Extensible Markup Language (XML)

You will learn how to

• Develop enterprise Web applications using Extensible Markup Language (XML)
• Write well-formed XML documents
• Render XML as HTML using Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL)
• Validate and enforce business rules using XML schemas
• Extract and process information from XML documents using the Document Object Model (DOM)
• Generate XML from databases
• Implement server-side XML applications to generate browser-neutral HTML

Course benefits
Today, it is no longer enough to just have a presence on the Web; you must also take advantage of the most effective technologies. XML is revolutionising the Internet, offering an easier way to conduct business-to-business transactions and a better means for searching and managing data.

In this course, you gain hands-on experience developing XML-based solutions. You also learn how to integrate XML with existing applications.

Who should attend
This course is valuable for those involved in building Web applications or developing enterprise solutions. Experience with HTML or Course 470, "Developing a Web Site", is assumed. Programming or scripting experience is helpful.

Hands-on training
Hands-on experience developing XML solutions is provided throughout this course. Exercises include:

• Writing well-formed XML documents
• Modelling business requirements using XML
• Handling XML reserved characters
• Creating XML schemas
• Generating XML documents from databases
• Reading and updating databases using XML schemas
• Writing XSL templates to transform XML documents into HTML
• Integrating XML, XSL and the DOM to implement a complete solution

Course content

Introduction and Overview XML in the real world The benefits of XML XML application deployment XML compared to HTML Demystifying the myths Markup language vs. markup specification Writing XML Documents XML components Declaration Root Element Attribute Entity The rules of well-formed documents Differentiating between well-formed and valid documents Using XML tools The objectives of namespaces Benefits of namespaces Assigning Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) to namespaces XML in the enterprise Relating XML and metadata Positioning XML in a 3-tier architecture Applying Style with Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) Applying style to data Design rules XSL elements Exploiting the capabilities of XSL Comparing and contrasting CSS with XSL Processing documents with pattern matching and templates Programming with XSL functions Filtering and sorting data with XSL Transforming XML Converting XML to HTML using XSL XML-to-XML transformation using XSL Validation and Modelling in XML Validation in XML Distinguishing between declarative and procedural validation Validation with Document Type Definition (DTD) XML schemas XML schemas vs. DTD Local vs. global declarations Extending the XML schema data types with user-defined types Building simple schemas Modelling with XML schemas Defining data structures using basic data types Applying facets Designing with the three models of schemas Communicating with Databases Using XML Relational database technologies Options for storing XML in, and retrieving XML from, databases Accessing databases using middleware XML in the enterprise XML data applications Reading and updating databases with XML schemas Processing Information with the Document Object Model (DOM) DOM fundamentals The role of the DOM The DOM as an object hierarchical structure Processing the DOM Navigating XML documents Modifying XML with the DOM Creating new XML documents using the DOM Manipulating XML with the DOM Combining XML documents Converting XML to HTML using the DOM Developing Server-Side Applications with XML Options in transferring XML documents XML processing using Java and .NET Introduction to Web services