XML is the future for Web publishing, e-commerce, search engines, and databases. XML is not a replacement for HTML -- it is a companion technology. HTML is mainly used for designing graphical Web interfaces, whereas XML:
-- gives structure to the data and content on a Web site
-- enables Webmasters to create their own tags
-- makes it easier for search engines to find informationXML is really a conglomerate of technologies which includes XML stylesheets (XSL), a hypertext linking system (X Pointers), a method for regularizing the meaning of XML tags created by different people (namespaces), and a Document Object Model (DOM). The DOM provides an interoperable set of classes and methods to manipulate XML documents (as well as HTML documents) from programming languages such as Java, ECMAScript, and VBScript.
Office 2000 and the new versions of the IE 5 and Navigator 5 browsers support XML. A new version of XML is being rolled out. The first part, XSL, was released in August 98.
XML Unleashed is a complete and comprehensive reference for sophisticated Web developers that covers every possible use of XML: from creating Web documents to building sophisticated Web applications. It covers all aspects of XML technology, from DTDs, XSL, and X Pointers to manipulating XML with Java and JavaScript.
XML Unleashed contains hundreds of professional programming techniques; it also contains code for more than 15 real-world XML applications involving e-commerce, database access, Web management, real estate, and healthcare. This book also includes reference material on SMIL, the XML-based language for Web multimedia.
