The personal and professional ramblings of Nicholas Chase
Looking for help with one of my books? Try here. Like science fiction? Check out the
Vanguard Science Fiction Report. Looking for XML information? Try the XML Reference Guide. How about Native American books, music, videos, and so on? Try The Native Path.
"Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created
them." -- Albert Einstein
January 28, 2006
JSON: Ajax without the cross-domain issues
I've just posted an introductory discusion on JavaScript Object Notation (JSON). What's itneresting about it is it provides away to get around the cross-domain issues you get when you try to access web services using Ajax. Yahoo's now outputting JSON in a ridiculously easy way, so this is worth checking out.
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March 01, 2005
Yahoo releases web services API
Check it out over on the InformIT blog...
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February 06, 2005
One click, yes. One aggregator, NO.
I've discovered that I'm generally cranky when I post to InformIT. My take on a one-click aggregation solution is no exception.
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05:46 PM
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January 17, 2005
What I want in an aggregator
Almost a year ago, I wrote about what I want in an RSS aggregator, and now, as I actually write one in C++ (see, I told you I was doing it) I've gone back and found that all of those requests are still valid. And I still don't see anybody doing all of it.
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December 16, 2004
Thanks, Adam!
Adam Kinney liked the XAML article. Thanks, Adam! Must have gotten it right, because Adam works at Xamlon. :)
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June 17, 2004
Using the Generic Log Adapter with the Log and Trace Analyzer
Now featured on developerWorks: Using the Generic Log Adapter with the Log and Trace Analyzer
The GLA and LTA are Eclipse-based tools that enable logs to be parsed for occurrences of pre-defined events, relate those events to situations, and recommend actions based on information in a knowledge base. This tutorial is of particular interest to developers and administrators of applications with dependencies on multiple servers, such as DB2, Apache, and WebSphere. The key lesson imparted here is how to use the GLA to create your own adapter for custom application logs. Additionally, the tutorial introduces the underlying elements of the log adapter process. These low-level enablers of autonomic computing systems are an important contributor to the creation of more autonomic computing systems. This tutorial takes you through an example of how high-level open standards, such as the Common Base Event description, can be incorporated into development and administration functions at a practical level.
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11:50 AM
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June 02, 2004
Understand the Autonomic Management Engine
Now on developerWorks: Understand the Autonomic Management Engine
"The idea of an autonomic computing system is attractive -- who wouldn't want a system that knows what to look for, and what to do if it finds it? But, building one from scratch is too much of an undertaking for most shops. Fortunately, the Autonomic Management Engine simplifies the process. This tutorial explains how AME works and shows you how to embed it into one of your own applications."
This is actually pretty cool. Well, I think so, anyway. :)
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May 13, 2004
Mozilla and the potential for interaction
Ever heard of XUL? It's a new way of building web applications in Mozilla (and the newer versions of Netscape). Kind of like a "super" form, with all kinds of interactivity available. I still haven't had time to fool around with it, despite a brief interlude when it looked like I might have to write a tutorial on it, but check out the Mozilla Amazon Browser, a very cool look at what you can do with it. This link is via Jono Bacon's Mozilla and the potential for interaction, which is itself an interesting read, considering the idea of porting applications such as OpenOffice to XUL.
Cool.
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Why I like XInclude
XInclude, designed to make it easier to include part of one XMl document into another, has been a neglected specification for a long time. Now Bob DuCharme gives a good example of how it can be useful with Transclude with XInclude (and XPointer!). It still doesn't address the security issues, but OK, there you are.
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08:20 PM
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May 04, 2004
DOM and PHP
Now in the XML Reference Guide over at : DOM and PHP
PHP has support for XML built in, but as far as production code, it's limited to SAX. You can install the DomDocument module, but you do, of course, have to have access to the actual server in order to use it. Fortunately, for those of you who, like me, use an external web server and don't have that kind of control, there's a simple way to get Document Object Model functionality. ...
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09:29 PM
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April 10, 2004
Java in XSLT: Extension Functions
Now on InformIT in the XML Reference Guide: Java in XSLT: Extension Functions
Using XSLT to transform XML into another form has a lot of advantages, not the least of which is flexibility. When you want to change the output, you don't have to go back to the code, you simply have to change the XSLT style sheet. But it's easy to mistake this simplicity for shallowness. XSLT can enable you to do much more than simply reformatting text.
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March 04, 2004
Retrieving DTDs
John wrote:
> Hi Nicolas,
> I wonder if you could answer a problem I am having
> processing an XML file with a Java application. The
> XML file is ejb-jar.xml. There is a line referencing a
> DTD e.g.
> "http://java.sun.com/dtd/ejb-jar_2_1.dtd">.
> However, when my internet connection or java.sun.com
> is down, I am unable to retrieve the dtd and thus get
> a FileNotFoundException. I have tried saving the dtd
> in the java classpath with no success. The error
> occurs when I call: builder.parse(new
> File("ejb-jar.xml"));
>
> Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated.
> thanks.../john
Hi, John!
The trouble is that the parser is trying to retrieve the file
from http://java.sun.com/dtd/ejb-jar_2_1.dtd. You can solve
this problem by saving a local copy to the same directory as
the XML file and changing the DOCTYPE declaration to read
"-//Sun Microsystems, Inc.//DTD Enterprise JavaBeans 2.0//EN"
"ejb-jar_2_1.dtd">
I hope that helps!
---- Nick
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February 24, 2004
DOM and Perl
In the InformIT XML Reference Guide: DOM and Perl
Perl was originally designed as a lnaguage for sorting through text, so it's not surprising that it is a good fit for XML. In fact, there are multiple ways to handle XML using Perl, so in this section we're going to look at manipulating DOM "objects" using the Perl XML::DOM module, available on CPAN. ...
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February 03, 2004
Integrating applications with Web services using WebSphere Studio V5.1.1
Now updated on developerWorks: Integrating applications with Web services using WebSphere Studio V5.1.1: "This tutorial looks at making your application Web-services ready using WebSphere Studio's tools to wrap an existing application as a Web service, announce it using a UDDI directory, and to discover and use Web services within your applications. It also looks at how to deploy your application to a WebSphere Application Server."
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February 01, 2004
.NET and XMLReader
In the InformIT XML Reference Guide: .NET and XMLReader
In the world of XML, it's natural to think of XML in terms of two contexts: DOM and SAX. DOM is flexible, in that it provides the ability to navigate around the document tree and make changes, but SAX is fast, in that it doesn't load the entire document into memory, looking instead at just a single node at a time in a forward-only, read-only manner. ...
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January 25, 2004
DOM and .NET
Well, I've finally gotten around to writing about .NET, with a section on DOM and .NET at the InformIT XML Reference Guide. It explains how to create an application in .NET that traverses the Document Object Model of an XML Document object. It uses Visual Basic .NET, but the concepts are the same for C#.
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January 23, 2004
Microsoft and XML patents
Well, I've finally taken the gloves off and posted a snarky posting to InformIT, What? You mean you can read an XML file from another application?
The scoop? Microsoft is now trying to patent methods for reading an XML file produced by another application as a way to keep companies from building competing products that read a Word file.
But I've dropped my usual objective demeanor on this one. Let's see if anybody notices or -- gasp -- comments on the InformIT blog. I hope so.
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January 19, 2004
News from the world of DSDL
OK, the first posting from the list is up. News from the world of DSDL incorporates items number 2, 3, 4 and 5 and talks about Document Schema Definition Languages, which aims to make it easier to validate documents that have data from more than one namespace, such as a SOAP envelope or an XHTML document with SVG embedded within it.
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January 18, 2004
199 reasons I'm behind
I understand that there are people who read all of the blogs on their blogroll every day, or at least, every few days. And they even find time to comment on them. I want to know who these people are and how they manage to make a living.
I have, in essence, three blogs that I am supposed to be updating on a regular basis. I'm supposed to do at least three blogs a week for the XML Reference Guide, I've got this one, and I've got The Vanguard Science Fiction Report, which has been fallow so long I'm embarrassed to admit that it's mine. So today, now that the weeks of emergency room visits and surgeries in the family have settled down into the normal level of chaos, I sat down and went through my blogroll for potential posting material.
I thought it might be a little educational to document the "flow" of my surfing, and how it eventually gets turned into actual postings, so here is the list of the "first cut". These are postings that may eventually wind up on one of my three blogs:
- Incremental XML Parsing and Validation in a Text Editor
- XML 2003 session report: Combining multiple vocabularies without tears
- XML 2003 session report: News from the world of DSDL
- ISO/IEC 19757 - DSDL
Document Schema Definition Languages
- Namespace Routing Language (NRL)
- Extreme Markup Languages 2004
- Escaping the Googlearchy
- Blogging Locally
- DocBook NG: The “Absinthe” Release
- DocBook NG: The “Bourbon” Release
- Going to Extremes!
- New Year Resolutions 2004.
- Reuters: Google Planning Email-based AdWords Service
- John Battelle's Searchblog
- eBay = The Fed
- IBM Almaden Research Center
WebFountain
- Rocket Man
- Fontifier
- The XML in Apple's Keynote
- A specious supercomputer argument in the Irish Times
- Draconian XML processing
- Sleep Paralysis
- Spontaneous screen videos
- Dynamic categories
- Turning consumers into producers
- Server-based XPath search
- Databases get a grip on XML
- Thinking the Unthinkable about Microsoft
- Longhorn SDK
- PhotoGallery
- Two Laws of Explanation
- SIMILE : Semantic Interoperability of Metadata and Information in unLike Environments
- Quint on the FREDDY VS JASON dvd
- An Assload Of New Trailers Online!! STEPFORD, CB:TM, HIDALGO, SPARTAN, SCOOBY 2, ALGIERS, TOKYO GODFATHERS!!
- Van Helsing Trailer
- Batman Already On_SMALLVILLE??
- The WB's Stillborn FEARLESS!!
- WONDERFALLS
- Craigslist RSS Search Script
- Simplerwork
- Your final 3 hours
- Lost Who episode found
- SCI FI picks up Andromeda, Beastmaster
- Casting for Hitchhiker's Guide announced
- A real "space opera" in development from Turing Opera Workshop
- LeGuin's Earthsea to become Sci-Fi Mini-series
- Perchance to dream - anything you like with the fantasy machine
- A Real-Life Debate on Free Expression in a Cyberspace City
- 2003 in Review: DRM Technology
- Northwest gave U.S. data on passengers
- Luke Cage Making Progress at Sony
- CONFIRMED: Bob Hoskins Part of the Mask Cast
- Comic Book: The Movie Trailer Online!
- ELEKTRA MOVIE UPDATE
- Pre-Order the 2004 Superhero Movie Novelizations!
- JetBlue Redux: Northwest is guilty of violating passenger privacy
- New tech claims to detect lying in real time
- Safety killed the (Hubble) telescope star
- A version of Windows for every geek worthy of that name
- MoveOn.org demonstrates the growing power of the 'net in US politics
- Bush outlines plan for moon rendezvous by 2020
- The Internet gives a voice to Death Row, but not everyone's happy
- The Battle of Serenity Game
- Get your name.name domain
- US using EU airline data to 'test' CAPPS II snoop system
- SCO sort of thinks there are Linux IP violations, but isn't quite sure
- Niue is dead! Long live .nu!
- Nokia to release Perl for smartphones
- CinemaNow debuts download-to-own movies
- Internet 'Geek' Image Shattered by New Study
- We finally made it! Confluence 1.0b1!
- Wondering why your WAR is slow? Think of your timezone!
- SiteMesh Overview
- Jira
- The anatomy of a bug
- Sauron’s Eminent Domain
- Find Some Free Fonts
- Format an RSS Feed and Put It On Your Site
- New Google Features -- Travel and Tracking Numbers
- Watching Google Like a Hawk
- YSearch
- Google Labs
- PR Newswire's RSS (RDF Site Summary) Feed
- PR Bop
- Sun Announces Preview of Java Studio Creator Application Development Tool
- Integration: From Big Bang to Controlled Explosions
- Steve Mills On The IBM-Microsoft Web Services Partnership
- BEA, Microsoft, and Tibco Release WS-Eventing Specification
- StrikeIron Announces General Availability of the StrikeIron Web Services Analyzer
- Web Services in Action: Aligning IT with Business Objectives
- WS-I Make Available Drafts of Basic Profile Attachments Work
- BizDex: ebXML And Web Services To Go The Last Mile
- Four Ways to Know Your WSDL
- A Design Center for Web Services
- Mindreef Announces Availability of SOAPscope 3.0 Web Services Diagnostics System
- DreamFactory Launches Browser-Based Tool For Developing Rich Web Services Client
- Web Services Networks
- If You Like Web Services Standards You Would Love XML 2003
- Patterns: Service Oriented Architecture and Web Services - IBM Redbook
- Decentralised social networking
- Looking For a Gig
- On Postel, Again
- Technology Predictor Success Matrix
- History of XML Error Handling
- On Writing XML
- The truth about XML
- Microsoft Web services plan targets Java
- Straight talk on Web services
- Longhorn and the battle for Web services
- Breaking the logjam on Web services
- The real deal on .Net
- Taking XML's measure
- Longhorn and the battle for Web services
- Why Microsoft needs IBM this time around
- Developers gripe about IE standards inaction
- Raising the XML flag
- A Web services wish list
- Novell targets Web services security
- Free Writing and Music - as in Speech (MLP)
- What Good is the Second Amendment?
- CBS May Reject MoveOn.org Superbowl Ad
- Simulating Psychosis
- What Good is the Bill of Rights?
- Mars photo
- Pros and fans
- Which Star Trek Captain are you?
- Which Lord of the Rings character and personality problem are you?
- Lot auctions
- Rental Car Horror Story
- Isle of Man is the new M4 corridor
- Death of the desktop on the way in three years
- 5 years ago... Politicians warned to watch out for the web
- SAP Launches RFID Solution
- EFF Files Amicus in DirecTV 11th Circuit Appeal
- ACLU Defends Rush's Privacy Rights
- Web cam watchers help woman kicked by horse
- Security experts look to agriculture for virus clues
- Farenheit 451 + 1984 = Paranoia
- Hack for the Homeless: Primative Yet Useful
- A 'Xen' State of Being
- Secrecy Suddenly a Campaign Issue
- CBS Shields Pigskin Fans From Ads
- Florida Video Law: Parents Decide
- Diebold Gets Stay in California
- Doc Claims Human Clone Implant
- Off To A Good Start
- Cutting The Cheese
- Movable Style
- YAHTZEE!
- The Perfect 404
- Elastic Design
- Creativity
- Back to CSS Basics 3
- TouchGraph
- Off-Site Popups
- Microsoft: Communicate Or Die
- Innovation is Useless
- Top 20 Groups
- Carnival of the Capitalists by Ensight.org
- Back to Basics Part 3 — What’s in a hack?
- HTTP error pages for weblogs!
- Cute cuddly robots of DOOM
- Church Sign Generator used for fraud!
- Tat, meet tit
- Whidbey Integrated Web Services
- More on WS-Eventing
- WS-Security meets Kerberos
- Dutchtub
- Disaster photos
- Better MIDI sounds
- Scaling the Death Stars
- Honda Civic as H-Wing
- A Taste of Our Own Poison
- New "everyday neuroscience" book from author of Emergence
- nevermind
- and the winners are
- “Go find me a way to do this.”
- more please
- Common(s) Sense of Thomas Paine
- Dems on the Supreme Court
- 11 Top US Papers Ignoring Cheney's Pending Bribery Investigation
- Let's Send W to Mars
- PETA Gives Birth to Baby PETA
- Barlow on Spalding Gray: "Is he finally swimming to Cambodia?"
- Conservatives ALWAYS ADMIT THEYRE WRONG -- a hundred years later!
- more adventures in DEHUMANIZATION
- Sean Penn, DynCorp, and I TOLD YOU SO
- Bush environmental "achievements" for 2003: from Sierra Club's list
- Dr Phil versus Maury Povich - who'd win in a fight? (stuff that just aint right #2)
- Paranoid fears coming true in Ashcroft era
And some XML tools mentioned on Cafe Con Leche:
- Arabica
- Render X Barcodes
- XQuisitor
- <oxygen />
- XMLBuddy™ 2.0
- Relaxer
- Render X XEP XSL Rendering Engine
- Python bindings for XML Security Library
- Mozilla 1.6 (now supporting "XML, CSS, XSLT, XUL, HTML, XHTML, MathML, SVG, and lots of other crunchy XML goodness.")
Even I can't believe how long the list is.
As you can see, it's a rather eclectic group, but it also shows the pattern of how I surf. (Note that I didn't even touch Op-Ed News today, because I know I have enough material for this blog, which is the only place it belongs, or the W3C because I've adopted a "monthly" schedule for them on InformIT.)
Over the next week or so, you can see what makes the cut and what doesn't, and what leads to other things.
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10:25 PM
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How to survive the changes to IE
So I posted over at InformIT about How to survive the changes to IE.
So what are the actual changes? Well, it turns out to not be as bad as originally thought. The patent covers the automatic loading of an application that resides on a remote server, so a page either needs to avoid automatically loading the application or loading it from a remote server. For the former, IE will pop up a window asking the user to click a button to load the Active X control. For the latter, Microsoft has guidance on embedding the data directly into the page so that it doesn't actually have to be loaded remotely. They also provide a look at using JavaScript to create the object tag in such a way that the patent isn't violated, but you don't have to jump through a hundred hoops to keep the dialogue box from coming up.
What I want to know is: how does this embedding affect security? Is it possible that slimebags are currently embedding the code in the page to avoid warnings about downloading controls?
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09:11 PM
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The evils of escaped markup
At the end of December, I wrote about The evils of escaped markup as seen by Normal Walsh. It was a well-though-out piece about why he doesn't like that people are using CDATA sections to escape potentially non-well-formed content, particularly in data feeds.
But the interesting thing to me is that I'd actually already written about this particular topic -- and in fact, this particular piece of Norman's -- last summer.
So far, nobody has noticed. Or if they have, they haven't commented.
I'm considering thinking of something completely ridiculous and controversial to say just to see if anybody notices. Suggestions welcome.
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January 14, 2004
How to survive the changes to IE
I just commented over at InformIT about the changes to IT. Now that I see what they actually are, I can see that it's frankly not that big a deal. Or is it? The idea is that the patent covers the launching of a remote application, so instead, the plan is to get people to either create a script that creates the object tag or to embed the ActiveX control into the page as Base64.
So now I'm thinking: what kind of security concerns are engendered by the fact that the code is embedded on the page? Because they're not being downloaded, hwo will the user be able to filter out what they want to enable to run and what they don't?
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10:36 PM
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DOM and .NET
In the InformIT XML Reference Guide: DOM and .NET
With XML so fundamental in Microsoft's .NET framework, it should come as no surprise that the ability to manipulate an XML document is built right into the system. In fact, although DOM Level 2.0 doesn't include a standard way to create or save a document, .NET makes it easy. In this section, we'll get a feel for how these manipulations work by using Visual Basic .NET to load a simple document, make some changes to it, and then save it back out to a file. (We'll be running directly from the command line, so if you're not familiar with GUI programming, don't worry.) ...
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09:17 PM
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December 19, 2003
The relevance of standards bodies
So I was thinking over at InformIT about standards bodies and their relevance, but my really big question is this: what would happen if we all decided NOT to use an accepted standard, and used something else instead?
I mean, seriously. What if a group of scientists decided not to use the "accepted" names for the elements, or renamed the planets or something? I mean, there's no law about it, right?
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11:39 AM
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November 27, 2003
An interesting use of CSS
In my research about cargo cults (more in a few minutes) I came across an interesting navigational element on the Apologetics Index. The menu stays as a tab on the left and travels when you scroll (though it's a tad distracting to start with) and pops out when you roll over it. My first thought is that it would be an accessibility nightmare, but now I'm thinking that if you did it right, you could make it work for those both with and without scripting support -- if the script doesn't work, the navigation simply appears -- and for those with traditional and non-traditional browsers.
Hm.
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12:36 PM
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November 13, 2003
Semantic web blues
I commented more extensively on Clay Shirky's The Semantic Web, Syllogism, and Worldview over on InformIT, but I have one more point to question.
Clay's talking about syllogisms, and uses this one as an example of why thy don't work:
"Consider the following assertions:
- Count Dracula is a Vampire
- Count Dracula lives in Transylvania
- Transylvania is a region of Romania
- Vampires are not real
You can draw only one non-clashing conclusion from such a set of assertions -- Romania isn't real."
Excuse me? I think the main problem is that he's mis-understanding the difference between
A are B
and
All A are B
I commented more over at InformIT.
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November 09, 2003
DOM NodeFilters and XML data binding
Now on developerWorks: DOM NodeFilters and XML data binding: Using a DOM NodeFilter lets you control the contents of a set of XML data without touching the base application, but the NodeFilter itself is still a class, and needs to be recompiled in order to make any non-trivial changes. This tutorial explains how to build a system that enables a user to control both the criteria for a report and the structure of that criteria simply by providing XML input, either through a file or through a web service, using XML Data Binding.
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01:41 PM
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Create static jpg files from SVG
Apparently the Batik SVG package from Apache has a built-in rasterizer to convert SVG images to JPGs, so you don't have to rely on the user having an SVG viewer installed. Cool! Benoit Marchal explains how it works.
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11:09 AM
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Grab headlines from a remote RSS file
Now on developerWorks: Grab headlines from a remote RSS file: This article shows you how to retrieve syndicated content and convert it into headlines for your site. Since no official format for such feeds exists, aggregators are often faced with the difficulty of supporting multiple formats, so Nick also explains how to use XSL transformations to more easily deal with multiple syndication file formats. (This was actually published in September.)
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10:52 AM
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November 06, 2003
The XML book business
I am pretty darn proud of XML Primer Plus. I knew the subject well, and I worked hard on it. I also feel good about the fact that it covers not only Java, but also C++, VB.NET, Perl, and PHP, thanks to the help of some additional writers. The reviews have all been good, and even the four star review on Amazon says that the only reason he didn't give me five stars is because he feels that that levels should be reserved for "recognized experts in the field," which I clearly am not.
But sales have been, frankly, disappointing. I was feeling really bad about it -- until I found out that The XML Book Business is in the toilet. With very few exceptions (and frankly I can't think of any), nobody's XML books are selling.
So tell me, are you buying XML books? Why or why not?
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11:17 PM
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July 29, 2003
Understanding SAX
Now on IBM developerWorks: Understanding SAX (Tutorial) -- This tutorial examines the use of the Simple API for XML version 2.0.x, or SAX 2.0.x. It is aimed at developers who have an understanding of XML and wish to learn this lightweight, event-based API for working with XML data. It assumes that you are familiar with concepts such as well-formedness and the tag-like nature of an XML document. In this tutorial, you will learn how to use SAX to retreive, manipulate, and output XML data.
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12:14 PM
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Understanding DOM
Now in IBM developerWorks: Understanding DOM (Tutorial) -- Even before there was XML, there was the Document Object Model, or DOM. It allows a developer to refer to, retrieve, and change items within an XML structure, and is essential to working with XML. In this tutorial, you will learn about the structure of a DOM document. You will also learn how to use Java technology to create a Document from an XML file, make changes to it, and retrieve the output.
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12:11 PM
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June 05, 2003
Making of MetroSphere, Part 12: Hands-on JSP technology intro: Creating a community weblog
Now on IBM developerWorks: Making of MetroSphere, Part 12: Hands-on JSP technology intro: Creating a community weblog (Tutorial) -- This tutorial is for developers who want to learn more about using JavaServer Pages (JSP) technology to build applications. It discusses the basics of JSP components in general, their integration with JavaBeans, and the creation and use of custom tag libraries.
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09:27 AM
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April 24, 2003
DOM and Java
In the InformIT XML Reference Guide: DOM and Java
Because XML is a platform-independant language, using Java to manipulate it seems a natural choice. In fact, more than one DOM (or more specifically, DOM-like) implementation exists for Java, and the tools necessary for working with it have even been built into the language itself as of version 1.4. ...
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08:54 PM
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April 04, 2003
Combining XSL Transformation and Applications
Now on InformIT.com: Combining XSL Transformation and Applications -- Using transformations in applications is a powerful tool to control content and handle the presentation of your data. Learn how to not only combine style sheets, transformations, and applications to interact with different sources and outputs, but also how to make transformations more efficient and controllable.
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02:23 PM
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March 18, 2003
Create multi-purpose Web content with XSLT
Now on IBM's developerWorks: Create multi-purpose Web content with XSLT (Tutorial) -- As more and more devices become Web enabled, it is crucial that your content be available in multiple forms, such as traditional Web pages, mobile phones or other small devices, or Web services. This tutorial shows you how to set up a Java servlet that detects the type of display that is necessary and automatically produces appropriate markup for the content that uses XSLT.
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11:55 PM
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March 04, 2003
SAX-like apps in PHP
Now on IBM developerWorks: SAX-like apps in PHP -- While there is no official implementation of the Simple API for XML (SAX) in PHP, PHP does provide a SAX-like method for working with both local and remote XML files. In this article, author Nicholas Chase shows you how to work with XML files in PHP by building and setting handler functions and creating a parser. He demonstrates SAX in PHP with a page-building exercise in which he crafts a page based on the result of an Amazon Web Services query.
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09:30 AM
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February 06, 2003
Integrating applications with Web services using WebSphere Studio V5
Now on IBM developerWorks: Integrating applications with Web services using WebSphere Studio V5 (Tutorial) -- This tutorial shows you how to make your application Web-services ready using the tools in WebSphere Studio Application Developer Version 5. You will learn how to wrap an existing application as a Web service and announce it using a UDDI directory and to discover and use Web services within your applications. The tutorial also explains how to deploy your application to a WebSphere Application Server.
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November 26, 2002
Install and configure Xalan-Java
Now on IBM developerWorks: Install and configure Xalan-Java (Tutorial) -- This new tutorial by author Nicholas Chase tells step-by-step how to install, configure, and test the Xalan-Java XSL Transformation processor. Installing Xalan-J involves preparing the environment by obtaining an appropriate Java Virtual Machine, setting environment variables, and installing the files. After installation, you can set other environment variables, such as CLASSPATH.
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12:21 AM
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November 20, 2002
Tip: Control white space in an XSLT style sheet
Now on IBM developerWorks: Tip: Control white space in an XSLT style sheet -- Because the style sheet and the source document in an XSLT transformation have different rules regarding white space stripping, it often seems as though the production of spaces and line breaks has no rhyme or reason in the process. This tip shows you how to control the production of white space in a transformation's result, which can lead to documents that more closely align with your requirements.
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09:33 AM
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Install and configure the Xerces2 Java parser
Now on IBM developerWorks: Install and configure the Xerces2 Java parser (Tutorial) -- The first step in working with XML is parsing the data into a workable form. This tutorial guides you through the steps necessary to install and configure the Xerces2 Java parser.
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12:23 AM
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November 13, 2002
Tip: Use imports and includes to override XSLT templates
Now on IBM developerWorks: Tip: Use imports and includes to override XSLT templates -- Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) provide two different ways to combine several style sheets in the transformation of a single source document. In the process, it's almost inevitable that more than one template will apply to a single node. Which template is actually applied depends on whether and how the template has been included in the main style sheet. This tip explains how to use these conflict resolution rules to give users control -- but not too much control -- over styling issues.
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09:46 AM
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November 06, 2002
Tip: Using a DOM NodeFilter
Now on IBM developerWorks: Tip: Using a DOM NodeFilter -- XML's DOM Level 2 Traversal module provides two new objects, the TreeWalker and the NodeIterator, which simplify the process of navigating a Document. More than that, the module defines a NodeFilter, which can be used to programmatically control what Nodes are visible to the TreeWalker or NodeFilter. This tip shows you how to create a NodeFilter as well as a Traversal object that uses it.
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09:47 AM
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November 01, 2002
Building an Amazon storefront using SOAP and the WSDK
Now on IBM developerWorks: Building an Amazon storefront using SOAP and the WSDK (Tutorial) -- This tutorial is for developers who want to use SOAP to access the Amazon product database through Amazon Web Services (AWS). It shows you how to use the IBM WebSphere SDK for Web Services (WSDK) to create Java classes from the Amazon Web Services Description Language (WSDL) file, demonstrates the use of those classes, and then examines the process of using the WSDK to turn the classes into a Web application and Amazon storefront.
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08:58 AM
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October 23, 2002
Tip: Traversing an XML document with a TreeWalker
Now on IBM developerWorks: Tip: Traversing an XML document with a TreeWalker -- XML's Document Object Model provides objects and methods that enable a developer to navigate a document's tree, but typically the process involves NodeLists and recursive methods that make it easy to get lost within the structure. The DOM Level 2 Traversal module provides a new object, the TreeWalker, which simplifies this process and makes navigation more reliable. This tip demonstrates the process of determining whether a TreeWalker is available and how to use it to extract information from a document.
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09:44 AM
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Understanding XForms
Now on IBM's developerWorks: Understanding XForms (Tutorial) -- Today's Web applications require sophisticated control over a form's presentation and over the data that is ultimately submitted. XForms, currently at the level of Candidate Recommendation status at the W3C, aims to satisfy those needs, including separating functionality from presentation and streamlining validation and events processing.
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12:20 AM
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October 18, 2002
Tip: Use a SAX filter to manipulate data
Now on IBM developerWorks: Tip: Use a SAX filter to manipulate data -- The streaming nature of the Simple API for XML (SAX) provides not only an opportunity to process large amounts of data in a short time, but also the ability to insert changes into the stream that implements business rules without affecting the underlying application. This tip explains how to create and use a SAX filter to control how data is processed.
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09:45 AM
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September 17, 2002
The Web's future: XHTML 2.0
Now on IBM developerWorks: The Web's future: XHTML 2.0 -- Over the years, HTML has only become bigger, never smaller, because new versions had to maintain backward compatibility. That's about to change. On 5 August 2002, the first working draft of XHTML 2.0 was released and the big news is that backward compatibility has been dropped -- the language can finally move on. So, what do you as a developer get in return? How about robust forms and events, a better way to look at frames and even hierarchical menus that don't require massive amounts of JavaScript.
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09:31 AM
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September 04, 2002
Process XML using XML Query
Now in IBM developerWorks: Process XML using XML Query (Tutorial) -- For years developers have been using SQL to retrieve data from structured sources such as relational databases. But what about unstructured and semi-structured sources, such as XML data? To be viable as a data source, XML needed a means for conveniently retrieving the data. XQuery provides this means, allowing developers to write a statement that both extracts data and (if necessary) structures the results as XML. This tutorial shows you how to use XQuery to retrieve information from an XML file. It also explains the ways in which XPath changes with version 2.0, and what those changes mean for data management.
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12:31 AM
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August 07, 2002
Tip: Make choices at runtime with XSLT parameters
Now on IBM developerWorks: Tip: Make choices at runtime with XSLT parameters -- Extensible Stylesheet Langauage Transformations provide the ability to perform sophisticated manipulation of data as it is transformed from one form to another. You can increase their capabilites even further through the use of parameters that can be specified at runtime. This tip takes a basic look at using parameters and conditional statements in an XSLT style sheet.
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09:38 AM
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August 02, 2002
Understanding Java Factories
Now on InformIT.com: Understanding Java Factories -- How do factories work, and how can you use them in your own applications? Create two different "ferrets," and see how using a factory allows you to choose which one is actually loaded at any given time.
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July 25, 2002
Tip: Include external information with general entities
Now on IBM developerWorks: Tip: Include external information with general entities -- General entities enable XML authors to conveniently include not only characters that would be difficult to represent directly, but also information that must be repeated. They also enable you to import information from another file, as well as from another location. This tip shows you how to include external information through the use of general entities.
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09:36 AM
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July 16, 2002
XML Schema validation in Xerces-Java 2
Now on IBM developerWorks: XML Schema validation in Xerces-Java 2 (Tutorial) -- XML Schema provides validation capabilities that weren't available with Document Type Definitions. Xerces-Java 2.0 provides virtually complete support for the W3C's XML Schemas, and beyond. This tutorial guides you through the process of using schema validation with Xerces-Java 2.0.
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12:24 AM
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July 10, 2002
Tip: Customize a DTD with parameter entities
Now on IBM developerWorks: Tip: Customize a DTD with parameter entities -- Creating a Document Type Definition (DTD) and using it to validate your document is a good way to ensure that the data fits a particular structure. In some cases, however, you want to give users some control over the structure. Parameter entities enable you to create a structure that allows a document author to choose from two or more possible DTD structures without giving that person control over the actual DTD.
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09:34 AM
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July 09, 2002
JavaScript and the Document Object Model
Now on developerWorks: JavaScript and the Document Object Model: While the Document Object Model (DOM) is perhaps best known in its role as a foundation for working with XML, variations on the theme actually started in browsers with HTML. Now DOM has come full circle as newer browsers implement the W3C Document Object Model through client-side scripting, such as JavaScript. This article looks at the JavaScript approach to DOM and chronicles the building of a Web page to which the user can add notes and edit note content.
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10:56 AM
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July 03, 2002
Tip: XSL transformations to and from a SAX stream
Now on IBM developerWorks: Tip: XSL transformations to and from a SAX stream -- The Transformation API for XML (TrAX) simplifies the process of performing XSL transformations by creating a situation where you only need to create the source, style, and result objects, then manipulate them using a Transformer object. When sources and results are DOM nodes or files, it's easy. But what if you want to transform to or from a SAX stream? This tip shows you how to use SAX streams as both the source and destination of an XSL transformation.
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09:48 AM
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June 26, 2002
Tip: Stop a SAX parser when you have enough data
Now on IBM developerWorks: Tip: Stop a SAX parser when you have enough data -- A SAX parser can be instructed to stop midway through a document without losing the data already collected. This is one of the most commonly mentioned advantages of a SAX parser over a DOM parser, which generally creates an in-memory structure of the entire document. In this tip, you'll parse a list of recently updated weblogs, stopping when you've displayed all those within a particular time range.
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09:42 AM
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June 11, 2002
Introduction to ebXML
Now on IBM developerWorks: Introduction to ebXML (Tutorial) -- Whereas EDI for years has provided a usable but expensive way for companies to exchange information in an automated manner, ebXML now provides a means for companies to integrate their processes much more easily. Based on XML, it provides a methodology for business to determine what information they should exchange and how, as well as a set of specifications to allow automation of the process. This tutorial gives an overview of ebXML, explaining how all of the pieces fit together.
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June 09, 2002
Integrating applications with Web services using WebSphere
Now on IBM developerWorks: Integrating applications with Web services using WebSphere (Tutorial) -- The Site Developer configuration of WebSphere Studio and WebSphere Application Server ease the pain of integrating Web services with your application. This tutorial looks at making your application Web services-ready using Site Developer's tools. It takes you through the process of wrapping an existing application as a Web service, announcing it using a UDDI directory, and discovering and using Web services within your applications. It also looks at how to deploy your application to a WebSphere Application Server.
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08:59 AM
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May 21, 2002
Building Web service applications with the Google API
Now on IBM developerWorks: Building Web service applications with the Google API (Tutorial) -- The Google search engine can now be accessed via a SOAP-based Web service. This means that developers can now embed Google search results and other information into their own applications. Google also took this project one step further, creating an API and Java toolkit for accessing the data. This tutorial is for developers who want to use Google information from within their Java applications.
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12:34 AM
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May 17, 2002
Using JavaScript with XSLT Style Sheets
Now on InformIT.com: Using JavaScript with XSLT Style Sheets -- Learn to use XSLT style sheets to transform XML data from one from one structure to another.
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02:21 PM
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Tip: Outputting HTML from an XSL style sheet
Now on IBM developerWorks: Tip: Outputting HTML from an XSL style sheet -- Because HTML is so similar to XML, it should be fairly straightforward to create an XSLT style sheet that outputs HTML. Unfortunately, the differences between HTML and XML that do exist can cause pages to be displayed incorrectly in older browsers. This tip discusses those differences, and explains how to use XSLT's output element to resolve the issues they create.
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09:39 AM
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May 02, 2002
Tip: Set an XSL style sheet based on XML content
Now on IBM developerWorks: Tip: Set an XSL style sheet based on XML content -- Using Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) is often the easiest way to transform your XML data from one form into another, as it allows you a great deal of flexibility without having to change an application. On occasion, however, you may run into a snag because the style sheet to be used is based on the content of the document itself. This tip discusses two ways to base your choice of style sheet on the XML document -- the style sheet processing instruction and the data itself.
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09:41 AM
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April 25, 2002
Tip: Call JavaScript from an XSLT style sheet
Now on IBM developerWorks: Tip: Call JavaScript from an XSLT style sheet -- XSLT style sheets allow you a great deal of freedom in manipulating the data in your original XML document. There are times, however, when you really want to do actual programming, and the XSLT recommendation is designed to allow that through the use of extensions. These extensions take the form of functions and elements, and can be written in any language the processor supports. One of your options is to embed JavaScript within the style sheet, either directly or as an external file.
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09:32 AM
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April 17, 2002
Developing XSL Transformations with WebSphere Studio
Now on IBM developerWorks: Developing XSL Transformations with WebSphere Studio (Tutorial) -- This tutorial shows you how to use the Site Developer configuration of WebSphere Studio to map the elements and attributes of one XML structure to the elements and attributes of another, then convert that mapping to an XSLT style sheet. The tutorial will demonstrate how to use an XSL Trace facility to watch the actual progress of the transformation and locate errors. This tutorial will also cover how to add XSLT functions, external JavaScript functions, and Java classes to the style sheet.
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12:28 AM
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April 12, 2002
Tip: Send and receive SOAP messages with JAXM
Now on IBM developerWorks: Tip: Send and receive SOAP messages with JAXM -- In this tip, author and developer Nicholas Chase shows you how to use the Java API for XML Messaging (JAXM) to simplify the process of creating and sending SOAP messages.
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09:40 AM
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April 10, 2002
Manipulating XML and SQL data with WebSphere Studio
Now in IBM developerWorks: Manipulating XML and SQL data with WebSphere Studio (Tutorial) -- This tutorial covers the basics of XML development with WebSphere Studio Site Developer, including how to create and edit new XML files, how to generate DTDs or XML Schemas from an existing XML file, and how to generate an XML file from an existing DTD or schema. The tutorial also looks at the relationship between XML and databases by examining Site Developer's applicable features in this area, including its ability to generate XML files from SQL statements and create mappings of XML data to a relational database structure for use by other applications such as application servers.
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12:29 AM
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February 20, 2002
Introduction to Scalable Vector Graphics
Now on IBM developerWorks: Introduction to Scalable Vector Graphics (Tutorial) -- Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) makes it possible to specify, using text, graphical images that appear on a Web page. The advantages are many, including the ability to easily generate graphics (such as graphs and charts) from database information, and the ability to add animation and interactivity to graphics. This tutorial demonstrates the concepts necessary for building SVG documents, such as basic shapes, paths, text, and painting models, and also animation and scripting.
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February 15, 2002
Using XML and XSLT to Personalize a Web Site Part 4: Dynamic Style Sheets and User Customized Layout
Now on InformIT.com: Using XML and XSLT to Personalize a Web Site Part 4: Dynamic Style Sheets and User Customized Layout -- XSL Transformations provide a handy means for converting XML data to HTML pages, allowing you to store your content in its most flexible form and still have complete control over its display in the user's browser. Part 4, the final part in this series on Web site personalization by Nick Chase, shows you how to build style sheets dynamically, allowing users to choose what content appears on their pages, and where.
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February 08, 2002
Using XML and XSLT to Personalize a Web Site Part 3: Allowing Users to Choose Look and Feel
Now on InformIT.com: Using XML and XSLT to Personalize a Web Site Part 3: Allowing Users to Choose Look and Feel -- XSL Transformations provide a handy means for converting XML data to HTML pages, allowing you to store your content in its most flexible form and still have complete control over its display in the user's browser. These and other issues are discussed in this third article on Web site personalizations by Nick Chase.
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02:07 PM
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November 02, 2001
Using XML and XSLT to Personalize a Web Site Part 1: Using XSLT to Transform XML to HTML
Now on InformIT.com: Using XML and XSLT to Personalize a Web Site Part 1: Using XSLT to Transform XML to HTML -- XSL Transformations are a powerful tool in your efforts to provide a customized experience for your users. Using them allows you to take a single XML content file and adapt it to users' preferences. With the addition of a Web server environment capable of dynamically choosing a style sheet or even creating one based on the user's preferences, you have the potential for a powerful personalization system.
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02:19 PM
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October 24, 2001
Manipulating data with XSL
Now on IBM developerWorks: Manipulating data with XSL (Tutorial) -- This tutorial explains the basics of retrieving data from a database into a DOM document, transforming the DOM document into a second document, and inserting the data from the second document into the database using updatable ResultSets in Java. (Though the examples are all written in Java, the concepts are the same in any programming language and the tutorial can assist any developer who wants to learn how to manipulate data with XSLT.) Several of the more advanced features of XSLT and XPath are covered, demonstrating some of the ways that XSLT style sheets can be used to emulate the programming capabilities of database stored procedures.
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12:25 AM
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October 23, 2001
Modularization of XHTML
Now on IBM developerWorks: Modularization of XHTML (Tutorial) -- This tutorial is designed for users who need to understand the modularization of XHTML, either to use a subset of XHTML, or to add their own tags to create their own markup language variants.
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12:26 AM
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October 03, 2001
Using JDBC to insert data from XML into a database
Now on IBM's developerWorks: Using JDBC to insert data from XML into a database (Tutorial) -- This tutorial is designed to assist Java developers who need to extract information from an XML document and enter it into a database.
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11:57 PM
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September 28, 2001
Using JDBC to extract data into XML
Now on IBM developerWorks: Using JDBC to extract data into XML (Tutorial) -- This tutorial is designed to assist Java developers who need to extract information from a database and place it into an XML document.
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12:19 AM
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September 25, 2001
Validating XML
Now on IBM's developerWorks: Validating XML (Tutorial) -- This tutorial examines the validation of XML documents using either Document Type Definitions (DTDs) or XML Schema. It is aimed at developers who have a need to control the types and content of the data in their XML documents.
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11:54 PM
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September 05, 2001
Understanding SAX
Now at IBM's developerWorks: Understanding SAX (Tutorial) -- This tutorial examines the use of the Simple API for XML version 2.0, or SAX 2.0. It is aimed at developers who have an understanding of XML and wish to learn this lightweight, event-based API for working with XML data. It assumes that you are familiar with concepts such as well-formedness and the tag-like nature of an XML document. In this tutorial, you will learn how to use SAX to retrieve, manipulate, and output XML data.
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11:53 PM
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August 31, 2001
Understanding DOM
Now at IBM's developerWorks: Understanding DOM (Tutorial) -- Even before there was XML, there was the Document Object Model (DOM). The DOM allows a developer to refer to, retrieve, and change items within an XML structure, and is essential to working with XML. In this tutorial, you will learn about the structure of a DOM document. You will also learn how to use Java to create a document from an XML file, make changes to it, and retrieve the output.
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11:52 PM
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