Essential XML Quick Reference: A Programmer's Reference to XML, XPath, XSLT, XML Schema, SOAP, and More (DevelopMentor) Book

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 AndersonRead More