Essential XML Quick Reference: A Programmer's Reference to XML, XPath, XSLT, XML Schema, SOAP, and More (DevelopMentor)
Essential XML Quick Reference: A Programmer's Reference to XML, XPath, XSLT, XML Schema, SOAP, and More (DevelopMentor) by Aaron Skonnard and Martin Gudgin
- Binding:
- Paperback
- Number of Pages:
- 432
- ISBN:
- 0201740958
- Product Group:
- book
- Publisher:
- Addison Wesley
- Publication Date:
- Nov. 2, 2001
- BooksForGeeks.com ID:
- 2573
Essential XML Quick Reference is a great little book that covers the most important XML specifications. There are 10 chapters, each documenting a particular XML technology. Every chapter begins with a short overview and introduction, explaining its particular branch of the XML family of technologies. This is followed by a programmer's reference, including a description, occasional diagrams, and commented examples as well as the core technical information. The comments are terse, but succeed in being relevant and well informed. For example, if you need a reminder on the difference between import and include in the XML Schema specification, this is just the job.
The first two chapters focus on XML itself and DTDs (Document Type Definitions). Next comes XPath, XPointer and XSL Transformations, which are widely used for transforming XML to other formats like HTML. SAX 2.0 and DOM Level 2 both get a chapter, which covers the two most important APIs for XML programming. There are two particularly welcome chapters on XML Schemas, one covering datatypes and the other structures. XML Schemas are a more powerful alternative to DTDs, but because they are a relatively recent development few books cover them in detail. Finally there is a chapter on SOAP 1.1, for Web services. Surprisingly, there is nothing on WSDL (Web Service Definition Language), used to describe Web services.
The authors are on the staff of Developmentor, a well-respected company in the XML world. Developmentor work with both Java and Microsoft technology, and it is good to see both platforms included here, for example in the SAX 2.0 reference. Note that this is a reference and not a tutorial, so use it alongside other resources. --Tim Anderson
Reviews for Essential XML Quick Reference: A Programmer's Reference to XML, XPath, XSLT, XML Schema, SOAP, and More (DevelopMentor)
-
Excellent but incomplete.
Rated out of 5 stars, August 12th, 2002
This book is a tidy collection of features and commentary on most of the tools and APIs that XML developers require. For the most part the examples are useful and revealing though I doubt the merit of including samples in both Java and VB.My main reservation (which costs the review one star) is the omission of JDOM and JAXP/TrAX (and perhaps data binding) which I feel most Java developers ought to be using (is this a consequence of the need to serve two markets ?).
This notwithstanding I readily recommend this concise and direct book.
-
Very good for reference
Rated out of 5 stars, July 12th, 2002
This book is excellent if you know quite a bit about XML and related technologies.. Its vrey easy to find what you want due to the layout of the book and the content is on the whole excellent. The only problem I have with this book is that I think there could be more examples - for example, in the XSL section, there are very few examples of how to use the XSL functions in a real XML application.Other than that, this is a great book that should be part of your XML collection.
-
Excellent core reference.
Rated out of 5 stars, January 12th, 2002
A very precies book which gives you the absolute core of all the major W3 XML specs.
For anyone doing any serious XML development, this book is a must have for you desk. The book is also small enough (physically, not in content!) to make it easy to carry around.
A really nice feature is that the book is packed with examples.
For beginners I would say, like any reference, this is not an introductory book but MUST become part of your XML book-shelf soon after.
Go buy