Got data? XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a W3C standard for encoding self-describing data. It is designed to ease the interchange of diverse types of data across a variety of platforms and applications, including the WWW.

This course presents a detailed introduction to XML and its related alphabet soup: DTD and Schema (for specifying document types), XSL (for stylesheets), DOM (for object tree construction) and SAX (for event-based parsing).

It will provide sufficient depth to enable an evaluation of XML's suitability for your needs. Attendees will learn the basic skills of defining and creating XML documents and the use of an XML validator, stylesheet processing using CSS and XSL, and use of the DOM and SAX parsers to extract XML content for use in Java programs.

The course consists of 5 half-day modules with lab exercises to be done in class or by students between sessions.

The presentation will be technical, suitable for application programmers and technical managers, with at least a reading knowledge of Java. Detailed knowledge of SGML and HTML are not required. If you choose the hands-on version, the exercises in the Parsers require the ability to write Java programs.

• XML Basics
• Self-describing data
• XML-based Domain-Specific Languages
• Tools
• XML Details
  • Document structure
  • Elements and Attributes
  • Character Data
  • Mixed Content
  • Comments
  • Well-formedness
  • Validity
• Topics
  • Compression and Encryption
  • XSL and XLL
  • Namespaces
  • Schema
  • SOAP
  • XHTML
  • XInclude

DTDs - The Metadata

• DTD structure
• Elements Declarations
• Attribute Declarations
• Attribute Normalization

Entities

• Internal and External DTD
• Character References
• Entity
• Parameter Entity
• External Entity
• Unparsed Entity

XML Schema

• Schema Structure
• Element Declarations
• Complex Types
• Sequences
• Attribute Declarations
• Comparison of DTD's and Schemas
• Schema Gotchas
• Alternatives to Schema

DOM and SAX Parsers

• Reading an XML document
  • SAX- Simple API for XML
  • DOM- Document Object Model
• Error Handling
• Document creation, mutation, rendering in DOM
• The future of DOM and SAX

StyleSheet Processing

• XSLT
• CSS
• Custom Code and Servlets
• Stylesheet Tips
• Other Alternatives

Tom Cargill and Greg Holling