- 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
Creating an Example XML Document
The sample document you'll use today, and which you'll also see tomorrow when working with DTDs, will store data about a set of employees, such as their names, projects they're working on, and so on. This document will start, as all XML documents should, with an XML declaration:
<?xml version = "1.0"?>
Because all the documents you'll see today are self-contained (they don't refer to or include any external entities), you'll also add the standalone attribute, setting it to "yes", and specify that we're using UTF-8 encoding:
<?xml version = "1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
And you'll also add a root element, called <document> in this case, although you can use any legal name:
<?xml version = "1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?> <document> . . . </document>
The root element will contain all the other elements in the document. In this case, that will be three <employee> elements:
<?xml version = "1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?> <document> <employee> . . . </employee> <employee> . . . </employee> <employee> . . . </employee> </document>
For each employee, we can store a name in a <name> element, which itself encloses a <lastname> and <firstname> element:
<?xml version = "1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?> <document> <employee> <name> <lastname>Kelly</lastname> <firstname>Grace</firstname> </name> . . . </employee> . . . </document>
We'll also store each employee's hire date, as well as the projects they're working on. For each project, we can store the product name, ID, and price:
<?xml version = "1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?> <document> <employee> <name> <lastname>Kelly</lastname> <firstname>Grace</firstname> </name> <hiredate>October 15, 2005</hiredate> <projects> <project> <product>Printer</product> <id>111</id> <price>$111.00</price> </project> <project> <product>Laptop</product> <id>222</id> <price>$989.00</price> </project> </projects> </employee> . . . </document>
That's what the data looks like for one employee; you can see the full document, ch03_01.xml, in Listing 3.1. Documents like this one can grow very long, but that presents no problem to XML processors—as long as the document is well-formed.
Example 3.1. Sample Well-Formed XML Document (ch03_01.xml)
<?xml version = "1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?> <document> <employee> <name> <lastname>Kelly</lastname> <firstname>Grace</firstname> </name> <hiredate>October 15, 2005</hiredate> <projects> <project> <product>Printer</product> <id>111</id> <price>$111.00</price> </project> <project> <product>Laptop</product> <id>222</id> <price>$989.00</price> </project> </projects> </employee> <employee> <name> <lastname>Grant</lastname> <firstname>Cary</firstname> </name> <hiredate>October 20, 2005</hiredate> <projects> <project> <product>Desktop</product> <id>333</id> <price>$2995.00</price> </project> <project> <product>Scanner</product> <id>444</id> <price>$200.00</price> </project> </projects> </employee> <employee> <name> <lastname>Gable</lastname> <firstname>Clark</firstname> </name> <hiredate>October 25, 2005</hiredate> <projects> <project> <product>Keyboard</product> <id>555</id> <price>$129.00</price> </project> <project> <product>Mouse</product> <id>666</id> <price>$25.00</price> </project> </projects> </employee> </document>
Today's work gets us into the structure of XML documents, and there's some terminology we should get to know at this point having to do with the relative position of elements in an XML document. As an example, take a look at an employee element in ch03_01.xml.
Elements on the same level, such as <name>, <hiredate>, and <projects> in an <employee> element, are all called siblings. Similarly, the two <project> elements in each <projects> element are siblings.
This family-type relationship is also continued with child and parent relationships. For example, the parent of the two <project> elements is the <projects> element. And the two <project> elements are children of the <projects> element.
You can always count on every non-root element to have exactly one, and only one, parent element. And a parent element can enclose an indefinite number of child elements (which can also mean zero child elements). You can continue the analogy to multiple generations as well; for example, the two <project> elements in this case are also grandchildren of the <employee> element.
That gives us the example document and terminology we'll need; now let's take a look at the well-formedness constraints you'll find in XML.