XML Technical Overview — a 1-day course

 Closed In-House Course Free Lifetime Support

Synopsis

This course provides a basic, broad introduction to XML. The course is balanced mixture of theory and practical information designed to give strudents a grounding in the fundamenals for XML and using XML with Java. The course begins with an introduction to XML and the structure of XML documents, and then continues with the basic relationship between Java and XML. It includes an overview of generating XML from Java, the mapping between Java and XML object, examination of the two main JAXP API's - SAX and DOM.

Suitable For

• Developers who need to understand how XML works and where it can be used

Please note: Programmers who need to acquire practical/craft skills in XML development will find our 3-day XML course (Introduction to XML Development) more suitable.

Prerequisites

• None, but some understanding of Java would be helpful to understand the Java/XML material

Contents

Introduction to XML

• What is XML?
• History:SGML and HTML
• Why have XML?
• How are HTML and XML related?
• A Simple HTML Example
• An XML Analogy
• XML Separates Structure, Content and Format
• XML Document Syntax Rules
• A Document Type Definition
• Format: XSL
• XML Transformation to HTML / VoiceXML / Email List / PDF
• XML Author Roles and Tool Roles
• XML Applications
• Overview of Case Study

How an XML document is constructed (XML syntax)

• XML Document Structure
• XML Declaration
• Example of element usage
• Document Must Have Single Root Element
• Elements Must Have Close Tags
• Empty Tags end With />
• Elements with Content
• XML is Case Sensitive
• XML Names Are Special
• Attribute Values Must Be Quoted
• Processing Instructions
• Comments
• Content as MarkUp
• Tell Parser That Text is Data
• Use Predefined Entities
• Namespaces Associate Alias with a URI
• XML Document Structure
• Reviewing an XML Instance
• Well-Formed and Valid XMl Documents
• Why are These Definitions Important?
• XML Separates Structure, Content and Format

Structure Using DTDs

• Document Type Definition (DTD)
• A Document Type Definition
• Document Type Declaration
• DOCTYPE: Internal Subset
• DOCTYPE: External Subset
• DOCTYPE: Public Identifier
• Internal/External Subsets
• Root Element: The Markup
• J2EE Enterprise Archive
• Element Declarations
• Content Specifications
• Mixed Content Model
• Attribute Declarations
• Attribute Types
• Default Declaration
• Elements vs. Attributes: When to use them?
• Benefits From Valid XML
• Exercise: Let's Take a Look at Some DTDs
• Exercise: DTDs and Valid XML Documents
• Complex Content Models
• Attribute Types
• Restrictions on Enumerated List

Namespaces

• Name Conflicts Can Be a Problem in XML
• Unique Names of Attributes Could Be Used
• Namespaces Are W3C Solution
• Namespaces Associate an Alias with a URI
• Uniform Resource Indicator
• Declaring a Namespace
• Parsers Use URI, Not the Alias
• Namespace Scope
• Default Namespace
• Attributes and Namespaces
• Namespaces Further Restrict XML Names
• Example of Namespaces
• Namespaces Best Practices
• Demo: Working with Namespaces

Structure Using Schemas

• Benefits from Valid XML
• DTDs Have Some Limitations
• XML Schemas: Objectives
• Impacts of Schemas & examples
• Corresponding XML Schema
• Global and Local Components
• Schemas Bring Data Types to Validation
• Built-In Types
• Restricting Simple Types: Facet
• Complex Types Bring More to Validation
• Repetition Control
• Restricting Simple Types
• Groups
• Schema Components
• Complex Types Can be Derived
• Derivation by Extension
• Associating Schemas with XML Instances
• Namespaces Provide Thread of Connection
• Schema Defines a Target Namespace
• Reviewing a Schema and Document
• Schema Composition
• Reusable Groups
• Demo: Schema Development and Use

CSS and Rendering XML

• Simple Lessons from HTML
• Cascading Style Sheets
• How Do They 'Cascade'?
• HTML Processing Flow
• How does XML ImpactStyling?
• Cascading Style Sheets and XML
• XML/CSS Processing Flow
• Rendering Need Exceed CSS's Abilities
• Inconsistent Support for XML

XSL Transformations

• XSL Standards Have Evolved
• XPath Describes Locations Within XML
• XSLT is a Rule-Based Transformation Language
• XSL is Oriented Towards Formatting
• XSL Family Working Together
• Allows Different Output From Stylesheet
• Stylesheets Can Be Linked to XML Instance
• XPath Accesses Parts of Document
• XSLT Templates Specify Output Replacement
• XSLT Can Output HTML
• XSLT Uses Xpath Expressions Within Templates
• XSLT Walk Through
• XSL Stylesheet is an XML Document
• Demo: XSLT and Transforming XML

XSLT and XPath

• XSL Version Issues
• What is XPath?
• XPath Addresses XML Document as a Tree
• An XPath Expression Has Two Parts
• Expressions Can Be Absolute or Relative
• The Axis Points the Way
• Abbreviated Axis Forms Are Commonly Used
• An XPath Expression Performs a Node Test
• Predicates
• XPath Operator; Functions; Examples
• Demo: Working With XPath
• What is XSLT?
• XSLT Stylesheets Are XML Documents
• Templates Are The Rules in a Stylesheet
• Building a Stylesheet
• Text Handling; Calling Templates; Passing Parameters
• Conditional Processing Constructs
• Starting With the Basics
• Demo: XSLT Development and Us