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To help make it clear what you’re looking at, I adopted some formatting
conventions in this book as shown below.
Fragments of source code in Java, C++, pseudocode, and various types of XML
syntax:
Source Code Program
main() {
// This is a C++ program ...
}
Single lines of code:
myDoc = new DocBuilder;
Fragments of non-XML files:
Doe,John,12 Lee Street,Boston,MA,01303
Command line program execution:
java MyProgram input output -a argument
The first time an important term is used it appears in bold font, for example, pipe and filter. The first time an acronym is used it appears in italics, for example, W3C, accompanied by the full name set in regular font. In some cases, important acronyms, for example, XSLT, first appear in both bold and italic.
Several of the terms used in this book have different meanings, depending on the context. For example, we can talk about an element’s attributes in an XML instance document, or when discussing the DOM we can talk about the attributes (or properties) defined for any of its interfaces, including a DOM element. To help keep things straight, whenever I refer to a named DOM entity I will capitalize the term. In addition, Elements and Attributes discussed in the context of instance documents will always be capitalized.
In this book I assume that you have certain prerequisite knowledge. You also need to have several software tools, source code, and some XML files in order to make full use of this book. This section tells you what you need to already know as well as what those additional resources are, where they are, and how to get them.
All readers should already have a basic understanding of XML. Familiarity with XML 1.0 DTDs may be helpful but is not absolutely necessary. If you aren’t already familiar with XML, there are several good introductions to the subject. On my Web site I give a few recommendations. If you don’t mind doing a bit of somewhat technical reading, you can also review the XML Recommendation at the W3C Web site, http://www.w3.org.
End users should be comfortable with the general concept of file format conversion, that is, taking a file that exists in one format and converting it to another file in a different format. Some rudimentary programming experience will be helpful if you plan to develop XSLT stylesheets or write scripts that use the utilities developed in the book.
Application developers should be familiar with either Java or C++ and their respective basic library functions. For those interested in the C++ implementation, prior experience with Microsoft’s Component Object Model (COM) is helpful but not required.
The Web site for this book has nearly everything you need (or pointers to the information you want). There you will find:
The URL for the book’s Web site is:
http://www.awprofessional.com/titles/0321154940. You can find additional examples
and frequently updated references to other good books at http://www.rawlinsecconsulting.com/booksupplement.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions, comments, errata, bug re
ports, and so on via e-mail at mike@rawlinsecconsulting.com.
If the only XML syntax work you expect to do is to code parameter files for running the utilities in this book, probably all you need is a good text or programming editor such as emacs. For Windows users, Microsoft’s XML Notepad (Beta version 1.5, May 3, 1999) is available as a free download. I would give you a URL for it, but Microsoft has an annoying tendency to move things around on its site. So, I won’t go any farther than pointing you to http://www.microsoft.com and suggesting that you search for “XML Notepad”. XML Notepad should ensure that you create a well-formed XML document, that is, one that complies with W3C’s XML Recommendation in certain key aspects. (Note: When used with Internet Explorer version 4.01 and earlier, XML Notepad converted all characters to uppercase. Very few people are likely to have this problem now since most people run later versions of Internet Explorer. If you run into this problem, you’ll need to upgrade Internet Explorer to version 5.0 or later.) The Windows Notepad, emacs, or vi will probably do just fine for very light use.
However, if you’re going to do much with XSLT or schema design, spending a couple hundred dollars for a good XML tool will probably be a good investment. I list my favorites below.
XMLSPY by Altova GmbH: All you need is the Integrated Development Environment (IDE). It helps you design schemas in various schema syntaxes, create instance documents, validate both, and develop and test XSLT stylesheets. XMLSPY runs only on Win32 platforms (Windows NT, 2000, XP, 98, ME). A free evaluation download is available from http://www.xmlspy.com. I used version 4.3 for this book.
TurboXML (formerly XML Authority) by TIBCO: Similar in functionality to XMLSPY, as a Java-based application it runs on many platforms including Windows, Linux, Solaris, HP-UX, and other UNIX platforms. A free evaluation download is available from http://www.tibco.com.
Other tools with similar functionality also exist (for example, eXcelon’s
Stylus Studio). However, I’ve not tested or extensively reviewed any of
them, so I don’t have much to say about them. I have heard of some free,
open source tools, but they were still in development when I wrote this book.
If I find any good ones I’ll post links on my Web site.
If you would like a different way to view an XML document (but not edit it),
Internet Explorer version 5.5 is handy. It allows you to expand or contract
elements with children so that you can view the complete document tree or just
focus on certain branches.
This completes my recommendations for general purpose software. The developer
recommendations for the Java and C++ environments are discussed next, but I
must raise an important cautionary flag first.
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