Includes bibliographical references (p. 421-423) and index.

1. Introduction. Part I: Extensible Markup Language. 2. Writing XML. 3. Document Type Definitions. 4. Specifying XML Structures Using Schema. Part II: Formatting XML for Display and Print. 5. Cascading Style Sheets. 6. Cascading Style Sheets Two. 7. Navigation within and between XML Documents. 8. XSL Transformation Language. 9. XSLT in Use. 10. XSL Formatting Objects. Part III: Handling XML in Your Own Programs. 11. Java and XML. 12. The Document Object Model. 13. The Simple API for XML. Part IV: Some Real World Applications of XML. 14. Introducing XHTML. 15. Web Services the Future of the Web? 16. Distributed Applications with SOAP. 17. DocBook. 18. XUL. References. Appendix A: Business Letter in XML. Appendix B: Recipe Book in XML. Appendix C: Business Letter Schema. Appendix D: Recipes Book Schema. Appendix E: Business Letter Formatting Object Stylesheet. Appendix F: Recipe Formatting Object Stylesheet. Index. Index.

XML is a powerful cross-platform mark-up language which has readily been adopted as a standard in many spheres of web and software development. Real benefits include its ease of integration into existing systems, the simplicity of using it in object-oriented environments and its wide applicability. Chris Bates shows how to use XML in modern software developments and backs up a thorough treatment of its key points with clear, practical examples. Programmers and developers wanting both A-Z coverage and a practical how-to, will find stepwise guidance on: creating data, storage formats, implementing interfaces, providing a wireless protocol in distributed applications (SOAP), and creating intermediate data formats on the web. Chris Bates provides live code in Java to show how XML can be employed in the development of applications and also provides details of how XML parsers work. You will learn more than simply how XML operates. You'll gain insight and understanding of the concepts, their importance and their application. Problems and exercises are provided and make the book ideal for self-study or classroom situations. With an accompanying website containing code samples and links to important web-sites, XML in Theory and Practice is a must-have primer on the subject.