Editorial Reviews:
Web-maven Elizabeth Castro, who has penned Peachpit books on HTML, Perl and CGI, and Netscape, now tackles XML--an indispensable tool for creating personalized, updated content for each visitor on your site. Whether you build Web pages for a living or you're taking on a new hobby, XML for the World Wide Web contains everything you need to create dynamic Web sites by writing XML code, developing custom XML applications with DTDs and schemas, transforming XML into personalized Web content through XSLT-based transformations, and professionally formatting XML documents with Cascading Style Sheets. The real power of XML lies in combining information from various sources and generating personalized content for different visitors. Castro's easy-to-follow graphics show exactly what XML looks like, and her real-world examples explain how to transform and streamline your Web-site creation process by automatically updating content.
The Visual QuickStart Guide series from Peachpit Press is known for boiling topics down to the essentials, and presenting them in an engaging and efficient way, to get the reader up to speed quickly. In applying this model to XML, author Elizabeth Castro had her work cut out for her. Fortunately for her readers, Castro has identified successfully the core components of XML, and presented them in a streamlined way. This book doesn't tackle any of the advanced elements of XML technology, such as SOAP, SAX, or integration with the Document Object Model (DOM). Instead, it focuses on teaching the basic nuts and bolts of creating XML documents, styling them, and defining their structure. This book moves at a fast pace. Document Type Definitions (DTDs), for instance, get only 30 pages of coverage. This tight format comprises simple examples that illustrate commands and concepts, instead of pages of text. The pages are presented in a two-column format, so that code fragments can be placed (wisely) side by side with the step-by-step explanatory text. Each topic example is supplemented with one or more useful implementation tips. For a true grasp of XML and all of its potential, you'll need to follow up this introductory tutorial with more reading on the applications of the technology and case studies. But this little book is a great way to learn the basics of XML in a weekend. --Stephen W. Plain Topics covered: - XML documents
- Document Type Definitions (DTDs)
- Schemas
- Namespaces
- XSLT and XPath
- Cascading style sheets (CSS)
- XLink
- XPointer
Customer Reviews:
Displaying 1 to 5 of 57 total reviews (Page 1 of 12):
 Not a stand-alone book
I've read through 2/3 of the book for an XML class. This book did not provide a good picture of what could be accomplished with XML. Nor did it explain steps well. I found myself getting very confused in many places and wondering why the author did what they did.
While the steps are succinct, you do need other resources to learn XML. I was very frustrated with the book. Not fair
Well I bought this book when there was already a new edition on amazom which was not yet released but you could buy it and get it when it comes. I did not know that this one was old edition and that the new one with hundred pages more was on the way. It should be written somewhere on your internet pages near the old edition which would be replaced with tho new one...  Good condition, price, and prompt shipping.
The book came fast and was in good condition. The price was really cheap too.  Awesome Beginner's Guide
This book though perhaps has many errors, it is still one of the best concept books out there. This will really get you started with XML smoothly. Some of the XML standards are rather complex, and I find this to be the most palatable material for understanding stuff like XSD and XSLT.
The book covers the basics of XML, how to define your XML schema through DTD, and then several chapters on XSD ("XML Schema and Namespaces") that include simple and complex types. The book follows up with XSML, usage of XPath and text expressions. Later there's coverage of cascading style sheets, XLink and XPointer.
I think there should be a newer version that will make corrections and update the material. I would love a chapter on RELAX-NG, as this is becoming popular to define schema for XML in some circles.
Overall, this is great book to get you started, and I would highly recommend this book as a quick spring board in the world of XML. Errors, Lots and Lots of Errors
37 errors are listed on the author's site. I think I found some new ones as well. The material moves from the specific to general, so that the reader must skip around quite a bit. The aforementioned errors make learning XML very tedious and frustrating. An edit should have done - it is apparent none was. I have used Castro's books in the past and have never experienced the problems I have with this one. I recommend against purchasing this book and I hope Peachpit will not repeat the problems encountered within. More Customer Reviews:
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(57 reviews)
