XML Books

Not recommended for MCSD or MCAD 70-310 exam preparation!

Conceptually, the book covers all of the bases that an aspiring XML developer would require, including somewhat thorough concept, explanation, example, and summary investigations.

Where the book greatly lacks is the code samples; many will not run, and multiple programming languages are introduced.

Don't buy this book for study.

To be fair, I am not a fan of the Thompson Course Technology books in general. But this is the first one that actually drove me to write a negative review to spare some innocent XML programmer-to-be the confusion this book will likely cause.

Our local community college unfortunately requires this text (a fair percentage of the classes seem to use Course Technology books because of the pre-fab quizzes, Powerpoints, and online supplements available to the instructors who can't be bothered to make their own).

The good: The Chapters are called "Tutorials" and in general, if you can read and copy the tutorials line for line, you will be able to get them to validate. However, you probably won't understand why in many cases.

The ugly: Like most of the Course Technology textbooks I've seen, there are significant typos and the explanations are very poor and awkward. There is little or no rigor in defining terms, the author often uses a tangential example as an adequate explanation for the entire concept.

Many explanations are as clear as mud. Case in point p. 199 (which is only partially understandable to me because I've taken a few computer classes (including C++ object oriented programming) and the concept of scope is familiar to me, even if the word is never mentioned here):

"In XML Schema, any element or attribute that is declared globally has to be entered as a qualified name in the instance document. The reason is that global elements and attributes are added to the target namespace, while local objects are not. Local objects are interpreted based on the namespace affiliation of the object in which they're nested. Because global objects are attached to the namespace, they have to be qualified in the instance document with a namespace prefix. The target namespace applies the document validation through the qualified elements in the instance document using them as the starting points for the validation process. You can't go down the hierarchy and validate only the local elements and attributes."

And that was a relatively clear passage. Even if you understand the concept, you are unlikely to get the syntax exactly correct. This book has singlehandedly caused me to consider a campaign to our department dean to stop using Course Technology books, and search for a decent textbook substitute. This book is of little use in class, and will be even less useful as a handy reference.

The book is very weak in content and has absolutely no practical examples. I'm not an expert in XML, so I won't give a technical estimate, but with new technology like XML one should not only show his favorable opinion, but provide examples to prove it's value. Title is also very misleading - in fact you've got a combination of 'appreciating the need of xml' and XML short description.

This book has some good information, but it tries to cover too much. It covers web services created in .NET, Java, and even Perl. Most of the book is related to .NET though.

It is funny that in the intro the authors say they assume you already know XML, but then the first chapter is an intro to XML. Actually, that's one of the reasons I bought the book though. I didn't want to buy a separate XML book.

The other reason I bought the book is that it was on the bargain rack. I wouldn't have paid full price since I am not interested in .NET.

For a complete beginner, this book is OK, otherwise I think people are going to find it light on the details. Of course, it's the details that are hard to discover and get right.

Also, space was devoted to topics that are not really germane, like CVS, Emacs and vi. Of course one has to edit DocBook files, but devoting 3 chapters (out of 12 total) seems like padding.

Save your money and spend your time on the Linux Documentation Project web site.
This book does not contain a single useful detail on how to install and configure the software used to render documents, so make sure you're using a distribution of Linux which includes the tools. Windows users are out of luck.
None of the Chapter 5 example links work on the CD-ROM. The examples in the book and on the CD-ROM are not very complete or useful. The book and CD seem slapped together without organization or quality control. I'm sorry I bought it.

ERRORS and ERRORS!

My God, where were the technical editors??
These authors shouldn't write until they actually know what they are writing about. Evidently the publisher, IDG, doesn't care about the quality of the contents of the books it publishes. With that in mind, how can anybody trust that the content of their books is accurate? I doubt that I'll buy anymore of IDG's books.

I am a college graduate with a degree in Computer Information Systems. During my educational career, and my career in IT (which has spanned over 10 years), I have read many technical manuals and "how-to" guides. This book tries to be both, but does not accomplish either. The examples are full of syntactical and typographical errors and are very often incomplete. One of the key methods for learning is by doing, which you cannot when the examples provided are wrong to begin with.

The inclusion of the XML specification is not a bad thing. It helps to know the background behind the syntax. The problem is that this book presents the specification with the instruction as an afterthought, making learning through this guide all but impossible. I purchased the B&N technical series book on XML and walked away with a better understanding of the basics of the language. Even then this book proved to be impossible to use.

I bought this book a while ago and thought that I would read it at leisure but the way the authors dive into topics without presenting a rational explanation is simply absurd. Even the contrast between XML and HTML on page 6 is wonderfully blurry. The book appears structured but revels in throwing coding examples at you without a premise. I know and practice both XHTML and CSS but this book made XML seem like rocket science, which it is not. Please do not buy this book and waste your money.

I'm glad I only borrowed this book from the library. I haven't seen a more inept piece of instructional writing in my life.

To see how an educational book should be written, I strongly recommend _XML by Example_, 2nd Edition (ISBN: 0789725045). It's not a breeze but uses some common sense.

As for the fellow who is so presumptuous to assume that all 14 negative reviewers just "breezed through it like a harlequin romance,", I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. I'll assume either he's a.) mistaking this for another, similarly titled book, or b.) from another planet. Nanoo-nanoo.

Like most of the other reviewers, this is the worst programming book I have ever seen. I bought it in a hurry; fortunately I was in India at the time, where books are cheap, and only lost 70 cents or so. I'm actually impressed that anyone has lasted long enough with this book to even *find* the errors and typos; for myself, the organization is so thoroughly awful that I realized within half an hour that this was junk.

Here's what's wrong with the organization: the correct way to teach a concept is to first show a simple implementation of it, then show a more complex implementation of it, et cetera. That's not what this book does. This book starts at the *beginning* of a very complex XML document, and torturously works its way towards the end. So, for example, DTDs are on page 26. EBFN notation is on page 38. JUST MAKING A &*@#ing LINK is on page 276. By the time you reach the end at page 442, you *may* in fact know how to create an XML document -- were it not for all the errors, and the fact that you will have chewed your own face off first.

I was going to sell this book for $.50 on Ebay, but after reading everybody else's experiences, I've decided that it would be unethical to inflict this upon another person. So, it's off to the recycling bin!

Firstly the examples do not try to explain which code example they relate to on the CD rom. You have to distribute the code on the cd rom to paths on your web server, so unless you are already a dab hand at configuring a JSP server you cannot begin, the book doesn't help you with this, or anything else, in fact I would suggest the only people who may be able to decipher this book are expert professional Java programmers who must also have a knack for interpreting rambling babble. Avoid this book at all costs, talking of cost, cut to the Author - tropical beach - pina colada.

The authors through this book explain how XML, Java servlets (and sometimes JSPs) could be used together in applications like Shopping cart and News Bulletin board.

Though the book contains a lot of code, two things are disappointing. First, DOM is implicitly suggested as a preferred means for working with XML documents even in cases where simple SAX parsing would do. Secondly, JAXP 1.0 API's beta classes like XmlDocument are extensively used in the examples. Both these are not very useful in the real world scenarios.

Though the book gives an impression from the title that it will be using JSPs to generate the presentation layer, the examples heavily use servlets with "hard coded HTML" in them for this purpose.

I happen to have a copy of Benoit Machall's "Applied XML Solutions" with me with which I cannot help comparing this book with. Applied XML Solutions explains similar examples in a practical way with simpler code as well as using open source software and stabilized APIs to achieve the same results.

So, these are a few things to consider before buying this book!

Firstly the examples do not try to explain which code example they relate to on the CD rom. You have to distribute the code on the cd rom to paths on your web server, so unless you are already a dab hand at configuring a JSP server you cannot begin, the book doesn't help you with this, or anything else, in fact I would suggest the only people who may be able to decipher this book are expert professional Java programmers who must also have a knack for interpreting rambling babble. Avoid this book at all costs, talking of cost, cut to the Author - tropical beach - pina colada.

The book looked great and I thought that I can learn how to build my own web site within 30 days, especially since I had a fair amount of knowledge in HTML, Java, UNIX, C++, MFC etc. My only setback was that I have never done XML and JSP programming, nor used Tomcat web server before.

The book gives very little information about paths to put the example codes, and insufficient information on the server setup. After visiting the authors' web site and setting up the codes where, I believe, they should be, the main codes and servlets do not work.

I discovered some bugs in the files and fixed them. Yet the codes (except the HTML) still do not work.

Six weeks after buying the book I am no nearer learning XML and JSP. How can you learn how to use these languages when the codes that accompany the book do not work?

Though the book contains a lot of code, it becomes evident as you go through the book, that the author has not thought about using them in real world situations. All applications use DOM for XML parsing and Servlets for presentation of the content. A few JSPs are thrown in may be because the title says so!

Buy this book if you got a lot of money!

This book is just a bunch of bullet points and tables! Nothing of interest here.

The reader is left totally clueless as what this book wants to achieve. Don't be fooled by the combo of buzz words in the title of the book.

Neither the CORBA elements nor the XML sections are conveyed with even the slightest degree of logical progression. The book is little more than a dry, formless recitation of specification. Save your money and look elsewhere.

The author fails miserably to convey the deap connections between CORBA and XML (as a new type of Interface Definition Language (IDL)). The subject is of vast importance, but unfortunately there is extremely little in this book that could be of use. The book is basically the author's brainstorming in bullet form.

I really wish my school would stop blindly assigning Course Technology books for their classes. Occasionally they're good, but more often than not (I'm on my 6th - 7th Course book), they're a terrible excuse for a college text - let alone if you're trying to learn a given subject on your own. This book is a perfect example. No need to go into specifics - the other reviewers are dead-on accurate. I just wanted to add my two cents - and my one star.

The book was required as the text for an XML course. The authors thrown in too much additional info that is not pertinent to the subject matter. The source code for the chapter problems is not on the CD and it should be. Also the course code and book examples are wrong. The example code in the book is taken from screen shots and is difficult to read. I highly recommend obtaining an XML book other than this one. I would not even give this one star but I had to input something to rate it.

I will just say this:

There are far superior books on XML than this one.

Microsoft and Wrox do a better job.

I am not a fan of the Course Technology titles. Far too often I have had to buy an poorly written and over-expensive CT title just to fulfill a class textbook requirement, when the commercially available titles both exceeded the equivalent CT title in quality and price.

Even so, this particular book manages to underwhelm my already low expectations.

The book is filled with obtuse definitions, pointless charts and graphics, and confusing and unclear examples. The book goes repeatedly out of it's way to reinforce the idea that XML is horribly arcane, incredibly complicated, and beyond mortal ken. I'll let the authors' own words prove my point.

"However, each unique vocabulary must be built to a consistent set of standards and functions, within an exacting set of content rules and structures. XML allows you to create these rules and structures using a concept called DOCUMENT MODELING. Documents called document type definitions (DTDs) and XML schemas are the vehicles by which that modeling is conducted. Those documents define or DECLARE, all of the components that an XML language or document is allowed to contain, as well as the structural relationships among those components. Thus, each unique XML vocabulary along with its related XML documents is created according to the content and structure rules declared within its respective DTD or schema (each language can only have one of those documents, and that one document must be either a DTD or a schema). Whether the choice is DTD or schema, their functionality is similar: they should contain a complete set of markup properties tailored to the needs of the XML language and documents being used or developed."
pg 106
McKinnon, Al and Mckinnon, Linda. XML. Canada: Course Technology, 2003.

That was part of the introduction to DTDs. XML Schemas, which are so casually referenced above, are not even discussed until the next chapter. That section takes up approximately one third of one page with only 647 and 2/3rds more pages to go. In the same chapter (4) there is the section introducing Notation declarations that I spent an hour reading and rereading and yet still have no idea how to use them.

I've read physics and calculus books less obtuse than this.

Actually, that's not quite accurate. To contrast the dense text, the end of chapter Hands-On projects, ostensibly designed to give you experience with the concepts introduced in that chapter are all of the "led around by the nose ring " variety.
Chapter 5. Project 5.1 -
"1) Use Windows explorer to create a folder named CH05 in the c:\home\ folder. Then copy the files in the Ch05\project_5-1 folder on your Data Disk to the c:\home\\ch05 folder.
2) Click start, point to programs (point to all programs in Windows XP), point to XML Spy Suite, then click XML Spy IDE. The XML Spy windows opens." (page 186, same cite)

etc.

Two other flaws which are critical failures, but still irksome are are an overemphasis on how to use the bundled XML Spy Suite at the expense of focusing on XML itself, and the student data files missing from the bundled CD (they have to be downloaded from the Course Technologies website).

I would have to recommend skipping this book entirely. If you run into a class that requires this book, and you don't happen to need the class for a grade, I would recommend dropping the class and learning XML on your own, with a better book.

If the bookstore doesn't happen to buy this book back and the end of the semester, I'll be tossing my copy of it on the woodpile for use this coming winter, just to keep this doorstop out of the local landfills.

Here we go again, another book from Wrox press written by multiple authors from multiple disciplines. Professional Web 2.0 Programming is another deception for me in that it only provides high level details about web 2.0 and the book contains several chapters of subjects already mentioned over and over again in other books already. Let's start with Chapter 2. Here we have an overview of HTML, CSS, XHTML and DOM. I mean, why is this mentioned here? Is this a WEB 2.0 book or Web 1.0 book? Chapter 3 is about JavaScript and Ajax. What a waste, I already have a JavaScript book no need for half a chapter on JavaScript undefined objects. The other half is about high level design philosophies about Ajax. If this is what is referred to as a professional book on programming I'm really disappointed. Chapter 5 is a rehash of XSL with a mix of SVG. Chapter 6 is a waste of time about rich client applications providing little value to the reader. Chapter 7 is a rehash of the HTTP protocol URI. Chapter 8 is a rehash of XML. Chapter 9 talks about Syndication. Ha! Finally 15 pages worth of WEB 2.0 information via a high level definition of the RSS format. Chapter 11 is about web services, a rehash of other books on the subject.

Basically this book will hardly teach you anything you don't already know. They assume prior knowledge about almost every single topic they cover. They say in the preface that this book is not about java-script DOM, XML, AJAX or any specific technology for that matter. This book is more like some overview of all the technoligies that are used in Web 2.0 sites but none of them are explained in a way that someone without prior knowledge would understand. This book may only be useful for you if you are an experienced web developer with thorough knowledge in both backend and frontend technologies and just looking for some better practices and tips.
Unfortunately there aren't so many people that fit that description.

As per the other reviewer, this book uses one chapter for each topic: eg. HTML/CSS, Javascript, Design Principles, and sometimes not even a whole chapter eg, Chapter 5 includes SVG, XSLT, XPATH, XFORMS, and the discussion about HTML 5 and XHTML 2.0.

Each section only really makes sense if you are already familiar with the topic. If you are familiar with the topic, then the relevant section will only bore you. The areas where you are not so familiar will confuse you.

It seems this book is an attempt to explain Web 2.0 technologies in a really short sharp fashion, from the beginning. Unfortunately, each topic is worthy of its own book. Shrinking 10+ books down to one doesn't work very well.

However, I do think an advanced book that assumes knowledge of these technologies and explains how to integrate them together would be cool.