Webmaster Books XML

Author: Michael Fitzgerald
Published: 1-Mar-2001
Pages: 336
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List Price: $44.99
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Author Michael Fitzgerald aims the book at both managers looking to grasp the general concept of B2B, and software developers looking for a little more detail about where to start with such an initiative. The first part of the book describes the fundamentals of the XML standard, transport mechanisms, and security techniques that come into play when designing a B2B solution. The XML overview isn't a comprehensive tutorial, but rather a quick run-through of all the various components of XML, such as DTDs, Schemas, and transformations. The transport section discusses HTTP, FTP, MIME, SMTP, and other standards key to communicating data. The demonstrations are conducted in Java.

The second part of the book will be of greatest value to software developers. It explores some of the key standards currently available in the XML world. The reader gets a look at ebXML, xCBL, cXML, SOAP, and BizTalk. All of these are essential initiatives for an XML developer to keep current on.

The book's easy-to-read style makes it suitable for non-programmers, but its content is detailed enough to warrant a read by seasoned coders. While it isn't a panacea for the challenges of XML B2B, it's a good place to start.

Author: Erik T. Ray
Published: 1-Feb-2001
Pages: 350
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List Price: $34.95
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Author Erik T. Ray begins with an excellent summary of XML's history as an outgrowth of SGML and HTML. He outlines very clearly the elements of markup, demystifying concepts such as attributes, entities, and namespaces with numerous clear examples. To illustrate a real-world XML application, he gives the reader a look at a document written in DocBook--a publicly available XML document type for publishing technical writings--and explains the sections of the document step by step. A more simplified version of DocBook is used later in the book to illustrate transformation--a powerful benefit of XML.

The all-important Document Type Definition (DTD) is covered in depth, but the still-unofficial alternative, XML Schema, is only briefly addressed. The author makes liberal use of graphics, tables, and code to demonstrate concepts along the way, keeping the reader engaged and on track. Ray also goes deep into some discussion of programming XML utilities with Perl.

Learning XML is a very readable introduction to XML for readers with existing knowledge of markup and Web technologies. It meets its goals very well--to deliver a broad perspective of XML and its potential.