XML in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference

by Harold, Elliotte Rusty; Means, W. Scott

• ISBN13: 9780596002923
• ISBN10: 0596002920
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-06-01
• Publisher: Oreilly & Associates Inc

Summary

This powerful new edition provides developers with a comprehensive guide to the rapidly evolving XML space. Serious users of XML will find topics on just about everything they need, from fundamental syntax rules, to details of DTD and XML Schema creation, to XSLT transformations, to APIs used for processing XML documents. Simply put, this is the only reference of its kind among XML books.Whether you're a Web designer using SVG to add vector graphics to web pages, or a C++ programmer using SOAP to serialize objects into a remote database,XML in a Nutshellthoroughly explains the basic rules that all XML documents -- and all XML document creators -- must adhere to, including: Essentials of the core XML standards: With this book, you can develop an understanding of well-formed XML, DTDs, namespaces, Unicode, and W3C XML Schema quickly. Key technologies used mainly for narrative XML documents such as web pages, books, and articles: You'll gain a working knowledge of XSLT, Xpath, Xlink, Xpointer, CSS, and XSL-FO. Technologies for building data-intensive XML applications, and for processing XML documents of any kind: One of the most unexpected developments in XML has been its enthusiastic adoption for structured documents used for storing, and exchanging used by a wide variety of programs. This book will help you understand the tools and APIs needed to write software that processes XML, including the event-based Simple API for XML (SAX2) and the tree-oriented Document Object Model (DOM). Quick-reference chapters also detail syntax rules and usage examples for the core XML technologies, including XML, DTDs, Xpath, XSLT, SAX, and DOM. If you need explanation of how a technology works, or just need to quickly find the precise syntax for a particular piece, this up-to-date edition is ready with the information.XML in a Nutshellis an essential guide for developers who need to create XML-based file formats and data structures for use in XML documents. This is one book you'll want to close at hand as you delve into XML.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Part I. XML Concepts
Introducing XML	3	(9)
The Benefits of XML	3	(3)
Portable Data	6	(1)
How XML Works	7	(1)
The Evolution of XML	8	(4)
XML Fundamentals	12	(15)
XML Documents and XML Files	12	(1)
Elements, Tags, and Character Data	13	(3)
Attributes	16	(2)
XML Names	18	(1)
Entity References	19	(1)
CDATA Sections	20	(1)
Comments	21	(1)
Processing Instructions	21	(2)
The XML Declaration	23	(1)
Checking Documents for Well-Formedness	24	(3)
Document Type Definitions (DTDs)	27	(33)
Validation	28	(8)
Element Declarations	36	(5)
Attribute Declarations	41	(7)
General Entity Declarations	48	(1)
External Parsed General Entities	49	(2)
External Unparsed Entities and Notations	51	(2)
Parameter Entities	53	(2)
Conditional Inclusion	55	(1)
Two DTD Examples	56	(2)
Locating Standard DTDs	58	(2)
Namespaces	60	(12)
The Need for Namespaces	60	(3)
Namespace Syntax	63	(6)
How Parsers Handle Namespaces	69	(1)
Namespaces and DTDs	69	(3)
Internationalization	72	(17)
Character-Set Metadata	72	(1)
The Encoding Declaration	73	(1)
Text Declarations	74	(1)
XML-Defined Character Sets	75	(1)
Unicode	75	(3)
ISO Character Sets	78	(1)
Platform-Dependent Character Sets	79	(1)
Converting Between Character Sets	80	(1)
The Default Character Set for XML Documents	81	(1)
Character References	82	(3)
xml:lang	85	(4)
Part II. Narrative-Centric Documents
XML as a Document Format	89	(13)
SGML's Legacy	89	(1)
Narrative Document Structures	90	(2)
TEI	92	(3)
DocBook	95	(3)
Document Permanence	98	(2)
Transformation and Presentation	100	(2)
XML on the Web	102	(34)
XHTML	103	(6)
Direct Display of XML in Browsers	109	(5)
Authoring Compound Documents with Modular XHTML	114	(17)
Prospects for Improved Web-Search Methods	131	(5)
XSL Transformations (XSLT)	136	(18)
An Example Input Document	136	(1)
xsl:stylesheet and xsl:transform	137	(2)
Stylesheet Processors	139	(1)
Templates and Template Rules	140	(1)
Calculating the Value of an Element with xsl:value-of	141	(1)
Applying Templates with xsl:apply-templates	142	(3)
The Built-in Template Rules	145	(4)
Modes	149	(2)
Attribute Value Templates	151	(1)
XSLT and Namespaces	151	(2)
Other XSLT Elements	153	(1)
XPath	154	(21)
The Tree Structure of an XML Document	154	(3)
Location Paths	157	(5)
Compound Location Paths	162	(1)
Predicates	163	(1)
Unabbreviated Location Paths	164	(3)
General XPath Expressions	167	(3)
XPath Functions	170	(5)
XLinks	175	(15)
Simple Links	175	(2)
Link Behavior	177	(2)
Link Semantics	179	(1)
Extended Links	180	(7)
Linkbases	187	(1)
DTDs for XLinks	188	(2)
XPointers	190	(12)
XPointers on URLs	190	(2)
XPointers in Links	192	(1)
Bare Names	193	(1)
Child Sequences	194	(1)
Namespaces	195	(1)
Points	195	(2)
Ranges	197	(5)
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)	202	(15)
The Three Levels of CSS	204	(1)
CSS Syntax	204	(2)
Associating Stylesheets with XML Documents	206	(2)
Selectors	208	(3)
The Display Property	211	(1)
Pixels, Points, Picas, and Other Units of Length	212	(1)
Font Properties	213	(1)
Text Properties	214	(2)
Colors	216	(1)
XSL Formatting Objects (XSL-FO)	217	(17)
XSL Formatting Objects	218	(2)
The Structure of an XSL-FO Document	220	(1)
Laying Out the Master Pages	221	(6)
XSL-FO Properties	227	(5)
Choosing Between CSS and XSL-FO	232	(2)
Resource Directory Description Language (RDDL)	234	(9)
What's at the End of a Namespace URL?	234	(1)
RDDL Syntax	235	(4)
Natures	239	(1)
Purposes	240	(3)
Part III. Data-Centric XML
XML as a Data Format	243	(11)
Why Use XML for Data?	243	(4)
Developing Data-Oriented XML Formats	247	(5)
Sharing Your XML format	252	(2)
XML Schemas	254	(33)
Overview	254	(2)
Schema Basics	256	(6)
Working with Namespaces	262	(3)
Complex Types	265	(3)
Empty Elements	268	(1)
Simple Content	269	(5)
Mixed Content	274	(3)
Allowing Any Content	277	(5)
Controlling Type Derivation	282	(5)
Programming Models	287	(9)
Common XML Processing Models	287	(5)
Common XML Processing Issues	292	(4)
Document Object Model (DOM)	296	(20)
DOM Foundations	296	(2)
Structure of the DOM Core	298	(1)
Node and Other Generic Interfaces	299	(4)
Specific Node-Type Interfaces	303	(8)
The DOMImplementation Interface	311	(1)
Parsing a Document with DOM	311	(1)
A Simple DOM Application	312	(4)
Simple API for XML (SAX)	316	(19)
The Content Handler Interface	318	(8)
SAX Features and Properties	326	(2)
Filters	328	(7)
Part IV. Reference
XML 1.0 Reference	335	(37)
How to Use This Refernce	335	(1)
Annotated Sample Documents	335	(4)
XML Syntax	339	(16)
Constraints	355	(11)
XML Document Grammar	366	(6)
Schemas Reference	372	(44)
The Schema Namespaces	372	(1)
Schema Elements	373	(23)
Primitive Types	396	(17)
Instance Document Attributes	413	(3)
XPath Reference	416	(14)
The XPath Data Model	416	(1)
Data Types	417	(1)
Location Paths	418	(4)
Predicates	422	(1)
XPath Functions	423	(7)
XSLT Reference	430	(28)
The XSLT Namespace	430	(1)
XSLT Elements	430	(22)
XSLT Functions	452	(4)
TrAX	456	(2)
DOM Reference	458	(55)
Object Hierarchy	459	(1)
Object Reference	460	(53)
SAX Reference	513	(18)
The org.xml.sax Package	513	(7)
The org.xml.sax.helpers Package	520	(7)
SAX Features and Properties	527	(1)
The org.xml.sax.ext Package	528	(3)
Character Sets	531	(58)
Character Tables	533	(5)
HTML4 Entity Sets	538	(8)
Other Unicode Blocks	546	(43)
Index	589