- 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
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Working with the XML DOM in JavaScript
To put the XML DOM to work with JavaScript, let's start by reading the value of an element in an XML document. Listing 15.1 shows the XML document ch15_01.xml, which details the attendance of a senate committee on doughnut consumption. Today you'll extract the name of the third senator, Jay Jones, from it, by using JavaScript.
Example 15.1. A Sample XML Document (ch15_01.xml)
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<session>
<committee type="monetary">
<title>Finance</title>
<number>17</number>
<subject>Donut Costs</subject>
<date>7/15/2005</date>
<attendees>
<senator status="present">
<firstName>Thomas</firstName>
<lastName>Smith</lastName>
</senator>
<senator status="absent">
<firstName>Frank</firstName>
<lastName>McCoy</lastName>
</senator>
<senator status="present">
<firstName>Jay</firstName>
<lastName>Jones</lastName>
</senator>
</attendees>
</committee>
</session>
Now you need to build the JavaScript to read the name of the third senator in the example. To start, create a DOMDocument object and load in the XML document ch15_01.xml, like this:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>
Extracting XML Data
</TITLE>
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
function readXMLData()
{
var xmlDocumentObject
xmlDocumentObject = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
xmlDocumentObject.load("ch15_01.xml")
.
.
.
Now ch15_01.xml is loaded into the DOMDocument object. You can use this object's documentElement property to get a new node that corresponds to the document element (that is, <session>):
sessionNode = xmlDocumentObject.documentElement
Now you have the <session> element's node, and you want to navigate to the third senator's name. Start by getting an XMLDOMElement node for the <committee> element by using the <session> element object's firstChild property:
committeeNode = sessionNode.firstChild
Next, you can get a node object for the <attendees> element:
attendeesNode = committeeNode.lastChild
And then you get a node object for the last <senator> element by using the <attendees> node's lastChild property:
senatorNode = attendeesNode.lastChild
To get the senator's first name (stored in the <firstName> element), you use the <senator> element node's firstChild property, and to get the senator's last name (stored in the <lastName> element), you can get the next sibling element:
firstNameNode = senatorNode.firstChild lastNameNode = firstNameNode.nextSibling
Now that you have node objects corresponding to the <firstName> and <lastName> elements, you can access the text nodes in those elements by using the firstChild property, and you can get the actual text by using those nodes' nodeValue properties. You can display those values by using Dynamic HTML in an HTML <DIV> element, like this:
displayText = "Last senator's name: " +
firstNameNode.firstChild.nodeValue + ' '
+ lastNameNode.firstChild.nodeValue
displayDIV.innerHTML = displayText
Listing 15.2 shows how this all works in ch15_02.html, which gives all the HTML and JavaScript you'll need today.
Example 15.2. Using JavaScript and XML (ch15_02.html)
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>
Extracting XML Data
</TITLE>
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
function readXMLData()
{
var xmlDocumentObject, sessionNode, committeeNode,
attendeesNode
var firstNameNode, lastNameNode, displayText
xmlDocumentObject = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
xmlDocumentObject.load("ch15_01.xml")
sessionNode = xmlDocumentObject.documentElement
committeeNode = sessionNode.firstChild
attendeesNode = committeeNode.lastChild
senatorNode = attendeesNode.lastChild
firstNameNode = senatorNode.firstChild
lastNameNode = firstNameNode.nextSibling
displayText = "Last senator's name: " +
firstNameNode.firstChild.nodeValue + ' '
+ lastNameNode.firstChild.nodeValue
displayDIV.innerHTML = displayText
}
</SCRIPT>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<H1>
Extracting XML Data
</H1>
<INPUT TYPE="BUTTON" VALUE="Get the last senator's name"
ONCLICK="readXMLData()">
<BR>
<DIV ID="displayDIV"></DIV>
</BODY>
</HTML>
Figure 15.1 shows this page at work in Internet Explorer. When the user clicks the button, the XML document ch15_01.xml is read and parsed, and you retrieve and display the third person's name. You've made substantial progress.
)
Figure 15.1 Reading an XML element in Internet Explorer.
There's another way to do this in Internet Explorer—by using XML data islands. XML data islands let us embed XML in an HTML document, and this is how to use them:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>XML Islands</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<P>This example uses an XML Island.</P>
<XML>
<document>
<title>
The Report
</title>
<text>
All clear on the Western front.
</text>
</document>
</XML>
</BODY>
</HTML>
Here are the attributes you use with the <XML> element:
- ID — Contains the ID with which you can refer to the <XML> element in code. This attribute should be set to an alphanumeric string.
- NS — Contains the URI of the XML namespace used by the XML content. This attribute should be set to a URI.
- PREFIX — Contains the namespace prefix of the XML contents. This attribute should be set to an alphanumeric string.
- SRC — Contains the source for the XML document, if the document is external. This attribute should be set to a URI.
You can use the <XML> element, along with the SRC and ID attributes, to read in XML documents and make them accessible. Listing 15.3 shows how this works. This example uses an XML island to get access to the XML document ch15_01.xml.
Example 15.3. Using JavaScript and XML Islands (ch15_03.html)
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>
Extracting XML Data
</TITLE>
<XML ID="committeeXML" SRC="ch15_01.xml"></XML>
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
function readXMLData()
{
var xmlDocumentObject, sessionNode, committeeNode,
attendeesNode
var firstNameNode, lastNameNode, displayText
xmlDocumentObject= document.all("committeeXML").XMLDocument
sessionNode = xmlDocumentObject.documentElement
committeeNode = sessionNode.firstChild
attendeesNode = committeeNode.lastChild
senatorNode = attendeesNode.lastChild
firstNameNode = senatorNode.firstChild
lastNameNode = firstNameNode.nextSibling
displayText = "Last senator's name: " +
firstNameNode.firstChild.nodeValue + ' '
+ lastNameNode.firstChild.nodeValue
displayDIV.innerHTML = displayText
}
</SCRIPT>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<H1>
Extracting XML Data
</H1>
<INPUT TYPE="BUTTON" VALUE="Get the last senator's name"
ONCLICK="readXMLData()">
<P>
<DIV ID="displayDIV"></DIV>
</BODY>
</HTML>
This example works just like Listing 15.2. In fact, if you want to, you can enclose the entire text of the XML document, ch15_01.xml, in the XML island.