From being a curiosity, XML is now becoming a mainstream technology and the 'glue' that binds together many Enterprise and B2B systems.

This course provides a practical introduction for Java programmers to all the major XML concepts, common tools, technologies and techniques for manipulating XML from within Java code.

From describing its history, current uses, and introducing the major XML technologies, the course goes on to work on document creation, parsing, validation, transformation and using XML with databases. The course is divided equally between theory and practical sessions.

Due to the dynamic nature of this subject, this course is constantly under review and the content may change. Please check our website for the latest overview.

 Objectives

- Decide when to use XML technologies and tools
- Create XML documents and grammars 
- Validate XML documents 
- Use XSL stylesheets to transform and present data 
- Manipulate XML data 
- Use XML as a data representation in a web browser 
- Use XML with databases 
- Use XML as a data exchange format

 Who Should Attend?

Programmers with six months or more Java experience who want to
understand and use XML. This is not suitable for non-programmers.

 Prerequisites

Delegates should have six months or more Java experience.

 Course Content

Introduction to XML
- Origin of XML
- XML versus SGML, HTML and Java
- XML syntax overview
- XML tools - editors and parsers
- Validation
- Publishing frameworks

XML Basics
- Creating XML documents
- Elements and Attributes
- Handling special characters

Validating XML with DTDs
- Validation and validating parsers
- Inline and external DTDs
- Elements, sequences and attributes
- Using entities

Parsing XML
- Overview of parsing
- Getting a parser
- SAX and DOM
- Using SAX
- Creating a ContentHandler
- Handling Errors
- Using validation

More Advanced Parsing
- Parsing using DOM
- Getting output from the parser
- Trees and nodes
- Using a DOM parse tree
- Processing elements
- Modifying XML using DOM

XML Schemas
- DTDs versus Schemas
- Constructing Schemas
- Namespace support

Transforming XML with XSL
- XSL and XSLT
- Formatting objects
- XPath and XPointer
- Templates and patterns
- XSL constructs
- XSL versus CSS
- How to use CSS

Using Datasources with XML
- Storing XML in databases
- Working with relational data
- Database access products