Reviews (7)

It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This
If you are a knowledgable IT professional and need to either learn XML or increase your knowledge quickly, this book is for you. Complete, fast-paced, no dead wood, and designed with the busy IT professional in mind. It reminds me of the Wrox "Handbook" series. Buy this book!
I seldom award five stars but this book deserves it.If you can only buy one XML reference book, buy this one; if you have XML books that you're not satisfied with, buy this one: The XML Pocket Consultant is *the* XML "sleeper" title.
Fantastic
"XML Pocket Consultant" is the best XML book on the market. It is really worth every penny. This book is packed with useful information. My biggest disappointment is that I had such a hard time find the book. For anyone wanting to learn XML, XSL, XPath this is the book I recommend. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Networks    3. Computer Programming Languages    4. Computers    5. Computers - Languages / Programming    6. Internet - Web Site Design    7. Programming Languages - HTML    8. Programming Languages - XML    9. XML (Document markup language)    10. Computers / General    11. Reference works    12. XML   

Reviews (1)

Great book for "real-world" XML
Everybody or most of everybody that are in web design in some form or another have heard about XML or even used it a bit.But personally I feel there are a small amount of resources out there that really teach you how to use XML in "real-world" scenarios. It's nice to know what it is and know that many applications use it behind the scenes, but it still doesn't help people understand how to use it for our own web applications.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Design    5. Programming Languages - XML    6. Web sites    7. XML (Document markup language)    8. Computers / Programming Languages / XML    9. XML   

Reviews (5)

Provides exactly what it promises
I bought this guide because I needed a quick lookup for XML schema elements (something you'd think would be readily available online, but isn't - at least not in a usable form).The bulk of the book (70 of its 162 pages - about half) is dedicated to XSD, so I was very happy with what I got.The first 30 pages cover XML itself (all the nitpicking details like predefined entities, what characters are allowed in attribute names, etc).The next 17 pages cover DTD (which you may occasionally still need to know, even these days).The next 70 cover XML Schema, and the book finishes up with an additional 43 pages on Relax-NG and Schematron (two competing, and not very common, schema definition formats).
Another view
I am one of the coauthors of this book. I feel compelled to write a review in support of my friend and coauthor, Simon St. Laurent, who wrote the section on XML Schema. Of the 160 pages of text in XML Pocket Reference, Third Edition, 71 pages are dedicated to XML Schema. That's 44 percent of the book. Of the 71 pages, 16 pages cover examples of XML Schema.
Good and Not-So-Good
My problem with this book is that I was hoping it would concentrate more on just XML Schema, something I think most people would prefer. Of course, how I am qualified to make that kind of statement is beyond me ;-) But here is my reasoning: A fairly large portion of the book covers DTDs, RELAX NG, and Schematron. DTDs, while ubiquitous, are being supplanted by XML Schema. Usage of RELAX NG and Schematron are, by the book's own admission, not widespread. So it seems that all three of these technologies could have been admitted, as were many other XML-related technologies (XSLT, XPath, etc.)
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Internet - World Wide Web    5. Programming Languages - XML    6. Reference - General    7. Computers / Languages / Programming    8. Computers / Programming Languages / XML    9. Computers/Internet - World Wide Web    10. Computers/Reference - General    11. XML    12. XML (Document markup language)    13. XML XML Schema datatype DTD element attribute namespace   

Features

• Illustrated

Reviews (15)

Good book, lots of information
This book is jam packed with RDF information.RDF itself is a fairly obscure and it is often difficult to find a single mass of information that is comprehensive enough to be useful.This book is definitely a good move towards consolidating the information available about RDF, though I fear that "Practical" is a misnomer, as this is much more comprehensive than practical.

A huge time saver
This book is Practical RDF and not "Progamming with RDF (with examples)".Yes, you can find all of the information in this book by searching the Internet.The point is that your results will vary based on who you, how much time you have at your disposal, which day it is, and whether your phone is about to ring.
Good book but needs editing....
I started reading the book and very soon realized that even though I was learning a few things about RDF, I was getting stuck with mismatch between text and graphical representation, and other editing problems that can and should be fixed... may be in a new release or in a revised printing. I am happy to have a book to read but by no means I am happy with the quality of presentation. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Operating Systems    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Operating Systems - General    5. Programming - General    6. Programming Languages - XML    7. Computers / Languages / Programming    8. Computers / Programming Languages / XML    9. Computers/Programming - General    10. Internet programming    11. RDF, XML, Resource Description Framework, Mozilla, RDF Schema     12. Web site development    13. XML    14. XML (Document markup language)   

Reviews (1)

Got Source?
Greetings, all in all this book is easy to follow and has many examples, but lacks a CD with source code. Not to worry, you can download a ZIP file containg all the code. Unfortunatly, they have the wrong publishers site listed in the book. I searched around and found the true link. ... I hope this helps. It's the only way I found it. Other than that, the examples have saved me countless hours. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Application software    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Networks    4. Computers    5. Computers - Languages / Programming    6. Design    7. Development    8. Hardware - Network Hardware    9. Internet - Web Site Design    10. JavaServer pages    11. Programming - General    12. Programming Languages - HTML    13. Programming Languages - Java    14. Structured Programming    15. Web sites    16. XML (Document markup language)    17. Computers / Programming Languages / Java    18. Java & variants    19. XML   

Reviews (7)

Worse than ...
The authors apparently made too many assumptions on the readers. They freely used buzzwords without giving any proper definition, and they used half a dozen different terms for the same concept, even on the same page. Take a look at this excerpt in Chap-1: Good explanation of XML and SOAP
The chapters in the book are well organized. Detailed explanation about XML, application development is given. The book in the later part covers the Interoperability and SOAP applications. Not bad reference book...not completely up-to-date
I normally refrain from recommending Microsoft Press books because so many of them are printed versions of their online help or MSDN content. If you want to learn XML from the ground up, this book isn't for you. If you're familiar with the concepts of XML and have wanted more clarification on how to use XML as a tool within your applications, then you should look at this book.Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books And Software    2. Computer Networks    3. Computer Programming Languages    4. Computer programming    5. Computers    6. Computers - Languages / Programming    7. Programming Languages - HTML    8. Programming Languages - XML    9. XML (Document markup language)    10. Computers / General    11. Reference works    12. XML   

Reviews (12)

I am not a techie . . .
And I don't even play one on TV. But I sometimes find myself having to do techie things, such as making revisions to my Web site, or trying to figure out why the $%@!#$ thing isn't doing what I thought it was supposed to do. That is when I reach for this book.
Excellent Resource to get Your Web Site Up and Running
This is one of the best organized, well-written technical books I have encountered in the last 15 years! The examples in the book and the companion web-site make step by step learning simple and clear. I went from knowing nothing about creating a website to launching one in one week, using no other references. This book is a must-read for anyone getting started on the web.This is a concise, fact and example-packed, logical guide to getting up and running - a keeper for sure!

Good but perhaps too extensive
The didactic work is perfect the author is really expert in the subject and the expression is very didactic the examples are very well selected.
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Subjects:  1. Cascading style sheets    2. Computer - Internet    3. Computer Books: Web Programming    4. Computers    5. Design    6. HTML (Document markup language    7. HTML (Document markup language)    8. Internet - Web Site Design    9. Programming Languages - HTML    10. Web sites    11. XHTML (Document markup languag    12. XHTML (Document markup language)    13. Computers / Programming Languages / HTML, SGML, VRML, XML    14. Internet languages   

Subjects:  1. Cascading style sheets    2. Computer Books: Languages    3. Computers    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. HTML (Document markup language)    6. Programming Languages - HTML    7. XML (Document markup language)   

Reviews (3)

Definitely a First Edition Book
An easy weekend read that touches on a wide range of XML topics, but typos in the book confuse rather then reinforce many of the concepts.

What XML is about
It is a kind of book you can read in a weekend, but it will give you a good, although basic, understanding what XML is about. No previous knowledge about XML is required but some idea about HTML seems to be silently assumed as authors put phrases like "similar as in HTML" here and there, so you should at least know what a tag is (not too high requirement).
I'd recommend it as your entry into the world of XML
It's tempting to ask what's the big deal about XML.Just make up some tags and off you go!Unfortunately, once you start getting into DTDs, XLink, XPath, and a variety of other X-things, it gets much more complex and confusing.If you want to start understanding the world of XML, start off with XML Demystified by Jim Keogh and Ken Davidson.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Programming Languages - XML    5. XML (Document markup language)    6. Computers / Programming Languages / XML    7. Programming languages   

Reviews (12)

Excellent book on web publishing via Cocoon
Excellent book!. Introduces Cocoon as a web publishing (and integration) framework that it is. Shows nicely how to use xml-based technology to create web-sites like portals that integrate external and internal data sources without writing any java code. But the book also explains the internals of Cocoon for java developers so that those who want to extend its functionality can do so (by writing appropriate java modules). Overall it made me understand the -significant- powers of the cocoon project and its overall scope too. So, to recap, the book is very easy to read if you have basic knowledge of xml and java, and it explains what you can and cannot do with cocoon: a framework for building web-sites that mostly deal with publishing documents. In that sense, cocoon can be used to create robust portals or document management systems or even more general content management systems (Lenya).

CForm Rules
Please please please... if any author wants to write another cocoon book make it as updated as you can. I got two cocoon books (I guess everyone knows what they are since there aint a lot of them around!).In a weeks time I was up and running.But then it was announcedXMLForm and JXForms have been removed from the 2.1.x distribution flushing all efforts down the drain. Dont get me wrong.Good books... Only outdated.

Not the best book on Cocoon.
I was happy with this book after reading the first few chapters however after I got stuck into Cocoon I discovered that it was not suitable as a reference. I couldn't find information on XML fragments or i18n. The index isn't good at all. The information may be in there but you will have to read the book from cover to cover to get value from it. I would recommend going for the Cocoon Developers Handbook. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Application software    2. Cocoon (Electronic resource)    3. Combinatorics    4. Computer Books: General    5. Computer Networks    6. Computer Programming Languages    7. Computers    8. Computers - Languages / Programming    9. Development    10. Internet - General    11. Internet programming    12. Programming - General    13. Programming Languages - HTML    14. Programming Languages - XML    15. XML (Document markup language)    16. Computers / Internet / World Wide Web    17. XML   

Editorial Review

Even hot dog Web coders proficient in XML need a little refresher once and a while. Although some portions of XML are still very fluid, the handy Read more

Reviews (32)

Useful, But Better Option Exists
This book is small and travels well.It does not have an index, which seems odd for a reference text, but it does have a table of contents.I find Essential XML Quick Reference (ISBN 0-201-74095-8) to be well worth the additional investment.

Good book but no coverage for XML schemas
I guess it's my fault for not checking closely enough, but this book is somewhat dated now (more than two years old as of this writing).It was somewhat of an impulse buy at the book store when it looked useful after a quick scan.It had a little "2nd Edition" banner across the front cover corner and I just assumed it included coverage of schemas.The coverage of XSLT and XML in a small format is quite useful.I'll probably buy the 3rd edition when it comes out--I would have given the book 4 or 5 stars two years ago when it was first published.

Merely an introduction to XML...
This book provides a useful overview into the basics of XML while doubling up as a quick reference to the XML specification. Handy for those that want to dabble in XML without buying a more detailed book, but then XML has so many related technologies anyone serious about XML will need more.Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Networks    3. Computer Programming Languages    4. Computers    5. Computers - Languages / Programming    6. Programming - General    7. Programming Languages - HTML    8. Programming Languages - XML    9. World Wide Web    10. XML (Document markup language)    11. Computers / Programming Languages / XML    12. XML   

Reviews (3)

Awarded "BEST BOOK " award for 2002
The Web Design CD Bookshelf CD-ROM by O'Reilly, Associates has received a "BEST BOOK for 2002" award by readers of the Design & Publishing Center, the Editors of DT&G Magazine and the Design-Bookshelf.com. Repackaging of Some Long-in-the-Tooth Titles
The "6 Bestselling Books on a CD-ROM" on the cover looks impressive, but dig into the info contained on the CD and it begins to look a lot less so. Contains six different, complete guides
The Web Design CD Bookshelf: Version 1.0 contains six different, complete guides that, taken together, cover everything anyone needs to know about the art of web design. Novice web designers and experienced professionals alike will appreciate being able to quickly look up answers to the most harrowing difficulties at a few clicks of the mouse. The CD-ROM includes the complete text of Web Design in a Nutshell 2nd Edition; HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide 4th Edition; Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide; ActionScript: The Definitive Guide; Information Architecture for the World Wide Web; and Designing Web Audio: RealAudio, MP3, Flash, and Beatnik. Truly the definitive compendium about web design, and the perfect reference for anyone seeking create or improve their own website. The system requirements for The Web Design CD Bookshelf: Version 1.0 are a browser software such as Netscape Communicator or Internet Explorer supporting HTML, and to support the search engine, a Java-enabled browser supporting Java version 1.1.2 or later. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer / Internet    2. Computers / Internet / Web Site Design    3. HTML    4. World Wide Web (WWW)    5. Web sites    6. Design    7. Handbooks, manuals, etc    8. World Wide Web    9. Electronic publishing    10. Desktop Publishing    11. Internet - World Wide Web    12. Computer - Internet    13. Computer Books: General    14. Computer Books: Web Programming    15. Computers    16. Internet - Web Site Design   

Reviews (1)

your data does not have to be in XML format
If you are analysing various XML-encoded data, and am overwhelmed with the sheer mass of it all, you have probably wondered about displaying it. The problem is that there are an infinite number of ways to display data.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computer Networks    3. Computer Programming Languages    4. Computers    5. Computers - Languages / Programming    6. Internet - General    7. Programming - General    8. Programming Languages - General    9. Programming Languages - HTML    10. Programming Languages - XML    11. Semantic Web    12. Visualization    13. Web site development    14. XML (Document markup language)    15. Computers / Information Technology    16. Human-computer interaction    17. Information retrieval    18. Information visualization    19. Interactive multimedia interfaces    20. Ontologies    21. Topic maps    22. World Wide Web (WWW)    23. XML   

Reviews (13)

Poorly conceived and useless
This book has nothing to ofer. If you need some pointers on creating XSL style sheets then keep looking. There is no one practical example even for basic stuff like using variable and parameters for sorting and filtering. Most examples are of the form:
XSLT: Working with XML and HTML
Uniquely efficient presentation of the topic.A necessary and sufficient description of the 20% of XSLT that is used in 80% of applications.Perfect use of extended graphics for the tree handling basics in Part II, which by itself justifies purchase.This is one of a handful of books I've run across in 20 years that takes the reader to an intermediate level in almost no time.(Frank Pagan'sslim book on Formal Definition of Programming Languages is another.)Consensus among colleagues is that the Fung book for jump-start plus the Michael Kay (2nd ed) book for reference is the XSLT library to have.One wishes this author would write on other topics.

The bestXSLT book to start with
This is the most beginner-friendly book on XSLT I am aware of. It is written in simple language devoid of XML infamous dreadful terminology. It implies neither the reader's significant Computer Science background, nor outstanding brain power. Explanations are as clear and simple as possible, with lots of illustrations. 1-star reviewers remarks about "cryptic writing" and "higher algebra" are egregiously misaddressed (though entertaining :). ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Networks    3. Computer Programming Languages    4. Computers    5. Computers - Languages / Programming    6. HTML (Document markup language    7. HTML (Document markup language)    8. Internet - General    9. Internet - Web Site Design    10. Programming Languages - General    11. Programming Languages - HTML    12. XML (Document markup language)   

Reviews (10)

How to get a Perfect Bound copy of this book
Attention Michael Pachis and others who purchased this book in 2006: I am the book's author and when I saw your comments, I contacted my publisher. If you purchased a copy recently and received it in 3-hole punch format, send me an email and I'll put you in touch with the publisher.They have a small number of perfect bound copies they can send you instead. Use the email address on the right side on my personal web site (kensall.com) home page. I hope this helps.
Note: This is not a paperback!
I want to warn customers that the publisher has gone to a "print on demand" publishing model and this book is not delivered as a paperback, but as eleven hundred three hole punched loose leaf pages! This leaves you with the task of finding a binder after paying 40$ for the book! Since it is book size (8 x 10) it awkawardly fits into a standard 8.5 x 11 binder, not very convenient for reading or transporting, and you need the binder to be 3.5" thick to fit the book in the binder.
Rather practical!
Where to start?With the concise history of where XML came from and why each design decision was made and how the evolution of specifications took place over the years, or the thorough explanation of all the XML specifications, or the programming and parsing aspects of XML and metadata, or the cool XML timeline poster towards the end of the book?This book has much to offer any person interested in finding out what XML is and why and how it has changed our world.Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Networks    3. Computer Programming Languages    4. Computers    5. Computers - Languages / Programming    6. Data Processing - General    7. Design    8. Internet - Web Site Design    9. Internet programming    10. Programming Languages - HTML    11. Programming Languages - XML    12. Web sites    13. XML (Document markup language)    14. Computers / Programming Languages / HTML, SGML, VRML, XML    15. XML   

Reviews (3)

out of date, not very useful
This book dates back to 1999, and since I'm writing this in 2006, that's seven years ago. Seven years is a long time for computer documentation. Virtually everything in the book is so far out of date that it's useless. The authors also didn't do a very good job of staying on topic; there are many long digressions that are neither interesting nor useful. In many cases, the authors merely give a broad-strokes outline of how to accomplish a particular task, or talk about several different approaches that have been taken by different people, without concluding with anything very helpful about how to actually accomplish the task.

very handy
I am an user of latex on linux for sometime now. The possibillities are uncountable with this excellent software. This book touches on the use of tex and latex for the web. Being not that experienced with all the possibillities this book is very usefull. It is a good introduction for converting latex and tex files to documents for the web. If you can grasp all the stuff in this book you will be able to easily prepare all kinds of documents for the web and in the end save a lot of time lost with programming html yourself. Almost definitely recommended
I have found this book almost as useful and interesting as the LaTeX Companion. I think that it gives enough information about sharing TeX and LaTeX texts on the web, but the chapters covering pdfTeX and SGML/XMLapplications could be more detailed.Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books And Software    2. Computer Networks    3. Computer Programming Languages    4. Computers    5. Computers - Languages / Programming    6. Electronic Publishing    7. HTML (Document markup language    8. HTML (Document markup language)    9. LaTeX (Computer file)    10. Programming Languages - General    11. Programming Languages - HTML    12. Programming Languages - XML    13. XML (Document markup language)    14. Computers / Electronic Publishing    15. Desktop publishing software    16. Internet languages   

Features

• Illustrated

Reviews (7)

Fine reference but covered in other books
This is a relatively short book on XPath and, as one of the other reviews points out, it tends to complicate what is generally a fairly simple standard. The XPath portion of the XSLT : Programmer's Reference from Michael Kay is more succinct covers the important parts in enough detail to get the job done.

The complexity of the book hides the simplicity of XPath
O'Reilly books are usually a good choice for a professional to learn a concept in an effective way. However, this book is an exception. If you think XPath looks difficult, it is just because this book makes it _seem_ difficult. Read the official W3C specifikation instead and you will see how simple XPath really is. easy to understand, written with humour reference manual
John E. Simpson has done a remarkable job in elucidating yet another XML-related techology in fun and easy small book. Care is taken to provide comprehensive examples (sometimes with hacker-type tougue-in-cheek approach) which illustrates the points of syntax. One does not need to read the book in comprehensive fashion, after a few chapters, you one can just start coding and refer to the rest as a reference manual. Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Data Processing - General    5. Design    6. Hypertext    7. Internet programming    8. Programming - General    9. Programming Languages - HTML    10. Programming Languages - XML    11. Web sites    12. XML (Document markup language)    13. Computers / Languages / Programming    14. Computers / Programming Languages / XML    15. Computers/Data Processing - General    16. Computers/Programming - General    17. XML    18. XML, XSLT, Xlink, EXSLT    19. XPath (Computer program language)   

Reviews (1)

Comprehensive and concise

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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Web Programming    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Internet - Web Site Design    5. Internet - World Wide Web    6. Programming Languages - Java    7. Programming Languages - XML   

Reviews (3)

Sloppy editing, details glossed over
Though the book covers material quickly and lucidly, the editing is very sloppy and key details are omitted. For example, in discussing using the ID datatype for attributes in DTDs, it omits a key detail: a number isn't an XML name, and to get around this, prepend an _. The example given even shows a useage that won't work! The O'Reilly book of a classmate included this. Elsewhere the text discusses examples that aren't in the book and seem left over from a previous edition, and reading the text is distracting for the grammatical errors. Learn the Full XML Story
The author's have done an outstanding job in writing the book.I found that even the mundane details were covered in the right place and with a little humor.The coverage starts out very simple, so many people won't use the beginning chapters extensively.However, as the book progresses, the coverage becomes more technical and I think that most people will find the authors have covered most of the XML details that any developer will need.The authors also discuss some of the details that other books leave out, such as the default namespaces.Little bits of information like this make the difference between a book that merely teaches and one that really helps.This book has something for everyone.Novices will get the most out of the book, but even advanced readers will receive some benefit.The thing I like the best is that the book is arranged as a quick reference--something that makes it especially useful when you're trying to complete a project and need to know some detail you've forgotten.

Know nothing about XML, it's OK
Before reading the book, I was knowing nothing about XML, but after reading a few chapters, I got familiar with the technology.Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Networks    3. Computer Programming Languages    4. Computers    5. Computers - Languages / Programming    6. Internet - General    7. Programming - Software Development    8. Programming Languages - General    9. Programming Languages - HTML    10. XML (Document markup language)    11. Computers / Programming / Software Development    12. XML   

Reviews (11)

A good reference on some things
I am a first year student at Oklahoma State University and had been struggling with some of the CSS and web-design code. I found this book in my school;s bookstore and tried it. I immediately understood about 98% of it. the other 2%, I haven't leanred from my professor yet. The very helpful thing, was that they would show you a picture of a finished web page and instead of saying "try to make this" without much info like my other books, this one show's you the code. Every letter. My Site is developing phenominally because of a large part to this reference. The only reason it's not 5, is because I haven't learned some of the stuff in the back chapters yet.

Confusing, not enough info
I know HTML pretty well but CSS not at all. I figured I'd get this book to teach myself CSS and since it had HTML in the title I thought it would teach the integration of both to create websites.
Just what I needed - not too much, not too little
This book is perfect for my needs. I have a background in graphic design, and have created some web sites in Adobe GoLive. GoLive writes the code for you, so you don't need to know how to do it "by hand." But now the newest version of GoLive is based on CSS, so although I had been dabbling in it, I need to learn a lot more. Plus, sometimes you need to look into the code to get something to work or to understand what is happening.
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Subjects:  1. Cascading style sheets    2. Computer Books: Languages    3. Computers    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. HTML (Document markup language)    6. Internet - World Wide Web    7. Programming Languages - HTML    8. XHTML (Document markup language)    9. Computers / Programming Languages / HTML, SGML, VRML, XML    10. HTML