Java and XML

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Brett McLaughlin, Justin Edelson

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Pages: 479 (Paperback)

ISBN: 059610149X

Pub: O'Reilly Media, Inc.

Pub date: 2006-12-08

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 279173

Editorial Review:

Two hot topics come together in this developer's guide. Both Java and XML are cross-platform technologies, so by using Java for code and XML for transporting data, you can build truly portable applications. This title is aimed at intermediate to advanced programmers, and while XML topics are explained more or less from scratch, readers will need prior knowledge of Java.
The book begins with an overview of XML and its uses, and goes on to explain how to parse XML using SAX 2 (the Simple API for XML). Next there is coverage of how XML is validated using DTDs (Document Type Definitions) and XML Schema, and transformed using XSL (Extensible Stylesheet Language). Brief coverage of Sun's Java API for XML is followed by a detailed look at JDOM (Java Document Object Model), a new API devised by the author in association with O'Reilly, the publisher.
The last part of the book is more advanced, and covers applications of XML and Java. There are chapters on Web-publishing frameworks, XML RPC (Remote Procedure Calls), using XML to read and write configuration data and generating XML with Java. There is also a short business-to-business example. Appendices provide an API reference to the various specifications discussed in the book.

The strengths of Java and XML include the author's deep knowledge of his subject and a writing style that is both clear and enthusiastic. If you happen to know a lot about Java and not much about XML, this is the ideal title. Those who already have a good grasp of XML basics may be frustrated by the amount of introductory material. --Tim Anderson

Reader Reviews:

Very disappointing so far. Not a good first impression... (0/0 people found this helpful)

- The source download is a joke for this book.
- You have to do an awful lot of work downloading stuff. Why these days there can't be maven scripts to download jar dependencies in download is beyond me.
- Ch2: P34:There's a glib statements about xmllint in the area of validating a xml document against an xsd. Quote: "Errors are reported and you can easily fix them". I didn't find this to be the case! I couldn't fathom the error it spewed out and Googling didn't show me an obvious answer either.
- Ch3:We come on to a SAX example. Once again no script to compile/run/get jars. So I knock one up. Then find I can't get example to compile because of missing class. So I think. Have the jars changed. No I eventually find via Googling an errata reference that this class is covered in next chapter!
So I go and look for it in source download and guess what. It's not there.
If there is one thing that drives me crazy. It's forward references in books. Even worse unmentioned ones. Source should have comment and download should be complete.
- Early chapters also were describing the makeup of xml documents. It would be good it this had been included in download too. Very sloppy packaging guys.
- I'll post back once I get further on and have typed in the code for ch4.
- But I hate what I've seen so far.
- I bought this book based on Steven Haines recommendation to becoming an Enterprise Java Developer over in his articles on Informit. He has been on the money with most of his recommendations. But with this one something is very awry. There must be a better alternative out there!

Too many errors, not enough content (1/1 people found this helpful)

I was a bit disappointed with this book. The begin is quite slow and there is much too much emphasis on SAX and DOM. The code examples are actually wrong. There are too many typos, even wrong method names which don't match the initial example or the discussion, thus I would be a bit concerned for the less advanced readers. I liked the fact that he mentioned the cocoon framework, but there really wasn't enough discussion of how an XML web publishing framework should work or on how to best structure the XML for such application. The installation instructions for cocoon don't belong in this book. This should be left to the project itself and I would have been happier would that space have been filled with more explanation about XSP and related topics.

Good, but the world needs an even better one (0/0 people found this helpful)

This is probably the best BOOK currently available on the COMBINATION of Java and XML. As always, if it's over a week old, then it has been superceded.

Style is good, as far as the book goes.

Coverage is an excellent introduction to DOMs, SAX, Cocoon etc., but it's lacking on some of the newer topics such as SOAP

You can find more up-to-date information on the web, but if you want it bound in a book, delivered to your desk, and you want it all now then buy this book. If you've already sweated through coding to a DOM, then you probably know much of it already.

Weak, poor coverage. (0/0 people found this helpful)

Lengthy coverage of SAX, better covered by the authors examples. XML examples flawed. Try the open sites for java application to XML, and an on topic XML book. Not worth the money.

Patchy and difficult to read in places (1/1 people found this helpful)

You can tell this is a book written by a developer, but that's not to say that the content is bad - more that the presentation could have been better (please ignore my poor XML related humour).

I found that the quality of explanation was patchy, and that whilst some parts were great to read, others needed going over a good few times before they made sense. Perhaps I'm spoiled from having recently read "Enterprise JavaBeans, 2nd Ed." by Richard Monson-Haefel - in my opinion you will be hard pressed to find a more professionally written book on any technnology. In comparison, Bretts prose verges on being needlessly wordy and meandering - you will read sections and instantly think of far simpler and more concise summaries.

All this aside, I did learn a lot about XML, etc. I came to the book as a former Java application programmer, current architect, and XML novice wondering what all the fuss was about. Having read the book, I fully appreciate how XML and the related technologies are useful, and that there is a lot more to it all than I first imagined.

Having said that, I still wonder if all the hype is justified, and question whether or not people are clambering onto the bandwagon for the ride, rather than because they truly know where it's going.

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