Introduction to XML

Introduction to XML is a one day introduction to the concepts, technologies, and syntax of XML.

Intended Audience

People with a technical orientation.

Course Format

This one-day course consists of lecture, discussions, computer-based examples, and demonstrations.

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites for this course. If you are planning to take Enterprise XML Strategies, we advise taking it prior to Introduction to XML.

Course Description

Introduction to XML begins by explaining why XML was invented and the basics of XML information analysis, markup, and processing. It then moves to central XML concepts and technologies: well-formedness, validity, transformation, rendering, and programming approaches to XML. Following the introduction, the basics of well-formedness and XML namespaces are covered. Validation is next. DTDs and W3C Schemas are covered, letting students see the traditional approach to constraining XML docuemnt structure (DTDs) and the new, powerful, tool of Schemas for constraining both document structure and content. Transformation of XML is next. The course explains what transformation is and why XSLT has become the work horse of the XML world, used frequently to manipulate XML data. Rendering covers both web-based publishing with Cascading Style Sheets and print publishing with XSL Formatting Objects. Finally, the course introduces students to the two main programming approaches to XML, tree-based and stream-based processing, and the DOM and SAX apis.

Course Agenda

Introduction to XML

• Introduction
• Learning Goals

Basics of Markup

• Data and Web Pages
• The Need for XML
• Information Objects and Components
• XML Markup
• Processing XML Markup
• Mechanics of Processing XML

Main XML Points

• Well-formed XML
  • XML Structure: Well-Formed
  • XML Naming Rules
  • Elements
  • Attributes
  • Comments
  • Processing Instructions
  • XML Declaration
• XML Namespaces
  • Mixing Vocabularies with Namespaces
  • Declaring a Namespace
  • Globally Unique Identifiers
  • Prefix Identifier for Namespace URI
  • Namespace Scoping
  • Qualified Names
  • Namespaces and XML 1.0
• Valid XML
  • Valid XML
• DTD
  • DTD Overview
  • Element Type Declarations
  • Attribute Declarations
  • Declaring a Document Type
  • DOCTYPE Declaration Syntax
• W3C Schemas
  • DTD Overview
  • W3C Schema Overview
  • W3C Schema Datatypes and XML
  • Specify Built-in Simple Types
  • Derive a New Simple Type
  • Associate Named Type with an Element
  • Complex Content with Content Model
  • Associate Complex Content with Element
  • Content Model with Attribute Declaration
  • Simple Schema Example
• Transforming XML
  • XSLT Overview
  • Using XSLT for Transformation
  • Template-based Processing
  • Default Templates
  • Client-side XSLT Processing
• Rendering XML
  • Rendering XML
  • Cascading Style Sheets Overview
  • XSL Overview
  • Using XSLT to Produce XSL
• Programming XML
  • Information Set Processing
  • Cascading Style Sheets Overview
  • Forms of Information Set Processing
• Wrap Up
  • XML Resources

Software requirements for this course:

This course requires 2 applications:

1. Internet Explorer 6.0 (or higher)

   Download at: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.asp

   An XML-aware web browser that parses XML documents for well-formedness, renders them using Cascading Style Sheets, and also performs XSLT transformations.

2. Stylus Studio

   Download at: http://www.stylusstudio.com/xml_download.html

   An XML Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for creating XML documents, transformations, Schemas, DTDs, etc.