Most Popular Scripts | XML | Tutorials & Tips

XML data binding for Java is a powerful alternative to XML document models for applications concerned mainly with the data content of documents. This article by an enterprise Java expert introduces data binding and discusses what makes it so appealing. He then shows readers how to handle increasingly complex documents using the open source Castor framework for Java data binding. If your application cares more about XML as data than as documents, you'll want to find out about this easy and efficient way of handling XML in Java.

The combined power of XML and XSL for representing, manipulating, and presenting data over the Web and sharing data across differing applications has been clearly demonstrated through the fast acceptance and broad usage of these technologies. Still, most developers familiar with the basics of XML and XSL are not utilizing this power fully. This article shows developers how to use extensions, a technique that allows you to expand the capabilities of XSL.

XML Encryption provides end-to-end security for applications that require secure exchange of structured data. XML itself is the most popular technology for structuring data, and therefore XML-based encryption is the natural way to handle complex requirements for security in data interchange applications. The part 1 of this two-part series explains how XML and security are proposed to be integrated into the W3C's Working Draft for XML Encryption.

This article describes how an XSLT processor, in this case the author's open-source Saxon, actually works. Although several open-source XSLT implementations exist (see Resources), no one, as far as we know, has published a description of how they work. This article is intended to fill that gap. It describes the internal workings of Saxon, and shows how this processor addresses XSLT optimization.

A Sample Chapter from Early Adopter VoiceXML. This chapter examines the use of the Extensible Stylesheet Language for Transformations (XSLT) as a tool for the generation of VoiceXML. I intend to illustrate a complete, end-to-end example of implementing a voice interface for a client-server database via XML and XSL. The case study will demonstrate the power of XSL for simultaneously delivering multiple interfaces to the same data by developing HTML and WML front-ends also.

In this tutorial, selected XML features are demonstrated on many examples which can be downloaded for off-line use.

Here you will find XML related materials (both basic and advanced tutorials and references about XSLT, XML, DTD, Mozilla, CSS, schemas, regular expressions, etc.) which can be downloaded for off-line use.

DTD is described in XML 1.0 standard. In this tutorial basic DTD features are demonstrated on many examples which can be downloaded for off-line use.

This column takes a look at how to use XLink pointers when representing data to make XML documents more compact and flexible. Sample code shows examples of an invoice with and without the XLink pointers, plus an example of using XLinks with a URL-addressable database.

XLink, an XML-related specification, lets you achieve dramatic linking effects in your XML documents. In this short tip learn how to include parts of other XML documents in your own XML through XLink. The code example demonstrates the technique.

This column demonstrates how to use XML Schema archetyping (and style sheets) to control styling of data for various presentation modes. Ten code samples in XML, XML Schema, and XSLT show how the techniques work to reduce code bulk and simplify maintenance.

Ever want to know how to bridge processing of an HTML element over two XSLT templates? Here's why not to do it. This article demonstrates how to shift your thinking into the XSLT recursive approach, which is especially helpful if you have a background in a procedural language (Java and the like). Sample code demonstrates the right way (and the wrong way) to work with a flat XML or XHTML file that you want to process hierarchically.

This XML guide explains XML uses, categories, elements and types of XML documents. XML structure, document type definition, element attributes, and extensible stylesheet language (XSL) is explained.

This article presents a practical exploration of knowledge management with XML by illustrating techniques for populating Resource Description Framework (RDF) models with data from existing XML formats. As shown in the three code listings, RDF can be used as a companion to customized XML, not just as a canonical representation for certain types of data. This column, with code samples included, demonstrates how easy it can be to jump-start knowledge management with RDF even relatively late in the development game.

This article introduces the W3C's XQuery specification, currently winding its way toward Recommendation status after emerging from a long incubation period behind closed doors. The complex specification consists of six separate working drafts, with more to come. This article provides some background history, a road map into the documentation, and an overview of some of the technical issues involved in the specification. A sidebar takes a quick look at some key features of XQuery's surface syntax. Code samples demonstrate the difference between XQuery and XQueryX and show examples of the surface syntax.

This article casts a critical eye on the Simple Object Access Protocol, assessing the value this much-discussed new technology can provide developers and demonstrating its foundation in a mixture of the old RPC (remote procedure calls) technology and in XML. It examines RPC, XML-RPC, RMI, and SOAP in detail, comparing and contrasting the use of each, and discusses whether SOAP makes sense. This article also includes sample code for a SOAP envelope.

This article demonstrates how to automate e-mail publishing chores with Java and XML. This concrete application of XML and XSLT describes an e-mail newsletter (e-zine) publishing application that outputs both HTML and plain text e-mail messages. Five reusable code samples include a Java program to send e-mails using JavaMail, an XSLT style sheet to convert the DocBook sample introduced in Part 1 to HTML, a Java configuration handler (in the form of a SAX ContentHandler), and the Java code that puts it all together in a multistepped transformation.

This article describes the design and implementation of an intuitive, fast and compact (40K) Java toolkit for parsing and manipulating XML -- Electric XML -- the XML engine of the author's company. It shows one way to apply object-oriented techniques to the creation of an XML parser, and it provides useful insight into API design. The source code for the non-validating parser described in this article may be downloaded and used freely for most commercial uses.

This article shows how to use HTML as an intermediate language so that you can write a single stylesheet to translate from XML to one or more versions of HTML and use the features of the WebSphere Transcoding Publisher server to translate the resulting HTML to the target markup language the requesting device requires.

The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is an XML-based architecture for authoring, producing, and delivering technical information. This article introduces the architecture, which sets forth a set of design principles for creating information-typed modules at a topic level, and for using that content in delivery modes such as online help and product support portals on the Web. This article serves as a roadmap to DITA: what it is and how it applies to technical documentation. The article also links to representative source code.