XML

XML Tutorials

XML (Extensible Markup Language) was designed to store and transport data. This tutorial covers the following topics including: What is XML? How to write well formed XML documents? How to display XML content using JavaScript, CSS or XSL?

Getting to Know XML

This tutorial introduces you to XML and gives you some insight as to why it was created and what it can do.

Creating XML Documents

This tutorial uses the latter approach to provide a simple view of an XML document that you create.

Defining Data with DTD Schemas

This tutorial introduces you to schemas, including the two major types that are used to define data for XML documents. This tutorial explores the inner workings of DTDs and shows you how to create DTDs from scratch.

Digging Deeper into XML Documents

In this tutorial, you'll learn, how to document your XML code with comments, how characters of text are encoded in XML, all about entities and how they are used, why notations make it possible to use certain kinds of entities.

Putting Namespaces to Use

In this tutorial, you'll learn: importance of namespaces, how namespace names are guaranteed to be unique, declaration and reference namespaces, usage of namespaces to merge schemas.

Using SVG to Draw Scalable Graphics

This tutorial includes the following: why to use SVG, configure your browser to handle the SVG format, the basics of shapes, lines, and colors; placing text on a path Rotating a shape.

Using XML Schema

This tutorial introduces you to XML Schema and shows you how to create XSD schemas that can be used to validate your own documents.

Validating XML Documents

This tutorial shows you how to use various tools to validate documents against a DTD or XSD.

XML Formatting Strategies

In this tutorial, you'll learn: the basics of style sheets and XML formatting; when and why to use CSS and XSL on the Web; the practical differences between CSS and XSL style sheets; how to format a basic XML document using CSS and XSLT style sheets.

Styling XML Content with CSS

In this tutorial, you'll learn: the basic structure and syntax of CSS; create a basic CSS style sheet for XML document; control the layering of elements with CSS; use margins and padding to control the spacing around and within elements; format text using several different CSS style properties.

Getting Started with XSL

In this tutorial, you'll learn: the basics of XSL; building blocks of XSL Transformation (XSLT); wire an XSL style sheet to an XML document; develop an XSLT style sheet.

Transforming XML with XSLT

In this tutorial, you'll learn: more details about the XSLT style sheet language; process and sort nodes in an XSLT style sheet; use patterns and expressions in XSLT; apply XSLT style sheets to more challenging document transformation tasks

Access Your ITunes Music Library via XML

In this tutorial, you'll learn: how XML fits into Apple's iTunes digital music service; the inner workings of an iTunes music library; how to link to tracks in the iTunes music store; how to transform your iTunes music library into an HTML web page that you can publish on the Web.

Formatting XML with XSL-FO

In this tutorial, you'll learn: what XSL-FO is and how it came to be; about the nuts and bolts of the XSL-FO language; validation of XSL-FO documents; conversion of an XSL-FO document to a PDF document.

Using XML to Hack Google Maps

In this tutorial, you'll learn: what Google Maps is and why it is so interesting; the basics of the Google Maps API and how to obtain an API key to access it; how to convert a physical address into geocoordinates for mapping purposes; how to create a complete XML-based custom Google Maps application.

Parsing XML with the DOM

You'll learn; What the Document Object Model is; the interfaces that make up the DOM; how to build programs that traverse the DOM; how to access specific data inside an XML document using the DOM; how to modify an XML document using the DOM.

SAX: The Simple API for XML

In this tutorial, you'll learn; what SAX is and how it works; how to get a SAX parser for your favorite programming language; how to write a Java program that uses a SAX parser to process an XML file.

Querying XML Data with XQuery

In this tutorial, you'll learn: what XQuery is; how to write queries using XQuery; what the Saxon XQuery processor has to offer; how to execute your own queries using XQuery.

Using XML with Databases

In this tutorial you'll learn: the basic theory behind the relational database model; how to use SQL, the query language for relational databases; how to export data from a database as XML; how to write a program that queries a database and formats the results as XML.

Using XML to Assist Search Engines

In this tutorial, you'll learn: the basics of web crawling and why it's important; what Google Sitemaps is and how it can help your web site; about the XML-based Google Sitemaps protocol, as well as how to develop Sitemap documents for your own web pages; how to validate, submit, and automatically generate Google Sitemaps.

Adding Structure to the Web with XHTML

In this tutorial, you'll learn: what XHTML is and why it was created; about the differences between XHTML and HTML; how to create and validate XHTML documents; how to convert existing HTML documents to XHTML.

Addressing and Linking XML Documents

In this tutorial, you'll learn: how to navigate through an XML document using XPath patterns; how to build powerful expressions using XPath patterns and functions; what technologies come together to support linking in XML; how to reference document fragments with XPointer; how to link XML documents with XLink

Going Wireless with WML and XHTML Mobile

In this tutorial, we'll cover: how WML and XHTML Mobile fit into the state of the wireless web; decks and cardsthe anatomy of a WML document; formatting tags for WML text; how to provide for user entry in WML; blending WML with XHTML Mobile.

Syndicating the Web with RSS News Feeds

In this tutorial, you'll learn; the historical drama of how RSS came to be how to use a news aggregator to syndicate RSS news feeds; how to create and validate your own RSS documents; how to transform and display RSS news feeds using XSLT.

Advanced XML

XML Within the Enterprise

XML can be used to create text documents that contain data in a structured format. In addition to the data, you can include a detailed set of rules that define the structure of the data. The author of the XML document defines these rules.

Markup Languages

A markup language uses special notation to mark the different sections of a document. In HTML documents, for example, angle brackets (<>) are used to mark the different sections of text.

Structure of an XML Document

The structure of an XML document can be defined by two standards. The first standard is the XML specification, which defines the default rules for building all XML documents.

An Introduction to Document Type Definitions

We will make a document template for creating XML documents that can be viewed in Web browsers as HTML documents. In this tutorial, we will create a document type definition (DTD) for this template.

Entities and Other Components

In this tutorial, we will look at some additional components that can be added to the DTD. The focus of this tutorial will be entities, which are used to represent text that can be part of either the DTD or the XML document.

XML Namespace, XPath, XPointer, and XLink

In this tutorial we will look at four of the XML specifications: XML Namespaces, XML Path Language (XPath), XML Pointer Language (XPointer), and XML Linking Language (XLink).

XML Schemas

In this tutorial, you'll learn about XML schemas and how to use them in your XML documents. We'll look at the XML schema data types and their categories and then explore how to create simple and complex data types.

SOAP

Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) is an industry standard designed to improve cross-platform interoperability using the Web and XML.

BizTalk

n this tutorial, we will look at BizTalk Framework 2.0, which is an extension of the SOAP specification. BizTalk Framework 2.0 provides a structure for building solutions that move data contained in a SOAP document across boundaries.

Overview of Windows DNA

Microsoft Windows DNA is based on a distributed system architecture. Distributed systems contain components on more than one computer. An Internet-based system is a typical example of a distributed system.

The XML Document Object Model

The XML Document Object Model (DOM) is a platform-neutral and language-neutral interface that allows developers to create applications and scripts to access and update the content, style, and structure of XML documents.

XML Presentation with XSL and CSS

We will discuss how to use XML with user services components?that is, with the components that run on the client and interact with the user. This tutorial will focus specifically on creating static user services components that can be used to present information to the user.

Creating Dynamic User Services Components

In this tutorial we'll discuss how to use Dynamic HTML (DHTML) to create dynamic Web-based user services components. DHTML allows you to embed scripts written in either the VBScript or JScript programming languages into an HTML page.

Business Services Components

The business services components that we will discuss in this tutorial are the components that validate the user's input. This type of component should be placed on the client whenever possible so that the user's input can be validated immediately.

Data Services Components and XML

We'll discuss two Internet Server Application Programming Interface (ISAPI) extensions for Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS). The first ISAPI extension allows you to retrieve data directly from a SQL Server database in XML format using a Web browser. The second extension enables IIS to pass the XML directly to the client computer.

Microsoft BizTalk Server 2000

Microsoft BizTalk Server 2000 provides powerful tools for the exchange of information between businesses. It allow you to create BizTalk schemas, to map fields and records from one specification to another, and to move data from one corporation to another using XML.