XML Family of Specifications: A Practical Guide

Table of Contents

Inside Cover. Big Picture of XML Family of Specifications.

Pullout. Timeline of XML Specification Development.

Preface.

Acknowledgments.

Introduction

1. History of the Web and XML.

• Ancient History (1945 to 1984).
• Medieval History (1986 to 1994).
• Modern History: From HTML to XML (1994 to 2001).

Part I: Fundamental XML Concepts, Syntax, and Modeling

2. Overview of the XML Family of Specifications.

• Fixing the Web.
• What Does XML Look Like?
• Processing XML with XSLT.
• Benefits and Applications.
• The Big Picture and the Role of the W3C.

3. XML Syntax and Parsing Concepts. [sample]

• Elements, Tags, Attributes and Content.
• XML Document Structure.
• Markup, Character Data, and Parsing.
• XML Syntax Rules.
• Well-Formed versus Valid Documents.
• Event-Based versus Tree-Based Parsing.

4. DTD Syntax.

• What Is a DTD and When Is It Needed?
• Elements and Content Models.
• Attributes, Attribute Types and Default Values.
• Elements versus Attributes: Guidelines.
• Example DTD and XML Instance.
• Internal and External DTD Subsets.
• Entities and Notations.
• Generating DTDs and XML Instances.
• Overall DTD Structure.

5. Namespaces, XML Infoset, and Canonical XML.

• Namespaces.
• XML Information Set.
• Canonical XML.

6. XML Schema: DTDs on Steroids.

• The Need for Schemas: Why DTDs Aren't Always Enough.
• Historical Perspective: Forerunners of XML Schema.
• Relevant Specifications.
• Basic Example.
• Collection Schema Example.
• Key Concepts and Terminology.
• Creating and Using Datatypes.
• More About Content Models and Model Groups.
• Miscellaneous XML Schema Topics.
• Working With XML Schema.
• Schema Repositories and Registries.
• More Miscellaneous Topics.
• XML Schema Alternatives.

Part II: Parsing and Programming APIs

7. Parsing with SAX.

• Overview.
• Development of SAX.
• SAX: Event Handler Model.
• SAX2 Interfaces and Classes.
• Using SAX with Java.

8. Parsing with the DOM.

• Overview.
• DOM Levels.
• Testing for Feature Support.
• Collection DTD and Instance Revisited.
• DOM Nodes and How the DOM Works.
• Overview of DOM Interfaces and Their Methods.
• Using the DOM.
• DOM Related Markup Languages.
• Complete DOM Code Example.

9. Processing with JDOM and JAXP.

• Overview of Java XML APIs.
• JDOM: a Java-centric Parsing Approach.
• Sunis XML APIs: The Java XML Pack.
• JAXP: Sunis Java API for XML Processing.
• SAX versus DOM versus JDOM versus JAXP: Who Wins?

Part III: Transforming and Displaying XML

10. Styling XML Using CSS2.

• What Is CSS?
• CSS Basics: Declarations, Selectors, and Use with HTML.
• Using CSS with XML.

11. Transforming XML with XSLT and XPath.

• Overview of XSLT and Xpath.
• Using XSLT.
• Hello XSLT Example.
• XSLT Concepts and Examples.
• XPath Concepts and Examples.
• XPath Functions.
• XSLT Elements and Instructions.
• XSLT Functions.
• Case Study: Generating Link Page From This Book's "For Further Exploration" Sections.
• Sections.
• Additional XSLT Topics.

12. Practical Formatting Using XSLFO.

• The Context of XSLFO.
• Basic Concepts of XSLFO.
• Area and Page Basics.
• Generic Body Constructs.
• Tables.
• Static Content and Page Geometry Sequencing.
• Floats and Footnotes.
• Keeps, Breaks, Spacing, and Stacking.
• Interactive Objects.
• Supplemental Objects.

Part IV: Related Core XML Specifications

13. XLink: XML Linking Language.

• Overview.
• Simple Link: Reinventing the Anchor.
• XLink Attributes.
• Link Behavior.
• Extended Links: The True Flexibility for Xlink.
• Outbound, Inbound and Third-Party Links.
• XML Base Support for Relative URIs.
• XLink Implementations.

14. XPointer: XML Pointer Language.

• Overview.
• Code Example Modification.
• Forms of Xpointers.
• XPointer Functions.
• Node-Points and Character-Points.
• XPointer Implementations.

Part V: Specialized XML Vocabularies

15. XHTML: HTML for the Present and Future.

• Overview.
• XHTML 1.0.
• Modularization of XHTML.
• XTHML Basic.
• RDDL: An Extension of XHTML Basic.
• XHTML 1.1 Module-Based XHTML.
• Near Future XHTML.

16. RDF: Resource Description Framework.

• Overview.
• RDF Specifications.
• Core Data Model of RDF.
• Vocabulary for Ontological Description Using RDF.
• XML Serialization Syntax for RDF.
• Advanced Topics.
• References.

Appendices

Appendix A.    XML Family of Specifications in a Nutshell.

Appendix B.    E-Commerce Specifications.

Appendix C.    HTML 4.01 Character Entities.

Appendix D.    Setting Up Your XML Environment.

Appendix E.    What's on the CD?