XML Applications

XML has become an essential tool in an application developer's toolbox, allowing for easy interchange of pure data between disparate systems across both the Internet and within complex internal networks. XML stands poised to transform the Internet, offering an easier way to conduct business-to-business transactions and a better means for searching and managing data.

Delegates will learn how to use XML to transcend the limitations of HTML and deliver rich, structured data from any application as well as create well-formed and valid XML documents. This class will give the delegate a solid introduction to the basic concepts of XML (Extensible Markup Language) and they will learn about and do several exercises with each of the main XML-related technologies: DTDs, Schemas, CSS Style Sheets, XSL, and use of the DOM via JavaScript. Additionally, some of the main XML enabled features of SQL Server and ASP are covered, to also learn how to integrate XML with existing applications.

This course is valuable for those involved in building Web applications or developing enterprise solutions, including developers, analysts and managers. It assumes little or no knowledge of XML. Knowledge of, and experience with databases is assumed, and some HTML experience is required, as is experience of the JavaScript scripting language. At the end of the course delegates will have a good knowledge of key XML technologies, and the basis on which to build their knowledge and experience in niche areas of XML application development.

Introduction

  • Markup languages
  • SGML, HTML and XML
  • Applications for XML
  • XML Tools

XML Syntax and Structure

  • Tags
  • Elements
  • Attributes
  • Comments
  • Processing Instructions
  • Well-formed structure
  • Valid structure
  • Exercise: Create a simple document using XML markup.
  • DTDs and Schemas - why and when to use them

Document Type Definition (DTD)

  • Elements and occurrence indicators
  • Defining attributes
  • Entities
  • Internal and external DTDs
  • Specifying the DTD to the XML document
  • Using the DTD to validate an XML document
  • Exercise: Write a DTD based on our XML document.

Namespaces

  • Benefits of namespaces
  • Assigning Uniform Resource Identifiers (Uri’s) to namespaces

XML Schemas

  • Simple and Complex Element Types
  • ElementType and Element tags - defining elements
  • AttributeType and Attribute tags - defining attributes
  • Data types
  • Using the Schema to validate an XML document
  • Exercise: Write a Schema to reflect the structures of an XML document.

CSS Style Sheets with XML

  • Associating a style sheet with an XML document
  • Creating text blocks
  • Fonts, sizes, bold, italics and other character styles
  • Using margins and borders to create text boxes
  • Creating tables
  • Exercise: Create style sheets to display our sample documents in a browser.

Transforming XML

  • XSLT
  • XPath
  • XSL-FO
  • Input and output trees
  • Template syntax
  • Calling and applying templates
  • Processing documents with pattern matching and templates
  • Programming with XSL functions
  • Filtering and sorting data with XSL
  • Exercise: Write XSL stylesheets that will convert several XML files into HTML for display in a browser. Sort output in a variety of different ways and present it in a browser.

Document Object Model (DOM)

  • Introduction
  • Parsing
  • Navigation Basics
  • Using JavaScript to access the DOM
  • DOM related JavaScript commands
  • Using XML data islands
  • Parsing the XML document
  • Finding the root element and navigating through the document
  • Recursive processing inside the DOM
  • Exercise: Write several JavaScript routines to extract and display a variety of data based on user request.

Parsing XML data with the Simple API for XML (SAX)

  • Event-driven SAX model
  • Accessing elements, attributes and error handling in SAX
  • Integrating SAX with the DOM

ASP and XML

  • Using the MSXML Parser
  • Generating XML data from a database
  • Server side Transformations
  • Exercise: Transform XML documents using ASP scripting
  • The future – ASP.NET

XML and SQL Server 2000

  • Overview of XML features in SQL Server 2000
  • Retrieving XML Data with T-SQL
  • Creating XML documents containing data from multiple tables
  • Controlling XML Output
  • Generating Custom XML Formats
  • Exercise: Retrieve XML data from SQL Server

SOAP for b2b Communication

  • SOAP structure
  • Representing data in SOAP
  • Interpreting SOAP bindings
  • Invoking remote functionality with SOAP RPC
  • Passing messages with SOAP

Exercises: exercises will be presented during the class in response to delegates’ requests, and time permitting.

 

This course includes full course notes and course materials. This outline can be tailored to specific client requirements

 		  
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