This tutorial shows Web developers, programmers, and system engineers how to create XML business applications for the Internet using Java. Topics include document management and metacontent, databases, messaging, servlets, JDBC, security, and JavaBeans. A basic understanding of XML and experience writing simple Java programs is required. The CD-ROM contains cross-platform source code and trial versions of WebSphere, DB2, and VisualAge.

Currently, XML is a bubbling cauldron of expectations and implementations. In XML in Action, William J. Pardi gives you a feel for what Microsoft is throwing into the mix by providing a general introduction to XML, with a focus on Internet Explorer 5.0's implementation in particular. Not surprisingly, the book opens up with a discussion of markup languages, the need for an extensible solution such as XML, and a taste for some of the associated languages currently critical to XML. The text then moves into the structure of XML documents, presenting the many XML terms and explaining how Document Type Definition (DTD) enforces the rules that govern XML implementations. The book illustrates how to script XML and how to use it to build data structures--a major advantage of XML and an important skill for Web developers. The author also discusses the Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL), a special formatting dialect for use with XML, and the special linking capabilities of XML, focusing on Xlink and Xpointer. Pardi illustrates several other advanced aspects of XML and documents the XML Object Model. A companion CD includes e-text of the book, content, and code samples and links to XML resources online. While this title is written through the eyes of Microsoft, it provides an excellent introduction to the possibilities and realities of XML.

You spend hours designing and formatting your Web pages to look just right, but when users log on to your site -- wham! -- all your carefully formatted data is scattered helter-skelter across the page! Now theres no need to curse the quirks of HMTL. Instead, skip over all those cumbersome and redundant HTML tags and jump to the head of the class with XML (eXtensible Markup Language), the new technology being developed by the World Wide Web Consortium. XML offers all the power of HTML and SGML scripting without all the headaches, giving developers a robust new tool in managing information and page formatting with increasing flexibility and usability that's just not possible with today's HMTL.