XML Design Handbook

The platform- and language-agnostic nature of XML makes it a natural choice for developers building cross-platform applications and is rapidly becoming the mechanism of choice for application designers who need to store and share data.

Simply knowing the syntax and features of the language just isn’t enough if you want to build powerful and efficient XML driven applications. You need to understand how to use the language and its features in the most effective manner. This is where this book comes in - assuming familiarity with the mechanics of XML, it analyzes all of the critical pieces of the XML space that require careful design in order to build efficient, robust, and extensible applications. It covers:

Effective document design

Designing robust, flexible schemas for validating documents

Dissection of the SAX and DOM parsing APIs - when to use which

Best practices for XSLT design

XML storage strategies

Techniques for XML transmission, using SOAP and XML-RPC

Presenting data to a range of different applications

The book should appeal equally to the XML developer, who needs to write code to process XML documents or data, and the XML architect, working on systems that store and/or process XML.

The goal of this book is to get developers and architects thinking about the ramifications of their XML design approach, in the same way that they do about their database design or Java class structure. It is packed with best practice tips and techniques on all aspects of XML-related design, and should prove an indispensable desktop reference for the working XML developer.