Exploring XML

The advent of XML heralds a revolution in web development, providing a means of delivering information in a variety of ways and to different devices. XML offers new opportunities and challenges to both people creating web pages and those involved in sophisticated back-end information systems, set to provide a powerful and flexible alternative to the long established language HTML.

This practical workshop, aimed at experienced HTML authors, introduces a wide range of new and exciting possibilities from multiple content transformations to creating WAP pages and producing XML from databases.

The Content

The workshop comprises presentations, demonstrations and hands-on sessions with opportunities for questions and discussion. Participants each receive a workbook which contains workshop exercises, presentation slides and other relevant materials.

Topics covered will include:

What is XML?
The relationship between SGML, HTML, XML and XHTML
Definitions of namespaces, DTDs and schemas
Separating content from appearance
Connecting Style Sheets to present XML documents
Using XSL - the eXtensible Style Language to transform information within pages
Server side XML and databases, including Active Server Pages
Data exchange and XML applications
Creating WAP pages in WML

By the end of the workshop participants will have:

Created XML documents
Developed Style Sheets in XSL to transform data
Gained an awareness of terminology and new developments
Used server-side scripts to interface to a database and produce XML
Transformed XML into XHTML and other formats
Created WAP pages and seen other applications of XML

Requirements

Participants are are expected to be familiar with the windows desktop and MUST have experience in writing pages in HTML including Forms. A basic knowledge of Cascading Style Sheets is assumed and familiarity with the concepts of scripting and server side processing. Experience in writing scripts would be an advantage but not essential.

See the comments from workshop participants