A Gentle Introduction to xml

Interactive XML tutorials.

These tutorials introduce a variety of XML topics including, SVG, DTD, Schema, XSLT, DOM and SAX.

Each topic includes a number of problems that the student must complete. For all of the problems the student has access to online parsers that process the students answers and give immediate feedback.

Contents

SVG - Scalable Vector Graphics

SVG is an example of an XML application. Using SVG we can create images made up of lines, shapes and text.

DTD - Document Type Definition (more DTD)

A DTD describes an XML application. An XML documents may be validated against a DTD. The DTD specifies the elements that may be included, how they may be nested and what attributes each element may have.

XSLT Extensible Style Sheet Transformations

An xsl sheet describes the transformation of an XML document. The xsl transformation involves matching nodes against templates. The xsl transfomation may use XPath expressions.

DOM at progzoo

DOM - Document Object Model

The Document Object Model includes a set of classes that have been implemented in a variety of languages. In these examples we use Java to process XML documents using DOM.

SAX - Simple API for XML

The SAX interface allows us to process XML documents in Java. Although this interface is harder to use (than DOM) it is more efficient and allows us to process large documents without the overheads that DOM introduces.

XML Schema

A schema may be used to validate an xml document. Schema perform more or less the same function as a DTD - they do it better but are considerably more complex.

All of the tools used are freely available.

The web interface is convenient for beginners however more ambitious students should be able to install the tools and run the examples from their own machines.

Coursework 2007/8