- Sams Teach Yourself XML in 21 Days, Third Edition
- Table of Contents
- About the Author
- Acknowledgments
- We Want to Hear from You!
- Introduction
- Part I: At a Glance
- Day 1. Welcome to XML
- All About Markup Languages
- All About XML
- Looking at XML in a Browser
- Working with XML Data Yourself
- Structuring Your Data
- Creating Well-Formed XML Documents
- Creating Valid XML Documents
- How XML Is Used in the Real World
- Online XML Resources
- Summary
- Q&A
- Workshop
- Day 2. Creating XML Documents
- Choosing an XML Editor
- Using XML Browsers
- Using XML Validators
- Creating XML Documents Piece by Piece
- Creating Prologs
- Creating an XML Declaration
- Creating XML Comments
- Creating Processing Instructions
- Creating Tags and Elements
- Creating CDATA Sections
- Handling Entities
- Summary
- Q&A
- Workshop
- Day 3. Creating Well-Formed XML Documents
- What Makes an XML Document Well-Formed?
- Creating an Example XML Document
- Understanding the Well-Formedness Constraints
- Using XML Namespaces
- Understanding XML Infosets
- Understanding Canonical XML
- Summary
- Q&A
- Workshop
- Day 4. Creating Valid XML Documents: DTDs
- All About DTDs
- Validating a Document by Using a DTD
- Creating Element Content Models
- Commenting a DTD
- Supporting External DTDs
- Handling Namespaces in DTDs
- Summary
- Q&A
- Workshop
- Declaring Attributes in DTDs
- Day 5. Handling Attributes and Entities in DTDs
- Specifying Default Values
- Specifying Attribute Types
- Handling Entities
- Summary
- Q&A
- Workshop
- Day 6. Creating Valid XML Documents: XML Schemas
- Using XML Schema Tools
- Creating XML Schemas
- Dissecting an XML Schema
- The Built-in XML Schema Elements
- Creating Elements and Types
- Specifying a Number of Elements
- Specifying Element Default Values
- Creating Attributes
- Summary
- Q&A
- Workshop
- Day 7. Creating Types in XML Schemas
- Restricting Simple Types by Using XML Schema Facets
- Creating XML Schema Choices
- Using Anonymous Type Definitions
- Declaring Empty Elements
- Declaring Mixed-Content Elements
- Grouping Elements Together
- Grouping Attributes Together
- Declaring all Groups
- Handling Namespaces in Schemas
- Annotating an XML Schema
- Summary
- Q&A
- Workshop
- Part I. In Review
- Well-Formed Documents
- Valid Documents
- Part II: At a Glance
- Day 8. Formatting XML by Using Cascading Style Sheets
- Our Sample XML Document
- Introducing CSS
- Connecting CSS Style Sheets and XML Documents
- Creating Style Sheet Selectors
- Using Inline Styles
- Creating Style Rule Specifications in Style Sheets
- Summary
- Q&A
- Workshop
- Day 9. Formatting XML by Using XSLT
- Introducing XSLT
- Transforming XML by Using XSLT
- Writing XSLT Style Sheets
- Using <xsl:apply-templates>
- Using <xsl:value-of> and <xsl:for-each>
- Matching Nodes by Using the match Attribute
- Working with the select Attribute and XPath
- Using <xsl:copy>
- Using <xsl:if>
- Using <xsl:choose>
- Specifying the Output Document Type
- Summary
- Q&A
- Workshop
- Day 10. Working with XSL Formatting Objects
- Introducing XSL-FO
- Using XSL-FO
- Using XSL Formatting Objects and Properties
- Building an XSL-FO Document
- Handling Inline Formatting
- Formatting Lists
- Formatting Tables
- Summary
- Q&A
- Workshop
- Part II. In Review
- Using CSS
- Using XSLT
- Using XSL-FO
- Part III: At a Glance
- Day 11. Extending HTML with XHTML
- Why XHTML?
- Writing XHTML Documents
- Validating XHTML Documents
- The Basic XHTML Elements
- Organizing Text
- Formatting Text
- Selecting Fonts: <font>
- Comments: <!-->
- Summary
- Q&A
- Workshop
- Day 12. Putting XHTML to Work
- Creating Hyperlinks: <a>
- Linking to Other Documents: <link>
- Handling Images: <img>
- Creating Frame Documents: <frameset>
- Creating Frames: <frame>
- Creating Embedded Style Sheets: <style>
- Formatting Tables: <table>
- Creating Table Rows: <tr>
- Formatting Table Headers: <th>
- Formatting Table Data: <td>
- Extending XHTML
- Summary
- Q&A
- Workshop
- Day 13. Creating Graphics and Multimedia: SVG and SMIL
- Introducing SVG
- Creating an SVG Document
- Creating Rectangles
- Adobe's SVG Viewer
- Using CSS Styles
- Creating Circles
- Creating Ellipses
- Creating Lines
- Creating Polylines
- Creating Polygons
- Creating Text
- Creating Gradients
- Creating Paths
- Creating Text Paths
- Creating Groups and Transformations
- Creating Animation
- Creating Links
- Creating Scripts
- Embedding SVG in HTML
- Introducing SMIL
- Summary
- Q&A
- Workshop
- Day 14. Handling XLinks, XPointers, and XForms
- Introducing XLinks
- Beyond Simple XLinks
- Introducing XPointers
- Introducing XBase
- Introducing XForms
- Summary
- Workshop
- Part III. In Review
- Part IV: At a Glance
- Day 15. Using JavaScript and XML
- Introducing the W3C DOM
- Introducing the DOM Objects
- Working with the XML DOM in JavaScript
- Searching for Elements by Name
- Reading Attribute Values
- Getting All XML Data from a Document
- Validating XML Documents by Using DTDs
- Summary
- Q&A
- Workshop
- Day 16. Using Java and .NET: DOM
- Using Java to Read XML Data
- Finding Elements by Name
- Creating an XML Browser by Using Java
- Navigating Through XML Documents
- Writing XML by Using Java
- Summary
- Q&A
- Workshop
- Day 17. Using Java and .NET: SAX
- An Overview of SAX
- Using SAX
- Using SAX to Find Elements by Name
- Creating an XML Browser by Using Java and SAX
- Navigating Through XML Documents by Using SAX
- Writing XML by Using Java and SAX
- Summary
- Q&A
- Workshop
- Day 18. Working with SOAP and RDF
- Introducing SOAP
- A SOAP Example in .NET
- A SOAP Example in Java
- Introducing RDF
- Summary
- Q&A
- Workshop
- Part IV. In Review
- Part V: At a Glance
- Day 19. Handling XML Data Binding
- Introducing DSOs
- Binding HTML Elements to HTML Data
- Binding HTML Elements to XML Data
- Binding HTML Tables to XML Data
- Accessing Individual Data Fields
- Binding HTML Elements to XML Data by Using the XML DSO
- Binding HTML Tables to XML Data by Using the XML DSO
- Searching XML Data by Using a DSO and JavaScript
- Handling Hierarchical XML Data
- Summary
- Q&A
- Workshop
- Day 20. Working with XML and Databases
- XML, Databases, and ASP
- Storing Databases as XML
- Using XPath with a Database
- Introducing XQuery
- Summary
- Q&A
- Workshop
- Day 21. Handling XML in .NET
- Creating and Editing an XML Document in .NET
- From XML to Databases and Back
- Reading and Writing XML in .NET Code
- Using XML Controls to Display Formatted XML
- Creating XML Web Services
- Summary
- Q&A
- Workshop
- Part V. In Review
- Appendix A. Quiz Answers
- Quiz Answers for Day 1
- Quiz Answers for Day 2
- Quiz Answers for Day 3
- Quiz Answers for Day 4
- Quiz Answers for Day 5
- Quiz Answers for Day 6
- Quiz Answers for Day 7
- Quiz Answers for Day 8
- Quiz Answers for Day 9
- Quiz Answers for Day 10
- Quiz Answers for Day 11
- Quiz Answers for Day 12
- Quiz Answers for Day 13
- Quiz Answers for Day 14
- Quiz Answers for Day 15
- Quiz Answers for Day 16
- Quiz Answers for Day 17
- Quiz Answers for Day 18
- Quiz Answers for Day 19
- Quiz Answers for Day 20
- Quiz Answers for Day 21
Introducing SVG
There have been a number of XML-based 2D graphics languages over the years. One of them—Vector Markup Language (VML)—is supported only in Internet Explorer. It's more correct to call VML a semi-XML language, actually. Listing 13.1 shows an example of VML that is embedded in HTML. VML has a major drawback: It is supported only in Internet Explorer.
Example 13.1. Using VML (ch13_01.html)
<HTML xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml"> <HEAD> <TITLE> Vector Markup Language Example </TITLE> <STYLE> v\:* {behavior: url(#default#VML);} </STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY> <CENTER> <H1> Vector Markup Language Example </H1> </CENTER> <v:rect style='width:80pt; height:60pt' fillcolor="green" strokecolor="red" strokeweight="4pt"/> <v:oval style='width:80pt; height:60pt' fillcolor="red"/> </BODY> </HTML>
Figure 13.1 shows what this example looks like in Internet Explorer.
Figure 13.1 A VML example.
Whereas VML is a proprietary semi-XML application that works only in Internet Explorer, SVG is more broadly based, and by using the SVG Viewer plug-in from Adobe, you can use SVG in browsers such as Netscape Navigator as well as Internet Explorer.
SVG is a general-purpose 2D graphics language that supports all kinds of powerful tools. It lets you draw basic shapes such as ellipses, rectangles, lines, and polygons, as well as display text, gradients, and so on. You can also create hyperlinks, script SVG by using languages such as JavaScript, and create animation. Here's how W3C describes SVG:
- SVG is a language for describing two-dimensional graphics in XML. SVG allows for three types of graphic objects: vector graphic shapes (e.g., paths consisting of straight lines and curves), images and text. Graphical objects can be grouped, styled, transformed and composited into previously rendered objects. Text can be in any XML namespace suitable to the application, which enhances searchability and accessibility of the SVG graphics. The feature set includes nested transformations, clipping paths, alpha masks, filter effects, template objects and extensibility.
- SVG drawings can be dynamic and interactive. The Document Object Model (DOM) for SVG, which includes the full XML DOM, allows for straightforward and efficient vector graphics animation via scripting. A rich set of event handlers such as onmouseover and onclick can be assigned to any SVG graphical object. Because of its compatibility and leveraging of other Web standards, features like scripting can be done on SVG elements and other XML elements from different namespaces simultaneously within the same Web page.
SVG includes the following built-in elements:
a |
altGlyph |
altGlyphDef |
altGlyphItem |
animate |
animateColor |
animateMotion |
animateTransform |
circle |
clipPath |
color-profile |
cursor |
definition-src |
defs |
desc |
ellipse |
feBlend |
feColorMatrix |
feComponentTransfer |
feComposite |
feConvolveMatrix |
feDiffuseLighting |
feDisplacementMap |
feDistantLight |
feFlood |
feFuncA |
feFuncB |
feFuncG |
feFuncR |
feGaussianBlur |
feImage |
feMerge |
feMergeNode |
feMorphology |
feOffset |
fePointLight |
feSpecularLighting |
feSpotLight |
feTile |
feTurbulence |
filter |
font |
font-face |
font-face-format |
font-face-name |
font-face-src |
font-face-uri |
foreignObject |
g |
glyph |
glyphRef |
hkern |
image |
line |
linearGradient |
marker |
mask |
metadata |
missing-glyph |
mpath |
path |
pattern |
polygon |
polyline |
radialGradient |
rect |
script |
set |
stop |
style |
svg |
switch |
symbol |
text |
textPath |
title |
tref |
tspan |
use |
view |
vkern |
SVG is actually a language of considerable depth; it includes all kinds of advanced features, such as spotlighting of elements and abstract shape modeling. Although today's discussion doesn't have the space to cover everything about SVG, you'll get a good SVG foundation.
Besides all the built-in elements, SVG also has the following colors predefined and ready for use:
aliceblue |
antiquewhite |
aqua |
aquamarine |
azure |
beige |
bisque |
black |
blanchedalmond |
blue |
blueviolet |
brown |
burlywood |
cadetblue |
chartreuse |
chocolate |
coral |
cornflowerblue |
cornsilk |
crimson |
cyan |
darkblue |
darkcyan |
darkgoldenrod |
darkgray |
darkgreen |
darkgrey |
darkkhaki |
darkmagenta |
darkolivegreen |
darkorange |
darkorchid |
darkred |
darksalmon |
darkseagreen |
darkslateblue |
darkslategray |
darkslategrey |
darkturquoise |
darkviolet |
deeppink |
deepskyblue |
dimgray |
dimgrey |
dodgerblue |
firebrick |
floralwhite |
forestgreen |
fuchsia |
gainsboro |
ghostwhite |
gold |
goldenrod |
gray |
grey |
green |
greenyellow |
honeydew |
hotpink |
indianred |
indigo |
ivory |
khaki |
lavender |
lavenderblush |
lawngreen |
lemonchiffon |
lightblue |
lightcoral |
lightcyan |
lightgoldenrodyellow |
lightgray |
lightgreen |
lightgrey |
lightpink |
lightsalmon |
lightseagreen |
lightskyblue |
lightslategray |
lightslategrey |
lightsteelblue |
lightyellow |
lime |
limegreen |
linen |
magenta |
maroon |
mediumaquamarine |
mediumblue |
mediumorchid |
mediumpurple |
mediumseagreen |
mediumslateblue |
mediumspringgreen |
mediumturquoise |
mediumvioletred |
midnightblue |
mintcream |
mistyrose |
moccasin |
navajowhite |
navy |
oldlace |
olive |
olivedrab |
orange |
orangered |
orchid |
palegoldenrod |
palegreen |
paleturquoise |
palevioletred |
papayawhip |
peachpuff |
peru |
pink |
plum |
powderblue |
purple |
red |
rosybrown |
royalblue |
saddlebrown |
salmon |
sandybrown |
seagreen |
seashell |
sienna |
silve |
skyblue |
slateblue |
slategray |
slategrey |
snow |
springgreen |
steelblue |
tan |
teal |
thistle |
tomato |
turquoise |
violet |
wheat |
white |
whitesmoke |
yellow |
yellowgreen |
In addition, you can specify colors by using hexadecimal numbers as in HTML. For example, #000000 is black, #0000FF is blue, and #FFFFFF is white.
Now that you've gotten an overview of SVG, you can start putting it to work by creating and testing your own SVG documents. You can use the free-to-download Adobe SVG Viewer to see what your documents look like in a browser.