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Tutorial01
Introduction to XML
1. WhatisXML?WheredidXMLcomefrom?WhatbusinessproblemsthatXMLwasdesignedto
solve?XMLfollowedHTML,whichinturnfollowedSGML.Allthreearemarkuplanguages,which
havebothsyntaxandgrammar.Coverpages,anOASISgroup,hasanexcellentwebsitearound
markuplanguages.
2. XMLisusedinRSS,RDFandSemanticWebtechnology,XMLsitemaps,andWebservices.Infact,
XHTMLisbasedonXML.
3. XMLisametalanguage,whichallowsyoutowriteyourowncustommarkuplanguages,which
youcandescribeinaDTDorXMLschema.
4. XMLishumanreadableand'created'butalmostalwayswritten,andread,byamachine.Web
services,SOAPandecommercearemachinetomachineapplicationsofXML.
5. XML is application agnostic, vendor neutral, and can be read by any 'XML aware application',
whichtypicallywillemployanXMLparser.
XML is a way for you to define structured information of all kindscontent, object data, inter
applicationmessages,orsyndicatedcontentsummariesandrepresentsdataapartfromvisualmarkup.
Itseparatesdatafromcontent.
A site could be easily constructed by combining an XML document that holds the content data (your
pagetext,perhapspointerstospecificimagefilesandtheirdimensions,sitenavigation,headers/footers,
andsoon)andanXSL(eXtensibleStylesheetLanguage)documentinconjunctionwithaCSSstylesheet
thatdefineshowthepageisvisuallyconstructed.
Whyisthisimportant?Byseparatingyourcontentfromyourdata,youhavetheabilitytoworkoneach
withoutaffectingtheother.Forexample,contentteamscouldbeupdatingtheXMLcontentandimage
pointersintheXMLfileatthesametimethatvisualdesignersaretweakingtheCSSstylesheet(visual
layout) and an integration engineer is finetuning the XSL document that pulls it all together. No
collisions by three parties trying to check out or open the same HTML file at the same time.
Developmentharmonyachieved.
TheactualstructureofanXMLdocumentisstraightforward.ThefollowingXMLdocumentisthedata
representationofamessagefromJanetoJohn:
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<?xmlversion="1.0"encoding="UTF8"?>
<message>
<from>JaneDoe</from>
<to>JohnDoe</to>
<date>February14,2006</date>
<body>Aretheannualreportfilesfinishedyet?</body>
<priority>high</priority>
<attachments>
<attachmenttype="jpg">file_1.jpg</attachment>
<attachmenttype="pdf">file_2.pdf</attachment>
</attachments>
</message>
Note,first,thatthis(andeachwellformed)XMLdocumentstartswithanXMLdeclarationthatdefines
both the XML version and character encoding used within the document itself. The root node of this
particulardocumentismessagewhollyappropriategivenitscontentandthatmessagecancontain
severalproperties:
from:Thesenderofthemessage
to:Therecipientofthemessage
date:Whenthemessagewassent
body:Themaincontentofthemessage
priority:High,medium,orlow
attachments: A container tag that can encapsulate a number of attachment tags pointing to
specificfiles
attachment:Atagthatdefineseachuniquefileassociatedwiththemessage
Syntaxwise,XMLisbothverystrictinitsinterpretation,whilereasonablyeasytolearnanduse.Here
areafewguidingprinciples:
XMLtagsarecasesensitive
XMLelementsmustbenestedappropriately,andhaveaclosingtag
AllXMLdocumentsmusthaveasinglerootelement
AttributesinXMLdocumentsmustbequoted
XMLcommentsfollowthesamesyntaxasHTMLcomments(<!comment>)
In a nutshell, an XML file is simply a text file that wraps data into logical constructs. How those
constructsareparsedisanothermatter.
Dissection of simple.xml
Thesimple.xmlfilecontainsinformationaboutaperson,theircontactinformation,whattheydo,their
education,andanyothergeneralcomments.Thereisonlyonerootnodeandinthiscaseitisnamed
simple. Nested within it are the nodes, contact, general, and comments. Each of these nodes have
nestednodescontainedwithinthemaswell.NoticethatthefirstlineistheXMLdeclaration.Itdefines
the XML version (1.0) and the encoding UTF8 (8bit UCS/Unicode Transformation Format, a variable
lengthcharacterencodingforUnicode).Thefollowingisanexampleofsimple.xmlwithdata.
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<?xmlversion="1.0"encoding="UTF8"standalone="yes"?>
<simple>
<contact>
<first_name>Jane</first_name>
<last_name>Doe</last_name>
<nick_name></nick_name>
<email_address>janedoe@gmail.com</email_address>
</contact>
<general>
<occupation>WebDesigner</occupation>
<education>BAFineArts</education>
<goals>StartWebDesignCompany</goals>
</general>
<comments>
<comment>MusttakeDreamweaver</comment>
</comments>
</simple>
XML will not be displayed like HTML pages in the browser. The XML document will be displayed with
colorcoded root and child elements. A plus (+) or minus sign () to the left of the elements can be
clickedtoexpandorcollapsetheelementstructure.ToviewtherawXMLsource(withoutthe+and
signs),select"ViewPageSource"or"ViewSource"fromthebrowsermenu.
Note:InChrome,Opera,andSafari,onlytheelementtextwillbedisplayed.ToviewtherawXML,you
mustrightclickthepageandselect"ViewSource".
1.
2.
3.
4.
W3SchoolsPrimeronXMLhttp://www.w3schools.com/web/web_xml.asp
W3XMLTutorialonXMLhttp://www.w3schools.com/xml/default.asp
TellMeNetworksprimeronXML:https://studio.tellme.com/general/xmlprimer.html
XMLFAQ:http://xml.silmaril.ie/basics/whatfor/
1. XML.COM
http://www.xml.com/
2. WDVLXMLtutorial
http://wdvl.com/Authoring/Languages/XML/
3. SunJavaXMLIntroduction
http://java.sun.com/webservices/jaxp/dist/1.1/docs/tutorial/overview/1_xml.html
4. IBM'SXMLWebsite
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/
5. GoogleDirectoryonXML
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Data_Formats/Markup_Languages/XML/Resource
s/FAQs,_Help,_and_Tutorials/
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