XML Books

Based on the title, the book has so many things to discuss but it actually has less than 400 pages that even include the glossary of terms. The reader might have a second thought about the book since it might not promise to discuss the things written in the chapter.

But if you go through the chapters, you will be surprised how each topic could be discussed thoroughly in this book. Using the traditional structures in most web and application development books, it slowly introduces each concept before they are brought together in the final chapters.

PHP and Oracle are discussed separately at first with sample codes and situations to ensure that the reader understands each concept. It then goes to discuss who they could be efficiently integrated. The final chapter which is about Ajax is very impressive as it gives the developers a chance to develop an Ajax based application using popular practices in web development. The robustness of Oracle and efficiency of PHP is actually shown in an Ajax based application.

PHP Oracle Web Development: Data processing, Security, Caching, XML, Web Services, and Ajax is a good starting book for any web development professionals and enthusiasts. It covers the basics of web development using PHP and database management of Oracle including an installation guide for Oracle and PHP. If you are looking for a book to start with PHP and Oracle, this book offers a good start.

For developers who are experienced in this discipline, the book could be a good reference point for developing an application. The sample codes that helps the reader understands the underlying concept of the application with actual scenarios, this PHP and Oracle book is almost too good to pass on.

This book consists in almost 400 pages of solid content, and is targeted at beginners-to-intermediate PHP and Oracle developers who want to learn or have a deeper understanding of the interaction of the two technologies.

The first chapters highlight the capabilities and advantages of Oracle, cover the installation and connecting procedures, and present some of the alternatives to use Oracle with PHP: using the PHP OCI8 extension directly, and with some popular database abstraction libraries like PEAR::DB, ADOdb, or PDO. A capital sin is it never mentions PEAR::MDB2 ;-)
The central chapters are dedicated to data processing, transaction handling, OO programming, security and caching (also using PEAR::Cache_Lite).
The last chapters are dedicated to XML, XSLT, SOAP and AJAX, and are packed with examples which are more than enough to get you started with those features. All the code examples are laid in a plain and very easy to understand way, yet consistently suggesting some best practices from the very beginning.

The first merit of this book is it shows how you can process data with the DBMS and not just to treat the DBMS like a dumb storage system. For instance, there's a whole chapter explaining how to store, query and transform XML documents with PHP and with Oracle's internal XSLT functions, and there are many examples of STORED PROCEDUREs, TRIGGERs, transaction handling, etc.
A good part of the examples have a strong focus on security too. I found particularly interesting the explanation of alternative techniques to secure your tables, and to mask rows and columns for fine-grained access, using not only VIEWs, but also SPs, multiple schemas, PL/SQL packages, table functions and Virtual Private Database policies. On the PHP side, it goes all the way to create a custom PEAR::Auth container.

One of the most interesting paragraphs of the book describes the usage of Change Notification and notification handlers (a new feature of Oracle Database 10g Rel 2) for caching purposes.

While some of the described techniques aren't Oracle-specific and could be used with any other DBMS and it would have been nice to dive deeper into some other unique Oracle characteristics, that was probably out of scope for an introduction to PHP and Oracle, and it doesn't detract from the merits of this excellent book.

The writing style is clear, even if IMHO it could have been more concise sometimes. For instance, reading continue anticipations and wrap-ups that stress the same concept can get a bit annoying after a while: "In the next chapter we're going to see...", "This chapter covers...", "Now that you have an idea on how...", "In this chapter we've learnt how to...".
Anyway, I guess that it's in the spirit of the old adagio "repetita iuvant", and it may make sense in a technical book. My overall impression is very positive.

It's rather small, but gives a good overview of PHP, Oracle and AJAX, coupled together. There is only one project example Throughout the whole book, which is enhanced from various aspects. To be precise, they are:

Performance Optimization - views, stored subprograms, triggers, binding variables (Oracle);
caching mechanisms (PHP,Oracle) - intended to reduce amount of data transferred between database and web servers; AJAX - browser-side optimization,

Security - special database schemas coding/decoding algorithms usage(sha1, md5),
Virtual Private Database (VPD) - Oracle

Scalability/Complexity Control - object-oriented approach (PHP5 features, Oracle Object Types)

Unified Data - XML-processing data inside database/PHP server
using XML DB to implement web-service (SOAP, WSDL).

Many of these ideas are rather universal and can be applied to other database servers, web servers and script languages

I would like to emphasize that author is an expert in Oracle, he tries to move almost all business-logic to database server, use native Oracle features (some of them are implemented only in latest Oracle versions). There are also chapters devoted to general database principles (transaction features (ACID), views, stored subprograms, concurrency, views, triggers, stored subprograms) which can be very useful for novice developers.

PHP Oracle Web Development by Yuli Vasiliev, to quote the front, covers data processing, security, caching, XML, Web Services and Ajax. Quite a lot for a mere 360 or so pages.

The book starts off with notes on both PHP and Oracle and describes how to obtain them both and how to get everything up and running using the PHP OCI8 extensions from Oracle. Whilst Oracle is a market leader in the big database arena, many developers will be surprised to learn that the full and unrestricted product is freely downloadable for development purposes - you only need to buy a licence for a production system. Even then, a free cut down version is available if you don't need the full bells and whistles.

So, with everything up and running, the book launches in to the subject at hand. I was immedietely impressed with the author's clear and easily read prose. Every subject is presented with just the right balance of detail with lots of additional notes and background information to help fill in any gaps. The author's real world experience shines through with sections on locking issues and coding for reusability. The section on object-orienation was particularly welcome.

I also liked the fact that the book didn't just cover the core subject of using Oracle with PHP but also covered vital related material such as various security models and a sizeable section on caching techniques. The sections on XML, Web Services via SOAP and Ajax ensure all the current must-have skills are represented. Ajax was presented via an example application which featured all the aspects you'd need including both code and style sheets but I'd have liked a bit more general advice and description here.

The bulk of the book though is the coverage of the OCI8 extentions and here you can find out how to issue a wide variety of SQL statements including using stored procedures, making use of triggers and a good section on transaction handling that didn't just show how to use them but also had useful advice on structuring your code to make best use of them. I would have liked some notes on avoiding things like SQL Injection attacks but that apart, the security section had some interesting nuggets.

The section on object-orientation warrents close inspection if you want to really leverage the power of the tools available in this development environment. It didn't have much on the 'big picture' of how you'd structure applications this way but it does describe how it all works and how to extend existing objects as well as create your own.

I feel I can safely say that if you need to get to grips with PHP in an Oracle environment, you'll find everything you'll need here to get up and running very quickly. The pace, content and structure of the book are all excellent with my only reserve being the assumption that everything works as it is supposed to with not much in the way of troubleshooting advice. That apart, this is a fine book.

A good book. Topics are all well explained and good programming examples are provided. The target audience is more for people with little or no programming experience. But, experienced software developers can gain some insights, too. Overall, I highly recommend if you are looking for a book on this subject which doesn't contain in-depth technical details.

I bought this book for a class that I took at UC Berkeley and it's a great book because it teaches the reader xhtml and java in a simple way. I was amazed as to how easy it was understand all the terminology in the book. Usually I sell off my books at the end of the semester but this one was a keeper.

I got this book for a class, taught by Lagerstrom, and loved it. It does a great job explaining XHTML and JavaScript. I had never been exposed to any type of programming, but this book made it simple. When I originally bought the book, I was sharing it with two other people. However, we all found it so helpful that we had to each buy our own to keep it on the shelf.

Wow. Very few programming books I've read do much for me. Most of them are of no more use than a reference manual. But this book....this book is different. After just an hour of reading, I now understand the basics of JavaScript. The book does a great job explaining it. The other topic this book covers is XHTML, the successor to HTML. I admire the author's constant reminders to remain standards-complient in XHTML. Good job.

I got this book for a class, but I'll be keeping it forever. Scary, eh?

I recently purchased a copy of "Extensible 3D Graphics for Web Authors" and found the book to be a wonderful guide to this new field. The text is comprehensible and the material is laid out in a way that makes the book a delight to read. The authors are to be congratulated for producing this welcome contribution to web authoring.

Finally, a useful book on X3D. Up until now I had to rely upon the technical ISO spec documentation which is, by its nature, a bit obtuse. This book, in contrast, explains in plain language how to put X3D to use in a tangible way. It breaks the format down into the base components, and explains each in an understandable way with straight forward examples. All the technical information is here, but laid out in an approachable manner, and with plenty of context. Most of the visual examples in the book are a bit simplistic, which is just fine for explaining core concepts. However, they are not indicative of what is truly possible with this 3D format. With the knowledge presented in this book, what can be done is limited only by one's time and creativity. I keep this one within arm's reach.

Before reading this book, I was playing about with Flux Studio - going through examples and trying stuff out while trying to make sense of some of the terms used in the IDE. The Wiki helped somewhat but still left a lot of stuff un-explained. Since reading the book, which is written in a very accessible, matter-of-fact style, I am now aware what the capabilities of X3D are and how best to use it for my purposes. There are also many more examples available which illustrate usages and techniques. My particular purposes for exploring X3D are firstly to provide interactive demonstrations to better illustrate particular product concepts, and also to present software architectures in a more meaningful way that people can navigate through to discover the information they need. I am a Software Engineer rather than a graphic artist but I'm coming to grips with the whole 3D modelling thing as well as learning the X3D stuff. Anyway, overall I have found this book very good and it will continue to be a reference source for me.

For as long as there has been a World Wide Web, 3D has been the 'next big thing', but because of many factors, it never really took off. But behind the browser wars, the dot com boom and bust, and all the hype around competing 3D graphics formats, Extensible 3D Graphics (X3D) matured as the stable standard for 3D on the web. And it finally becomes accessible to everyone with this book. Following the simple and instructive examples, even a novice can create 3D models and virtual worlds for the web. The book and accompanying website provide both introductory and intermediate material, and it's useful across a wide range of skill levels.

From an educator's perspective, this book is long overdue. Often texts in 3D graphics focus on learning applications such as Maya or 3DS Max. While these tools are powerful and widely used, they do not teach the basics of 3D Graphics. This book takes a tool-agnostic approach, and focuses on the fundamentals of the scene graph, rendering, lighting, spatialized sound, and interactivity.

This book is the culmination of many years of work in 3D graphics and reflects the expertise of the authors' many years in the 3D graphics industry as both educators and practitioners. It's an excellent resource for the classroom and beyond.

I found this book a great source for practical tips on how to design xml documents. Get it if you have a good grasp of the theory and have used xml before but don't have the experience to make great design decisions right away. All advice in this book comes from experience. It confirmed some of my own, but more often, served as an eye-opener.
This statement on the back cover sums it up: "The problem here is not really a lack of information (there are many books and online resources on xml out there). The problem is a lack of reliable advice on how to use these technologies correctly and efficiently."
I highly recommend it.

I found this book a great source for practical tips on how to design xml documents. Get it if you have a good grasp of the theory and have used xml on occasion but don't have the experience to make great design decisions right away. All of the advice you find in this book comes from experience. It confirmed some of my own, but more often, served as an eye-opener.
This statement on the back cover sums it up: "The problem here is not really a lack of information (there are many books and online resources on xml out there). The problem is a lack of reliable advice on how to use these technologies correctly and efficiently."
I highly recommend it.

I found this book an excellent source for practical tips on how to design xml documents. Get it if you have have a good grasp of the theory and have used xml on occasion but don't have the experience to make great design decisions right away. All of the advice you find in this book comes from experience. It confirmed some of my own, but more often, served as an eye-opener.
This statement on the back cover sums it up: "The problem here is not really a lack of information (there are many books and online resources on xml out there). The problem is a lack of reliable advice on how to use these technologies correctly and efficiently."
Get it.

This is not an introductory book on XML. At least one year of XML experience is recommended. With that, you'll get good advice on a wide variety of topics. Most people won't use all this information all at once, but it's at least good to know the strengths and weaknesses of XML from storage to access to presentation.

Chapter 1 (Architecture Strategies) gives basic information on where XML can fit into your solution, with a simple example. This was easy reading.

Chapter 2 (Basic Document Design) describes narrative vs. data-centric documents, storing text in XML elements vs. attributes, and data modeling pitfalls. There were good recommendations here.

Chapter 3 (XML Schema Design) provides good strategies on validation, schema flexibility and re-use, and namespace use. Also important is the section on Russian Doll Design, Salami Slice Design and the Venetian Blind Model; much of this info can be found on the Internet (e.g. at www.xfront.com) but this book does a good comparison and contrast. The information on constraints is basic, but ideas on representing null values are useful.

Chapter 4 (Parsing Strategies) covers DOM, SAX, and the little-used pull parsing, plus when and how to use each methodology.

Chapter 5 (XSLT Strategies) provides a lot of nuts-n-bolts details on different transformation topics.

Chapter 6 (XML Storage and Archiving) gives an overview of storing data as native XML, relational data, and hybrid approaches. Advantages and disadvantages for each are covered. Using a database (or not) in your product is a big decision, so this gives a good foundation for more research....

Chapter 7 (Presentation Strategies) gives general info on configurability, personalization, performance, use of rich media (video, audio, animation, etc.), cross-platform support, 3rd-part data and software, maintainability and extensibility. The topics vary too much to give more than a few pages to each subject.

Appendix A (Parser Performance) contains the details of testing on three Java-based parsers. For some reason, C++, .NET and Perl parsers were not included. As technologies evolve, the results of these tests are likely to become obsolete, though the methods may be useful to your own tests in the future.

In summary, none of the subjects are covered in great depth, though in many cases the coverage is adequate and the few details are very useful. With this book you'll get a good foundation for well-designed and implemented XML solutions.

The title is a bit misleading, in that the book is nearly all about Javascript. Broken down into a collection of short tutorials, each of which solves a specific problem, they are all understandable. The problems solved are not general in nature, in that not everyone needs to know how to solve them. However, they can be considered members of the category of unusual problems with a non-obvious solution. You may never confront the specific problem, but if you do, then the solution is here for you.
Some of the problems solved are:

* How to create a pop under window.
* How to use a table to create an image with rounded corners.
* How to create printable pages where the banner ads are absent.
* How to redirect the print of a page so that another is printed.
* How to prevent a page from being cached on the client machine.
* How to create an OnError error handling page.

In general, the statement of the problem and the solution take up less than three pages. With very little code to explain, the solutions are easy to understand. I have been teaching and programming in Javascript for over six years and yet I learned several things from the book. To sweeten the deal even further, all of the source code, graphics and other data used in the book are freely available from the companion web site ...
Depending on what you are creating, you may never have a use for the solutions in this book. However, if you are faced with one of these problems, then the solution is well in hand and you will be happy with the way it is constructed.

I have this man's complete series of HTML books. Any time my friends or I have a question, the answer is in one of these!

I have this man's complete series of HTML books. Any time my friends or I have a question, the answer is in one of these!

Perfect for newbies and pros alike!

To give a brief background about myself. I have been one of the primary contributor and committer of the Web Tools Platform (WTP) eclipse tools project since its inception through WTP 1.5 release. I contributed the Validation Framework component for this project. I read a large portion of this book and can say that this most comprehensive book that explains the complete WTP in a step by step fashion that can be help you easily understand the whole WTP project, its sub projects, its components and features through several real world examples. I strongly recommend this book to all users and contributors of WTP.

Vijay Bhadriraju, IBM

Eclipse Web Tools Platform: Developing Java(TM) Web Applications

This is an excellent book; I specially liked the iterative approach (for example, for presentation tier, iteration 1: HTML, iteration 2: add CSS, iteration 3: add Javascripts, iteration 4: XML and XSLT, iteration 5: DTD)authors have taken. I have used examples from this book, with Eclipse and NetBeans, of course for Eclipse user this book has added value, since it goes through configuration of Eclipse and recommended practices. Please ignore the gripe about errors in the code; there are two minor errors which are detailed in the errata on book's companion site, it doesn't take more than a minute to fix those two issues.

Authors discuss All three tiers in great detail. How about this, by page 85 you would be deploying a simple web service (and you would be amazed how simple it is).

Though I have had some experience in Java, Eclipse, and WTP, a recent project required me to get more into depth. This book got me through the whole development process. It explained to me clean coding techniques when writing web apps in Java, how to get my web server up and running for use with WTP, to get my apps to talk to the server, debugging using different tools, and unit testing in a web environment.

This book was an invaluable addition to my collection, and is also a great reference now that I have mastered these concepts.

"I like the exercises very much. They appear to be at least as good as others I've seen, and in many cases better. The idea of a running theme is appealing"

"The most attractive feature of the author's approach is the smooth transition from basic HTML to more complex, powerful HTML. I believe Avila has struck the right balance between straightforward and fast-paced coverage. Most currrent HTML texts either never progress beyond a simple introduction, or they jump too quickly into the more complex aspects of HTML"

"Most HTML texts do not cover maps, applets and frames to the depth of this text"

If you have an interest in learning about mashups, this is a book you don't want to miss. Whether you're just starting out or have some understanding of the subject already this book will dramatically increase your understanding of the subject.

Kudos to the author and publisher for this release.
This book is a tour de force of the subject of Mashups.

I was looking for a good book on this subject so that I could introduce it to students as part of an extra-curricular technology program in NYC and this book is perfect.

In a sentence, Mashups are created by taking data from one or more sources and making something new and useful from them.

In my opinion, the subject is very important because there is a vast amount of data that is available now. Today the challenge is not just finding data but putting to use. This book shows you how to do that.

The author's writing style is excellent, mixing theory and applications. The book is filled with hands on examples as well as references for research in each of the areas.

I believe that this book can be read by anyone interested in the subject, regardless of their technical background. For those that want to create Mashups without programming, this book shows you how. For those that want to delve into programming, everything that you need is covered including AJAX, PHP, various data formats and how to parse them, various Javascript libraries and more.

The book is laid out in four parts:

1. Remixing Information Without Programming
As the title suggests, the chapters in this section require no previous programming experience. The author walks through some specific examples, introduces terminology and analyzes how sites like Flickr and del.icio.us work so that you can get the most out of them. Tools such as Yahoo! Pipes (a browser-based visual application for Mashups and Remixing) are explored. Following along with the discussion the reader can put together a Mashup or Remix by simply understanding the concepts and using tools, but not having to delve into coding.

2. Remixing a Single Web Application Using Its API
For the person who wants to code, this part of the book jumps right in discussing the Flickr API, PHP usage, XML processing and more. From there the discussion moves to other APIs and using AJAX/Javascript widgets.

3. Making Mashups
This section starts by delving into the ProgrammableWeb website. Showing how to find what resources are available, studying existing Mashups via which APIs they use and how to go about creating new ones. From there XMLHttpRequest and Javascript libraries such as YUI are covered and a step-by-step example is given using the previously discussed techniques. Lastly, the author addresses issues around implementing Mashups on your site including standards, accessibility and your own API. I was glad to see these topics covered as sometimes in the haste of getting something online, they can be overlooked.

4. Exploring Other Mashup Topics
This final section of the book covers a large range of interesting topics such as Map-based Mashups, Social Bookmarking, Calendars, Online Storage, Desktop and Office Suites, Embeddable Data Formats and Searches.

As you can see, there's a lot of information covered in this book. In my opinion, everything that one could want on the subject and written in such a way that you want to keep reading, exploring and creating your own Mashups.

I highly recommend this book - so far, it has been my favorite read of 2008!

This is the type of book that you can either skim and get ideas from or sit down at a computer and work through all of the examples. The material is presented clearly and thoroughly illustrates different types of mashups. The book discusses how to use Yahoo Pipes and Google Mashup Editor, their respective map API's along with manipulating Flickr properties and API's. Integrating feeds and blogs into mashups are also described. Though not required, a reader would understand more of the book with some background in languages like javascript, php, and of course xml/html.

I highly recommend this book. Very well written and the projects actually work once you work out your own knowledge of CGI and Perl, but that was not a big deal. I especially like the detailed comment on the code and the in-depth analysis of each of the VoiceXML elements and attributes. I hope Mark Miller plans to write a sequel!

I bought this book last week and implemented most of the hands-on exercises in the book. The exercises are fun to do and the author's explanations are very clear and organized that made learning VoiceXML very interesting.

Now I feel very comfortable to write a VoiceXML script for my upcoming project. No to mention some typos in the scripts that provides you even better opportunity to learn hands-on.

This book offers a great step-by-step approach. The working VoiceXML sites created in the book provide great, practical knowledge that you can put right to work. And the code-check database was very helpful in detecting where a program might have gone wrong. I would recommend this book for anyone getting started with VoiceXML.

This book may not seem an obvious choice for many readers. It's not about a particular API, certification, or other buzzword topic, and the title can sound dry and academic. Don't be put off! This is a practical, hands-on book which can take your software straight past the hype of web services and into using the resources of the whole internet in your programs right now. With no big middleware downloads, protocol specs, or head-scratching config files.

The book walks you through how to read, control and extract information from existing web pages and web applications anywhere on the internet, how to read, send and process emails and newsgroup postings, how to recognise just the text or data you want, and much more. Source code is given for servlets and applets to examine and drive web forms, and usage examples include sending SMS messages and applying decision-making rules to internet share-price data. It's also full of ideas and suggestions to make you want to leap up and get started.

When I got this book, I couldn't put it down. A lot of computer books sit on the shelf or send me to sleep, but not this one. Not only is it both topical and useful, but it hits a just-about-ideal balance between code and food for thought. The author has a real knack for useful solutions to complex problems.

I bought this book on the recommendation of javaranch.com. The review was right on, and I couldn't be happier that I took the advice. The code for servelets and applets supplied by Loton provides instant and hands on help to get and use information from the Web. It is the perfect Web mining guide.

This book is a little gem packed full of ideas. For people who don't want the overhead of big enterprise solutions like web services, the techniques and code are lightweight and easy. Even as someone who has worked with Web mining before, I found a lot of helpful tips that I have put to good use.