XML for Dummies - Dykes, Lucinda

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70% updated and revised to include the practical application of XML technologies including Office 2003 and RSS.

Résumé :
See how XML works for business needs and RSS feeds

Create consistency on the Web, or tag your data for different purposes

Tag -- XML is it! XML tags let you share your format as well as your data, and this handy guide will show you how. You'll soon be using this markup language to create everything from Web sites to business forms, discovering schemas and DOCTYPES, wandering the Xpath, teaming up XML with Office 2003, and more.

Discover how to
* Make information portable
* Use XML with Word 2003
* Store different types of data
* Convert HTML documents to XHTML
* Add CSS to XML
* Understand and use DTDs...

Biographie:
Lucinda Dykes started her career in a high-tech area of medicine, but left medicine to pursue her interests in technology and the Web. She has been writing code and developing Web sites since 1994, and also teaches and develops online courses - including the JavaScript courses for the International Webmasters Association/HTML Writers' Guild at www.eclasses.org.
Lucinda has authored, co-authored, edited, and been a contributing author to numerous computer books...

Sommaire:

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Conventions Used in This Book 2

Foolish Assumptions 3

How This Book Is Organized 4

Part I: XML Basics 4

Part II: XML and the Web 4

Part III: Building in Validation with DTDs and Schemas 5

Part IV: Transforming and Processing XML 6

Part V: XML Application Development 6

Part VI: The Part of Tens 7

Glossary 7

Icons Used in This Book 7

Where to Go from Here 8

Part I: XML Basics 9

Chapter 1: Getting to Know XML 11

XML (eXtreMely cooL) 12

Mocking up your own markup 12

Separating data and context 12

Making information portable 13

XML means business 13

Figuring Out What XML Is Good For 14

Classifying information 14

Enforcing rules on your data 15

Outputting information in a variety of ways 16

Using the same data across platforms 17

Beyond the Hype: What XML Isn't 18

It's not just for Web pages anymore 19

It's not a database 20

It's not a programming language 20

Building XML Documents 21

Chapter 2: Using XML for Many Purposes 23

Moving Legacy Data to XML 23

The Many Faces of XML 24

Creating XML-enabled Web pages 24

Print publishing with XML 25

Using XML for business forms 28

Incorporating XML into business processes 29

Serving up XML from a database 31

Alphabet Soup: Even More XML 31

Chapter 3: Slicing and Dicing Data Categories: The Art of Taxonomy 33

Taking Stock of Your Data 33

Looking at business practices and partners 34

Gathering some content 34

Checking whether a DTD or schema already exists 35

Searching for a schema repository 36

Breaking Down Data in Different Ways 37

Winnowing out the wheat from the chaff 38

Types of data that can be stored in XML 39

Developing Your Taxonomy 39

Testing Your Taxonomy 41

Using trial and error for the best fit 41

Testing your content analysis 42

Looking Ahead to Validation 43

Part II: XML and the Web 45

Chapter 4: Adding XHTML for the Web 47

HTML, XML, and XHTML 47

What HTML does best 48

The limits of HTML 49

Comparing XML and HTML 50

Using XML to describe data 51

The benefits of using HTML 53

The benefits of using XML 53

XHTML Makes the Move to XML Syntax 54

Making the switch 55

Every element must be closed 56

Empty elements must be formatted correctly 56

Tags must be properly nested 57

Case makes a difference 57

Attribute values are in quotation marks 58

Converting a document from HTML to XHTML 59

The Role of DOCTYPE Declarations 62

Chapter 5: Putting Together an XML File 65

Anatomy of an XML File 65

The XML declaration 67

Marking up your content 68

Playing by the Rules: Well-Formed Documents 74

Adding Style for the Web 76

Seeking Validation with DTD and XML Schema 78

Why describe XML documents? 79

Choosing between DTD and XML Schema 80

Chapter 6: Adding Character(s) to XML 83

About Character Encodings 84

Introducing Unicode 85

Character Sets, Fonts, Scripts, and Glyphs 87

For Each Character, a Code 88

Key Character Sets 89

Using Unicode Characters 91

Finding Character Entity Information 93

Chapter 7: Handling Formatting with CSS 95

Viewing XML on the Web with CSS 96

Basic CSS Formatting: CSS1 97

The Icing on the Cake: CSS2 98

Building a CSS Stylesheet 98...