMaker. However, it is soooo frustrating that there are many errors in the examples used throughout the book. With all the dry, technical speech (the author does try to lighten it up some) my ADD may kick in a little causing me to read it wrong while thinking about something else, but there are many times when the book tells me to do something with the example file you download with the "missing cd" and it just doesn't working right. For me it doesn't matter if they have updates on misprints in the book available online. I'm the kind of person who would prefer it be printed correctly the first time and not have to check everything against an online list of typos. That said, and taking the examples with a grain of salt and just getting the concepts behind them, I really do think this book is a good resource for becoming familiar FileMaker pretty fast. I've not read any other books but this one has to be one of the most comprehensive ones.

A necessity to learning the program.......2007-02-28

Without this book, it will take a long time to understand how the program really works. Unfortunately the manufacturer's provided help is too filled with "jargon" and not enough explanation. It becomes necessary to "reverse engineer" the provided examples to understand how much of the program can be used, being time consuming and filled with trial and error. And since there is no printed version, there is no where to put the notes and comments always gathered as one learns a program

Having written software on a professional basis for the original PCs in assembly language and being a regular user of such systems as SolidWorks parametric software I have a proven ability to understand. But the documentation that came with FileMaker was insufficient to grasp too may details needed to make the program usable in creating one's own databases rather than use a "canned" template.

The book is well written and gives good examples. In addition the authors are available by email to help really serious problems, but don't abuse that by constant pestering. I doubt if I could have gotten good use of the program in any reasonable time without this book. I only gave it a 4 instead of a 5 because I think it could be made perfect with a few more actual written examples of the scripts or commands as the user would type or use them in the program. My real rating is 4.5 But that doesn't detract from it's value. Having looked at other books I feel this is the best.

Bob McCormack
Sonoma, CA

Average customer rating:

Best XML reference I ever saw
A reference useful for a limited audience among those who already know XML basics
Strictly a Reference book only...
Not an introductory tutorial
XML in a Nutshell

XML in a Nutshell, Third Edition
Elliotte Rusty Harold , and W. Scott Means
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0596007647

Book Description

If you're a developer working with XML, you know there's a lot to know about XML, and the XML space is evolving almost moment by moment. But you don't need to commit every XML syntax, API, or XSLT transformation to memory; you only need to know where to find it. And if it's a detail that has to do with XML or its companion standards, you'll find it--clear, concise, useful, and well-organized--in the updated third edition of XML in a Nutshell. With XML in a Nutshell beside your keyboard, you'll be able to:

Quick-reference syntax rules and usage examples for the core XML technologies, including XML, DTDs, Xpath, XSLT, SAX, and DOM
Develop an understanding of well-formed XML, DTDs, namespaces, Unicode, and W3C XML Schema
Gain a working knowledge of key technologies used for narrative XML documents such as web pages, books, and articles technologies like XSLT, Xpath, Xlink, Xpointer, CSS, and XSL-FO
Build data-intensive XML applications
Understand the tools and APIs necessary to build data-intensive XML applications and process XML documents, including the event-based Simple API for XML (SAX2) and the tree-oriented Document Object Model (DOM)

This powerful new edition is the comprehensive XML reference. Serious users of XML will find coverage on just about everything they need, from fundamental syntax rules, to details of DTD and XML Schema creation, to XSLT transformations, to APIs used for processing XML documents. XML in a Nutshell also covers XML 1.1, as well as updates to SAX2 and DOM Level 3 coverage. If you need explanation of how a technology works, or just need to quickly find the precise syntax for a particular piece, XML in a Nutshell puts the information at your fingertips. Simply put, XML in a Nutshell is the critical, must-have reference for any XML developer.

Customer Reviews:

Best XML reference I ever saw.......2007-03-04

This book claims to be your only needed guide in XML and related topics. It covers almost all you can imagine. I liked it very much and glad, that I have a book, that I can use like XML reference.
I have just nothing to say about this book except it contains ALL information one can need on XML.

A reference useful for a limited audience among those who already know XML basics.......2006-07-31

O'Reilly's XML IN A NUTSHELL is, like all entries in the Nutshell series, a desktop quick reference. It provides concise information about nearly all matters of XML, and is split into roughly four parts. The first introduces XML, the concept of tags, well-formedness, Unicode, DTD's and schemas, namespaces, and so forth. The second provides an overview for the many formats that are built upon XML, such as XHTML, XSL:FO, Docbook, etc., and technologies that plug-in into XML, namely XSLT, XPath, XLinks, XPointers, XInclude, and CSS. The fourth covers DOM and SAX, the APIs for dealing with XML. Finally, the book ends with a "Reference section" for various technologies covered earlier in the book, structured much like O'Reilly's pocket guides. I found the Reference section somewhat inconvenient, it causes flipping back and forth when each section could have been simply integrated with the previous discussion of the relevant technology earlier in the book. Furthermore, the book ends with a long series of Unicode character tables, which are of limited utility, as they cover only a portion of Unicode, which has already expanded in the time since, and these tables simply bloat the book a little.

This third edition is especially admirable for its advocation of schemas, whereas many other XHTML publications would mention only DTDs.

XML IN A NUTSHELL is emphatically not a tutorial for XML, in spite of the friendly introduction to the markup language that opens the book. For each of the technologies mentioned herein, you'll want a separate book. For XPath especially, O'Reilly's XPATH AND XPOINTER is worth getting. XML IN A NUTSHELL instead provides only a quick reference for matters the reader is already acquainted with. Now, much of this quick reference information can be freely had on the Web. I'd recommend the book only to those who are fortunate enough to have someone else cover their book expenses, or can get it from their library, or those who simply adore print documentation.

Strictly a Reference book only..........2006-03-11

I took this book as it was a recommended book for one my courses.. i thought it would be same as other text books, where you actually LEARN THRU THE BOOK..

But this book is STRICTLY for a reference purpose.. I had to take another book to learn the basics of XML.. also, the net tutorials helped a lot..

Though, as a reference book, I'll give full points to it.. once you have the basic knowledge about XML, you can really use this book to its optimum level, and it really helps you to refer ALL the types in XML..

So if you are starting to learn XML, I would advise to take a simpler book, like "XML Applications" and go through the net too.. but once you are done with the basics, buy this book the very next day, and check out what all wonders you can do through XML!!!...

Not an introductory tutorial.......2006-02-01

I chose this book after reading the glowing reviews here at Amazon, hoping to use it as an introductory tutorial to XML. I was disappointed!

The writing style chosen by the author is terse, as if writing space is at a premium - and this for a book which is 600+ pages long. The examples are badly chosen in my opinion, and the explanation of basic concepts is presented in the style of a reference manual. Take for example the explanation of the NOTATION element attribute: "A notation type attribute contains the name of a notation declared in the document's DTD... In theory, it could be used to associate types with particular elements, as well as limiting the types associated with the elements".

At this stage, I gave up on this book and went instead to Hunter's "Beginning XML". Still, all wasn't lost: I read a colleague's copy, so at least I wasn't out of pocket.

XML in a Nutshell.......2005-05-01

The organization of the book is great. Very useful and well written. It provides quick-reference syntax rules and usage examples for the core XML technologies, including XML, DTDs, Xpath, XSLT, SAX, and DOM. Develop an understanding of well-formed XML, DTDs, namespaces, Unicode, and W3C XML Schema.

This new edition is the comprehensive XML reference. Serious users of XML will find coverage on just about everything they need, from fundamental syntax rules, to details of DTD and XML Schema creation, to XSLT transformations, to APIs used for processing XML documents.

The initial chapter on SAX along with the reference chapter would give me a solid foundational base from which to work. If you need explanation of how a technology works, or just need to quickly find the precise syntax for a particular piece, XML in a Nutshell puts the information at your fingertips. I would recommend this book to someone interested in its topic. This book has earned a valued place on my reference shelf.

XSLT 2.0 Programmer's Reference (Programmer to Programmer)

Average customer rating:

Excellent choice
Not a stand-alone book, terrible format for reference
not for beginners
For sale: One boat anchor.
Stick to the older release

XSLT 2.0 Programmer's Reference (Programmer to Programmer)
Michael Kay
Manufacturer: Wrox
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0764569090

Book Description

What is this book about?

XSLT 2.0 Programmer's Reference, 3rd Edition, is the authoritative reference guide to the language. Without using the formal and inaccessible language of the W3C specifications, it tells you exactly what every construct in the language does, and how it is intended to be used. This book is a reference rather than a tutorial; it is designed for the professional programmer who is using the language every day. It is the book that people quote when they claim that a particular product is giving the wrong answer, and the book that implementers of the language turn to when they want clarification of the specifications.

At the same time, the book is readable. Reviews of the previous editions of the XSLT Programmer’s Reference, which this book grew from, show that readers appreciate the background material on the design thinking behind the language, the essay on functional programming, the occasional dry wit, the gentle criticism of the language specification when appropriate, and the fact that the examples stray into a diverse range of interesting application areas.

Download Description

What is this book about? XSLT 2.0Programmer's Reference, 3rd Edition,is the authoritative reference guide to the language. Without using the formal and inaccessible language of the W3C specifications, it tellsyou exactly what every construct in the language does, and how it is intended to be used. This book is a reference rather than a tutorial; it is designed for the professional programmer who is using the language every day. It is the book that people quote when they claim that a particular product is giving the wrong answer, and the book that implementers of the language turn to when they want clarification of the specifications. At the same time, the bookis readable. Reviews of the previous editions of the XSLT Programmers Reference, whichthis bookgrew from, show that readers appreciate the background material on the design thinking behind the language, the essay on functional programming, the occasional dry wit, the gentle criticism of the language specification when appropriate, and the fact that the examples stray into a diverse range of interesting application areas.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent choice.......2007-09-12

In addition to his obvious authority on the subject of XSLT Michael Kay is one of the best writers out there. This book gives a thorough explication of the history and concepts behind XSLT that is valuable for newcomers and informative for more experienced hands. It is written for those with experience with programming languages but new to XSLT or new to XSLT 2.0. It presents thorough documentation for elements and functions, with examples of their use.

Not a stand-alone book, terrible format for reference.......2007-07-23

From the book's introduction: "In previous editions, XSLT and XPath were covered in a single volume. This time, they have been divided into two separate books: this one covers XSLT 2.0, while the companion book 'XPath 2.0 Programmer's Reference" describes XPath." ... "This book is intended to be used alongside the companion volume ... Since XSLT 2.0 has such a strong dependence on XPath 2.0, you really need both books."

It turns out, most of the questions I needed answered aren't even covered in this book. That was frustrating for me.

I later purchased the companion XPath 2.0 book. In their favor, I will say that I have never had a question about XSLT or XPath that wasn't answered by these books.

However, both books are perhaps the worst-formatted reference books I have ever seen. Much of the book consists of an alphabetical reference of XML elements or XPath functions. Unfortunately, the page headers and footers only contain page numbers and chapter titles. They do not contain the name of the element or function that is described on that page. So you can't just riff through the pages watching for your function to appear in the footer.

There is a heading for each element or function name, but the font used for the sub-headings are as large as (if not larger than) the major headings. There are no page breaks between functions or elements. So you can't even visually scan the pages looking for your functions.

Finally, the table of contents consists largely of function or element names on the left, with page numbers on the right, separated by about five inches. But there are no dot leaders between them. So, even when you resort to using the table of contents to find the section you need, you have to use a ruler to find the page number.

not for beginners.......2007-02-21

I would not think this book is a "start learning xslt book". It is not meant to be start of with. It is a definately a great reference book for xslt 1.0 and updates for xslt 2.0. This is a kind of book in which you work your way from the index at the back of the book to the desired topic.

For sale: One boat anchor. .......2006-12-14

Agree with others that it is not a good introduction book. Dense, long-winded, I kept waiting for information I could use without needing to read 4 other chapters.

As an added bonus, I'll throw in the XPath book as well. For those of you who have two boats.

Stick to the older release.......2006-11-22

I've bought the XSLT Programmer's Reference from the same author and it's a terrific book, so when XSLT 2.0 came out, I immediately bought it ... only to be highly disapponted. The previous edition (or the original book if you like) covered everything you need to know (or ever wanted to know) to become an XSLT 1.0 guru. This one contains half of it, the other half is in another book (XPATH 2.0).

While I understand that XSLT 2.0 has expanded so much that XSLT+XPATH don't fit into a single book (plus it generates more revenue for the author and the publisher), buying this book at the current point in time (where there is very limited support for XSLT 2.0) is a questionable choice. You're much better off buying the older version, which covers (the whole span of) technology used in actual products.

Macromedia Flash Professional 8 Game Development

Average customer rating:

Good for the intermediate Flash programmer
Great Book
very limited discussion of incorporating physics
In-Depth game Development!
Specifics for beginners, bad habits for mid-levels

Macromedia Flash Professional 8 Game Development
Glen Rhodes
Manufacturer: Charles River Media
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1584504870

Book Description

If you want to take your Flash Professional 8 skills to a new level while learning how to produce games that rival anything available on the web, this is the book for you. Macromedia Flash Professional 8 Game Development is written by a professional game developer. Using the power of Flash and the most recent advancements in ActionScript, the book progresses through the entire development process to teach programmers and Web developers how to create professional quality games quickly. It teaches techniques for producing fast 3D effects that can be used with "cheat" techniques to produce powerful, high-performance results. It details the actual science of game development, including design, character development, the physics and motion of a game, and audio issues. And in this new edition, all of the latest features of Flash Professional 8 are covered, including the new sound channels, bitmap caching, texture pages, and more. The book covers many advanced topics in a simple, easy to understand way. It emphasizes the incredible power of the new BitmapData class and teaches how it can be used to take the performance of Flash games to a whole new level. It has never been easier to get right down to the pixel level and manipulate things at blazing speeds, making previously impossible games a breeze to make. So get to your computer, insert the CD-ROM, and prepare to begin your journey into the world of Flash Professional 8 game development.

Customer Reviews:

Good for the intermediate Flash programmer.......2007-07-30

The book provides several examples that progress the reader through the programming of gradually more complex games. The reader should have a basic knowledge of Flash and Actionscript, as the book brushes over beginner-level concepts. At the time, the book is fairly up to date, however there is supposedly quite a jump between Flash 8 and Flash CS3, which uses Actionscript 3.0. Nonetheless, the concepts taught in the book are universally applicable regardless of what Flash version you are using. The inclusion of a CD-ROM is an added bonus and a must with this kind of book.

Great Book.......2007-06-11

I found the book easy to read and very practical. The use of examples to explain things is great. And of course, examples that do work is great also!!!

It's the right book for those that already know something about flash and actionscript (doesn't need to be an expert), and want to learn to develop some games in flash, and perhaps aplly those technics on other apllications.

The book is great fun!!!

very limited discussion of incorporating physics.......2007-05-29

As a physicist, I looked at the chapter on "Physics for Games". It's very introductory Newtonian mechanics. Applying these in time-discrete form for moving objects in the game. Gravity is considered for vertical motion, and wind is incorporated to affect horizontal motion. Freshman level stuff. If you are developing a game where you need to seriously incorporate physics, there are entire books devoted to it, like Physics for Game Developers.

Though to be fair, the book is about learning Flash and its effects. Other chapters offer code fragments. Of necessity, these are all elementary, from a programming complexity standpoint. But they help explain how to apply Flash.

The most intricate part of the book seems to be when you model a 3d world. Nice rendering examples. Doesn't go very deeply here. Flash almost certainly has more advanced functionality.

In-Depth game Development!.......2007-05-17

I've bought this book with the purpose of starting to make flash games. Well, i couldn't have chosen a better way! The book is very easy to read and understand and the the examples are incredible. It explores the appropriate tools to create games like the BitmapData while giving other tools an explanation too. 5 stars!

Specifics for beginners, bad habits for mid-levels.......2007-04-28

If you've worked with strongly type languages like Java/C++/etc then this book might make you cringe a bit. First, the code is very terse with clever tricks to shorten the number of lines. Eventually it makes sense but methods like makeFader() don't really make a fader, they do other things like remove a game object from the scene.

So along with softreferences ( for i to 10, make a variable box_i=i ) - ew, and bad naming conventions, it plays out more like an Oreilly Cookbook that encourages bad habits. Granted, I ordered it and I'll keep it as a book full of complete examples. But I think any of the examples that I copy/type/study, I'll refactor later to be more clear and well-coded.

It's a fast ramp-up to ActionScript 2.0. If you're looking for smarter and more mid-level code then maybe wait for a book on AS3.0 that is more class oriented and less procedural like this book. Else, if you just want to see end-to-end examples as fast as possible the author does a good job of explaining code blocks as he goes even if he's encouraging bad habits.

XSLT Cookbook, Second Edition (Cookbooks (O'Reilly))

Average customer rating:

Useful XSLT Recipes
What a time saver!
Don't make the same mistake as I did!
Some useful examples
COOKING WITH XSLT!!

XSLT Cookbook, Second Edition (Cookbooks (O'Reilly))
Salvatore Mangano
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0596009747

Book Description

Forget those funky robot toys that were all the rage in the '80s, XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Transformations) is the ultimate transformer. This powerful language is expert at transforming XML documents into PDF files, HTML documents, JPEG files--virtually anything your heart desires. As useful as XSLT is, though, most people have a difficult time learning its many peculiarities. And now Version 2.0, while elegant and powerful, has only added to the confusion.

XSLT Cookbook, Second Edition wants to set the record straight. It helps you sharpen your programming skills and overall understanding of XSLT through a collection of detailed recipes. Each recipe breaks down a specific problem into manageable chunks, giving you an easy-to-grasp roadmap for integrating XSLT with your data and applications. No other XSLT book around employs this practical problem-solution-discussion format.

In addition to offering code recipes for solving everyday problems with XSLT 1.0, this new edition shows you how to leverage the improvements found in XSLT 2.0, such as how to simplify the string manipulation and date/time conversion processes. The book also covers XPath 2.0, a critical companion standard, as well as topics ranging from basic transformations to complex sorting and linking. It even explores extension functions on a variety of different XSLT processors and shows ways to combine multiple documents using XSLT. Code examples add a real-world dimension to each technique.

Whether you're just starting out in XSLT or looking for advanced techniques, you'll find the level of information you need in XSLT Cookbook, Second Edition.

Customer Reviews:

Useful XSLT Recipes.......2007-03-28

This book was very helpful in getting my first XSLT transform up and running in just a few days. Its Problem -- Solution -- Discussion format provides ready-made solutions for a range of transformation problems, from the simple to the more complex. In my case, I quickly found clear and straightforward illustrations of how to produce multiple text output files from an XML input file.

This book is not an XSLT language reference. But it is a good supplement to, for instance, Michael Kay's XSLT 2.0 and XPath 2.0 programmer's references.

What a time saver!.......2007-03-24

I've just completed a job where one of my primary functions was editing, teaching, and solving problems with XSLT. I started that job as an experienced programmer with little experience in XSLT. I frequently referred to this book whenever I thought, "I bet XSLT can do this, but how?" For example, if you are already familiar with common scripting languages and programming libraries, one of the first things you will notice about XSLT is a lack of regular expression functionality. I referred to the "search and replace" function in this book several times. This book is a real problem solver.

Don't make the same mistake as I did!.......2007-03-04

This is a great book with a collection of XSLT solutions to difficult and non-trivial XSLT problems. It covers XSLT 2.0 and shows to you how elegant 2.0 solution can be comparable to ugly and monstrous 1.0 listing.

But don't make the same mistake as I did! It is not a learning book! It is a book for programmers that already know XSLT at least a bit and want to improve their skills in this language. If you don't know XSLT at all, it would be better to you to purchase another book together with this one.

Some useful examples.......2007-01-11

The code examples in the book can be found online. While several of them are quite helpful, this book is by no means an exhaustive reference, nor does it clearly articulate the basics. See the w3schools website for this.

COOKING WITH XSLT!!.......2006-10-07

Are you a developer? If you are, then this book is for you. Author Sal Mangano, has done an outstanding job of writing a 2nd edition of a book that offers hundreds of solutions to problems that developers regularly face in both versions 1.0 and 2.0.

Mangano, begins by briefly explaining the greater sophistication and complexity of Xpath 2.0. Then, the author shows you that almost anything one wants to do with strings can be done within the confines of XSLT; as well as, how the new features of 2.0 make it that much easier. The author then shows you how to push the limits of XSLT's mathematical capabilities, even though XSLT was not designed to be the next great Fortran replacement. Next, he describes date and time recipes that augment an area standard that XSLT 1.0 currently lacks. The author continues by exploring the problems XSLT was specifically designed to solve. Then, the author presents an overview of XSLT 2.0. Next, he provides recipes that control how text extracted from XML is rendered for layout on the terminal, on the text editor, or for import to programs that require delimited data, such as comma separated values. The author then covers XML transformations. Then, he presents a treasure trove of recipes that demonstrate XSLT as a query language. The author continues by demonstrating solutions to problems that arise when generating web content, including links, tables, frames, forms, and other client-side transformation issues. Then, he describes the transformation of raw data into bar charts, pie charts, line plots, and other graphical components. Next, the author shows you the advantage gained from representing the data that drives code generation in XML and illustrates how XSLT is ideal for writing code generators for C++, Java, and XSLT itself. He also includes some advance uses of XSLT. The author continues by providing extensive coverage of XSLT extensibility using Java and JavaScript. Then, he demonstrates useful techniques that can help you transform misbehaved XSLT programs into functional ones, even if you don't have a nature XSLT debugger handy. Finally, he pushes the XSLT envelope to show how XSLT is far more than just another styling language.

This most excellent book has recipes that range from simple string manipulation and mathematical processing to more complex topics such as extending XSLT, testing and debugging XSLT stylesheets, and creating graphics with SVG. More importantly, the recipes in this book will guide you through many different ways of applying XSLT.

Professional Web 2.0 Programming (Wrox Professional Guides)

Average customer rating:

Combining Multiple Technologies Under a New Name

Professional Web 2.0 Programming (Wrox Professional Guides)
Eric van der Vlist , Danny Ayers , Erik Bruchez , Joe Fawcett , and Alessandro Vernet
Manufacturer: Wrox
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0470087889

Book Description

Web 2.0 architecture opens up an incredible number of options for flexible web design, creative reuse, and easier updates. Along with covering the key languages and techniques of Web 2.0, this unique book introduces you to all of the technologies that make up Web 2.0 at a professional level. Throughout the chapters, you'll find code for several example applications built with popular frameworks that you'll be able to utilize.

You'll first explore the technologies that are used to create Web 2.0 applications. This includes an in-depth look at XHTML, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), JavaScript, and Ajax. Next, you'll gain a better understanding of the protocols and formats that enable the exchange of information between web clients and servers. Ultimately, you'll discover exactly what you need to know about server-side programming in order to implement new ideas and develop your own robust applications.

What you will learn from this book

How Web 2.0 applications are developed
New ways to get the major client-side technologies to work together
The new class of emerging tools
All about HTTP and URIs, XML, syndication, microformats, and Web Services
Techniques for implementing and maintaining your URI space
How to serve XML over HTTP
Steps for building mashups to aggregate information from multiple sources
Methods for enhancing security in your applications

Who this book is for

This book is for professional developers who have a basic understanding of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and XML.

Wrox Professional guides are planned and written by working programmers to meet the real-world needs of programmers, developers, and IT professionals. Focused and relevant, they address the issues technology professionals face every day. They provide examples, practical solutions, and expert education in new technologies, all designed to help programmers do a better job.

This book is also available as part of the 4-book JavaScript and Ajax Wrox Box (ISBN: 0470227818). This 4-book set includes:

Professional JavaScript for Web Developers (ISBN: 0764579088)
Professional Ajax 2nd edition (ISBN: 0470109491)
Professional Web 2.0 Programming (ISBN: 0470087889)
Professional Rich Internet Applications: Ajax and Beyond (ISBN: 0470082801)

Customer Reviews:

Combining Multiple Technologies Under a New Name.......2007-01-15

If you really want to get a good discussion going among web types just ask the question, 'What's Web 2.0.?'

The authors of this book have decided that Web 2.0 is a series of loosely integrated technologies that when used together are able to create a greatly enhanced web experience. These include:

HTML moving to XHTML
Cascading Style Sheets
JavaScript moving to Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX)
Syndication and RSS Feeds
Web Services (REST and SOAP)
Uniform Record Identifiers (URI)
Serving Multimedia
and of course Security.

This book identifies, describes, and ties all these technologies together. It presume that the reader is a professional developer who have at least a basic understanding of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and XML. It is written by professional programmers with an intended audience of professionals. The one complaint that I would mention is that the coverage of Ruby on Rails is so minimal. This seems to be a growing technology, and at least come comments pro or con would have been appreciated.

Average customer rating:

Great Book for Beginners
Fantastic Examples
Excellent place to start
Best for BEGINNERS !
Excellent introduction with lots of examples

Sams Teach Yourself XSLT in 21 Days
Michiel van Otegem
Manufacturer: Sams
ProductGroup: Book
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ASIN: 0672323184

Book Description

Selecting Data-Stylesheets and Xpath Basics;
Inserting text and elements in output;
Copying elements from the source and inserting text;
Conditional processing basics and expressions;
Modularizing stylesheets;
Understanding, creating, and using templates;
Controlling output, as well as creating more advanced output;
Using multi-file stylesheets, variables, and parameters;
Working with numbers, strings, multiple XML sources, and namespaces;
Selecting data based upon keys;
Recursion;
Creating computational stylesheets;
Working with parses;
Designing XML and XSLT applications;
Extending XSLT.

Download Description

The book covers XSLT and Xpath (as a part of XSLT), as these topics have everything to do with processing XML. It will also cover XML from an XSLT processing and design point of view. Other XML technologies will not be discussed as superset of XSLT, most notably XSL. XSL Formatting Objects alone is enough material for an entire book. Apart from that, XSLT and Xpath form the processing/programming section of the entire XSL specification. This book presents an overview of XSLT and guides readers through transforming their first XML data. In this book you will also learn: Selecting Data-Stylesheets and Xpath Basics; Inserting text and elements in output; Copying elements from the source and inserting text; Conditional processing basics and expressions; Modularizing stylesheets; Understanding, creating, and using templates; Controlling output, as well as creating more advanced output; Using multi-file stylesheets, variables, and parameters; Working with numbers, strings, multiple XML sources, and namespaces; Selecting data based upon keys; Recursion; Creating computational stylesheets; Working with parses; Designing XML and XSLT applications; Extending XSLT.

Customer Reviews:

Great Book for Beginners.......2006-07-26

If you know absolutely nothing about XSLT, this is the book for you. Very straightforward. I got through the first week (7 chapters) in about a day. You could easily read and understand most of the content in this book in less than a few days. Great for anyone wanting to pick up the language quickly. For advanced users, this is probably not your book.

Fantastic Examples.......2006-01-08

Some PROs and CONs...

Pros:
Topic flows very well. Author was able to explain each topic without asking reader to refer to upcoming forward chapters. Best part of this book are the examples. They are relevant and short and sweet enough to understand. Best of all, there are lots of examples. The author doesn't just slap them on the page and tell you to figure it out yourself. The author walks the reader thru them.

Cons:
Some areas reads like a technical manual.. causing me to reread sentences over and again. But that said, the book still comes across as tutorial friendly (You figure that out.).

Comparisons:
I rate the book 5 stars. I own Beginnning XSLT 2.0 by Tennison, XSLT 2.0 by Kay, and Mastering XSLT by White. My opinion is that XSLT in 21 days is the best book to get you to learn it the quickest because of the author's superb examples.

Excellent place to start.......2004-07-21

This book works. It does, however, assume that you have a meaningful level of computer proficiency. This is probably a safe assumption for anyone intending to go spelunking in XML files and performing transformations on same.

To complete the book's lessons, you'll need to download and install one of the free XSLT parsing engines listed in the book. Alternatively, I used the jEdit free text browser and its associated XSLT plugin to run the examples.

I don't believe in assigning five stars, or I would have for this book.

Best for BEGINNERS !.......2003-12-04

Best book to start out with XSLT;
quickly takes you to the point where you can put knowledge from the book to work;

ALSO - it is very easy to follow the Book on the road BECAUSE it explains exactly what each line of code in examples does;

Very thourough analysis and not much mumbo-jambo (as in xslt for dummmies book)

Excellent introduction with lots of examples.......2003-10-16

There isn't much to say, other than this book is a great choice for someone who knows xml and need to learn and use xslt quickly. I usually don't go for the "in 21 days" type books because I'm worried it might be too quick and novice like. However this title is well written, with each chapter going over another area of xslt in the proper sequence. There are plenty of examples to guide you when writing your own transformations. The index makes it easy to find what you need, but I'd recommend going chapter by chapter as quickly as possible if you are confident with programming in scripting/web languages. You can do the whole thing in 7 days if you like.

Book Description

This book is designed for advanced users and covers basic Word 2003 automation, automation using VBA and automation using XML, XSLT and Smart Documents.

Customer Reviews:

I was left frustrated and annoyed.......2007-08-02

This is one of the least useful books I have read in my 10+ years in the IT business. Written from an academic standpoint, there were few useful examples offered and no subject was discussed in enough detail to be useful. Examples were vauge at best.

While this book got me excited about the topic of document automation, I am unable to create a custom Smart Document solution from scratch after reading this book from cover to cover.

Buyer beware: This is a "What Is" book, not a "How To" book.

It delivers on its promise!.......2006-04-02

Quite often you see book titles that unfortunately do not match the subject content. This one certainly does! The back cover states that it sets out to explain how to:

- Automate documents with a minimum of programming by using Word's native functionality
- Use VBA to create document automation solutions
- Record macros, create automated templates, format and manipulate files using Word and build documents dynamically
- Create, edit and format XML documets
- Develop smart documents solutions to guide users through a variety of repetitive tasks
- Transform XML using WordprocessingML, XSLT, XPath, smart documents and web services technologies

Ok, to be fair I didn't find anything on web services explicitly but it still gets us over 99% of the way through delivering on its expectations.

This book has hit a niche area for word users wanting to create smarter documents with no other book providing coverage of this subject matter as intimately or in a way as easy to follow as this book. It is perfect for people who routinely have to write legal contracts, functional specifications and general technical documentation as it allows you to fully leverage off Word's capabilities in letting you work smarter.

I did not own any other books by Wordware and this seemed to be a bit out there in their list of publications so I was initially a bit hesitant about buying this book. As it turns out I shouldn't have been! Scott Driza presents the subject matter well and in a very succint way - this book has just over 400 pages in which it manages to cover quite a lot of ground!

I bought this book primarily to concentrate on the XML, XSLT and Smart Documents features, but have found that I even picked up a trick or two in relation to VBA-based templates. For those who like using shortcut keys, Appendix A will be a God send as it has the most exhaustive list of Word commands and shortcut keys I have ever seen!

The book devotes approximately half of its pages to VBA and assumes no prior knowledge of VBA, XML, XSLT or Smart Documents. It doesn't cover all subject areas exhaustively but it gets you started and tells you where to get additional materials.

I would have liked to have seen a bit more detail on XML schemas although the the book does show you how to get Word to automatically generate an inferred schema based on XML mark-up. That is pretty much the only reason why I didn't give it a 5-star rating.

If you are an IT professional, engineer, lawyer, technical writer or any other type of knowledge worker; do yourself a favour - stop creating your documents the hard way and buy this book. It will more than pay for itself the first time you start applying the concepts, techniques and technologies it refers to.

Average customer rating:

Index is incomplete
Trivia or Tutorial In Nature?
Not so good for me
Terrible book
A good introductory book on XSLT

Learning XSLT
Michael Fitzgerald
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0596003277

Book Description

XSLT is a powerful language for transforming XML documents into something else. That something else can be an HTML document, another XML document, a Portable Document Format (PDF) file, a Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file, a Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) file, Java code, or a number of other things. You write an XSLT stylesheet to define the rules for transforming an XML document, and the XSLT processor does the work. As useful as XSLT is, its peculiar characteristics make it a difficult language in which to get started. In fact, newcomers are often a little dazed on first contact. Learning XSLT offers a hands-on introduction to help them get up to speed with XSLT quickly. The book will help web developers and designers understand this powerful but often mystifying template-driven and functional-styled language, getting them over the many differences between XSLT and the more conventional programming languages. Learning XSLT moves smoothly from the simple to complex, illustrating all aspects of XSLT 1.0 through step-by-step examples that you'll practice as you work through the book. Thorough in its coverage of the language, the book makes few assumptions about what you may already know. You'll learn about XSLT's template-based syntax, how XSLT templates work with each other, and gain an understanding of XSLT variables. Learning XSLT also explains how the XML Path Language (XPath) is used by XSLT and provides a glimpse of what the future holds for XSLT 2.0 and XPath 2.0. The ability to transform one XML vocabulary to another is fundamental to exploiting the power of XML. Learning XSLT is a carefully paced, example-rich introduction to XSLT that will have you understanding and using XSLT on your own in no time.

Customer Reviews:

Index is incomplete.......2007-07-23

Mr. Fitzgerald specifically stated that he didn't intend for this book to be a comprehensive reference manual. But you would think that the index would provide a decent cross-reference of topics. Try looking up xsl:value-of, or xsl:for-each. You won't find them no matter what topic you search under. Usually OReilly does a great job explaining technical topics, but as with most XSLT books I've read, the examples are trite and provide minimal insite. I have to say I'm disappointed.

Trivia or Tutorial In Nature?.......2007-04-08

Imagine you just bought a new car and stuck the keys in the ignition. Do you worry about every little minute detail of what's under the hood? Or do you just plant your foot down on the accelerator and drive?

Learning XSLT is one of those books that has a strange "hiccup" feel to it. Reading this book is like putting your foot down on the accelerator, only to have a chicken cross in front of you to slam on the brakes and then accelerate again. Only then, having another chicken cross and yet again slam on the brakes. Tutorials are meant to be smooth, uninterrupted reading. Learning XSLT is an abrupt stop and go journey that resulted in it being tossed into the far back shelf of my personal library.

For example, a really annoying feature in the book's layout are the icons and box comments. Frequently, they interrupt the flow causing switching of mental gears. Often too wordy, too detailed, and downright puzzling to why they even exist in the first place, they are anal and annoying. Surely the intricacies of QCNames, Code Points, Unicode, xml:lang attribute in every minute detail should have been removed out of this book.

As an example of how poorly this book reads, I point to page 9. The section is "Using apply-templates". Two pages later of long winded overanalysis (and yet another interruption with a large box comment regarding Unicode), we end up with a trivial six line example using apply-templates. Boldfaced and detached away from the original point of discussion. By this time, the reader is flipping pages to go back to recall what the entire section was about. That is the general feel of this book - a lack of cohesiveness.

After reading the first three chapters, I wondered where this book was heading. It read in scatter brained pieces and often too detailed for my liking - overly informative to be of any practical use. If you like getting bogged down in trivia minutiae, this is your book.

The examples were poor and unfufilling; rarely showing a big picture example in a larger, useful, practical context. Most of the people who pick up this book will want to transform XML into XHTML - which this book fails to address in a dedicated chapter.

Templates, the most important feature from a coding structure and development standpoint, is held off until Chapter 10. This should have been moved to earlier chapters, followed by discussion of axes, functions, XPATH, etc.

Learning XSLT does not to a very good job of organizing content for understanding and instruction. It definitely failed to hold my attention. Out of all the O'Reilly books I have, this one was not very useful and needs a total rewrite!

Not so good for me.......2007-04-01

I bought this book after using the O'Reilly book "Web Design In A Nutshell". In general, I find the O'Reilly books to be pretty good. This book looked pretty good in the bookstore, too. After working with it, however, I found it difficult to get through and difficult to learn from. I used online sources to learn XSLT and used this book as a reference. When I learned something online and went back to this book, I was able to see what the author of this book was trying to explain. (I am not a web page beginner. I have worked in software development for a number of years. I have worked with HTML, Javascript, CSS, etc.)

Terrible book.......2006-07-31

That such a poor quality book should come from O'Reilly is baffling. The book is very poorly organized, not covering templates--the basis of XSLT--until chapter 10! The author's examples are convoluted and unrevealing, and mostly seem to prove the point that his understanding of XSLT is far greater than yours. I got through the first three chapters and then gave up for a Sams book, which is much better.

A good introductory book on XSLT.......2006-05-21

Learning XSLT was a helpful introduction to XSLT and I really enjoyed my progress through the book. Mr. Fitzgerald doesn't spend too much time on lengthy explanations. Simple explanations are followed by illustrative examples that you should type and run yourself.

Average customer rating:

Its actually a good book
A book I really use regularly
A Disappointment From O'Reilly.
Find Another book
Not Very Useful AT ALL

Xslt
Doug Tidwell
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
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ASIN: 0596000537

Amazon.com

XML is an elegant and straightforward way to define data-centric documents to feed almost any kind of data processing or rendering system. The linchpin of many XML solutions, however, is XSLT. This standard provides a way to transform your XML documents into other XML formats, HTML, and almost any other format you wish. XSLT is an excellent tutorial on this critical technology, a must-have text for developers getting serious with XML.

This book is targeted at busy developers who want to learn standards-compliant skills with XSLT and learn them fast. The author uses the Apache Xalan XSLT engine for demonstration, but the material in the book is equally applicable to the XSLT engine in Microsoft's MSMXL parser, Saxon, and many other equivalent XSLT processors.

The material is presented logically from the transformation of a simple "Hello World!" XML file to an HTML document onto XPath locations, branching, linking, combining XML documents, and extension functions. After laying the groundwork for what XSLT can do, the author presents a fairly sophisticated case study--an online tutorial generator that generates HTML files, PDF files, and Zip files.

Aside from being a subject tutorial, XSLT is also an excellent reference that comes in handy for daily coding. The appendices cover XSLT, XPath, a function reference, and a frequently asked questions section. These reference sections include complete examples that make each concept quite clear. XSLT provides the horsepower behind XML, and this book provides the perfect vehicle to master transformation techniques. --Stephen W. Plain

Topics covered: Basic style sheet structure, XPath data model, branching and control elements, links and cross-references, sorting and grouping, combining XML documents, XSLT extension functions, case study, XSLT reference, XPath reference, function reference, XSLT guide (FAQ).

Book Description

XSLT documents a core technology for processing XML. Originally created for page layout, XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Transformations) is now much more: a general-purpose translation tool, a system for reorganizing document content, and a way to generate multiple results-- such as HTML, WAP, and SVG--from the same content. What sets XSLT apart from other books on this critical tool is the depth of detail and breadth of knowledge that Doug Tidwell, a developer with years of XSLT experience, brings to his concise treatment of the many talents of XSLT. He covers XSLT and XPath, a critical companion standard, and addresses topics ranging from basic transformations to complex sorting and linking. He explores extension functions on a variety of different XSLT processors and shows ways to combine multiple documents using XSLT. Code examples add a real-world dimension to each technique. Useful as XSLT is, its peculiar characteristics make it difficult to get started in, and the ability to use advanced techniques depends on a clear and exact understanding of how XSLT templates work and interact. For instance, the understanding of "variables" in XSLT is deeply different from the understanding of "variables" in procedural languages. The author explains XSLT by building from the basics to its more complex and powerful possibilities, so that whether you're just starting out in XSLT or looking for advanced techniques, you'll find the level of information you need.

Customer Reviews:

Its actually a good book.......2007-03-31

I was able to use this book on a new project I was assigned to at work. I had previously read a bit about XPath, but other than that, I had no experience with XSLT. Within 2 days of reading, that being the first 4 chapters or so, I was able to fix the issues I had been assigned.

This is a book for programmers, and for people who know a bit about XML. It is not a school textbook. It does reference some topics before it details them, but if you are a programmer, you are used to reading the context of something unknown to figure out what it does. This book is no different. The examples it includes are non-trivial, and they give you a good idea of the power and correct usage of XSLT.

I highly recommend this book. It helped me do what I needed to get done, quickly and correctly.

A book I really use regularly.......2005-04-05

I've been programming in a system that uses XSLT for reporting for about three years now. This is the book I actually use. It's getting beat-up and battered and has a couple of pages bookmarked - mostly in Chapter 3. I found the initial Hello World examples - where the same XML is processed for text, SVG, Java, and VRML - to be a really fascinating read.

The core functional programming block in Chapter 4 is worth the skull-sweat it takes to work through it. One useful feature is a number of examples that don't work - that seem right but are misleading.

On the downside, the index is fairly poor, but that's typical.

A Disappointment From O'Reilly........2005-03-18

This book is one of the most frustrating technical books I have ever read. The fact that it is from O'Reilly just makes it doubly insulting. The author doesn't bother to explain concepts. He just lists out the syntax for the various elements without bothering to explain how the instruction works. This book might be useful as an XSLT reference but it is useless as a learning tool. I totally agree with the other reviews of this book about the "huge honking examples" To give you an idea of how bad it is, the first XSLT example in this book is the obligatory "Hello World" example which is less than 20 lines. The second example is 3 pages long and uses concepts that have not been introduced at all!! The book also suffers from too many forward references. He keeps mentioning concepts that have no relation to the topic at hand. Sure, it might be great for completeness, but it just gets in the way when you're trying to learn a new concept and he keeps throwing additional, esoteric (by his own admission) stuff at you. In my opinion this is a very poorly written book.

Find Another book.......2005-01-29

This book was difficult to use, and I found that the author tried to cram too much into his examples. Some concepts were really poorly explained. Fortunately my company paid for this book, and not me.

Not Very Useful AT ALL.......2004-06-29

IMO book is too simple, never really give you anything to build on.
I bought it for a school project at the end I still bought Michael Kay's book(much more detail)

now this one is laying under my bed collecting dust.

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