5 comments about Mastering XML Premium Edition.

1. I have the first edition of this book and it's very good. When I saw the "Premium Edition", I just knew it had to be better. Boy, was I wrong. I see from the cover that they changed authors, so perhaps that's what went wrong, but the information in this edition contradicts information in the first edition and in many cases, even contradicts the specs on the W3C web site. I've put mine up for sale as used and I'm sticking with the first book.



2. ...longer description: all explanations are very confused and confusing; nothing is clear. Buy another book (there are plenty of other books related to XML that are 2000% better for the same or lower price)



3. I often tried to understand what XML is through several published tutorials on the web. With my ASP knowledge I thought this topic would be easy to explain but I could not make sense of what they tried to tell me in these tutorials until I bought this book. It was then clear that XML is not as easy to explain in a couple of pages as HTML is. This book does a thorough job in teaching you step by step what XML is about and how you can put it to use in the real world.



4. I was looking for an introductory book on XML and decided to pick up a copy of Mastering XML after reading the introduction and perusing the table of contents. The book covers a great deal of topics, but almost all of it is poorly explained and most of the examples are not very illustrative of the related material. The author tends to describe things in a round about way and has a habit of throwing in material that isn't covered until later in his explanations. I tried reading ahead in some cases, but those sections weren't covered any more clearly so it turned into a vicious cycle. I finally had to stop reading after 400 pages. I have a background in web development with HTML, JavaScript, Java servlets, and JSP, but I would not recommend this book as a first on XML. It might serve as a reference though.



5. Sorry guy's, one of the poorest books ever read.
   Just good for using it as Monitor base.
   
   Atention: 0.99 is too much money for it !!!!!

5 comments about Professional Java Server Programming: with Servlets, JavaServer Pages (JSP), XML, Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB), JNDI, CORBA, Jini and Javaspaces.

1. I guess I shouldn't expect a book written by 12 different people to be too cohesive but this book was very disjointed. They tried to cover too many topics with varying levels of depth so while this may have been a good book were it intended to be an overview of the technologies, it ends up uneven with topic coverage quality ranging from average to poor. The case studies and plethora of appendixes mostly bulked up the book rather than adding value.



2. I would reccomend this book only to people who are new to Java Programming and want an overall treatise with something on everything possible server side. But for those who are already in this field for a while and want to build on their knowledge this book would be a big disappointment. The other main drawback of this book is its bulkiness.

   This book does cover some of the topics like servlets in detail good enough for a serious programmer but most of the other topics introduced are not exhaustive enough for a serious developer.

   To sum it up, rather buy books on individual topics and build a solid base than adorn your bookself with fancy Wrox books.




3. Over all this is a great book. It give you the overall idea on Java Server Programming. If you really serious on specific topic, you have to buy another one. It is good for the beginner to grap the general idea on Java Server Programming.



4. I bought this book a few months ago and I found out that it covers the basics of J2EE. Imagine 10+ authors. Each talks about their own thing and then they slap it together and call it a Wrox Published book. My gripes with this book are:
   1. Unfocused. Topics jump from rather quickly and do not ease you into one another.
   2. Code is filled with example codes that do not work.
   3. Did not stay with one topic and cover it enough.
   4. Price

   Good things about the book:
   1. Has a pretty nice red cover so I know Wrox made it.
   2. It's pretty big so if a rat manages to get in the house, I can squash it with the book, not that I would do such a thing.
   3. Makes people go "WOW" when they say, "you actually read that whole thing??" given the number of pages.

   Unfortunately, this is not one book that I've been hitting on for help at all. It's usually the last resort to look up information since I usually find the answers I need elsewhere. The material provided in this book is too spread out and not covered enough in detail to be of much use.

   However, for those who just want to get a feel for the J2EE technologies, I say you would enjoy this book. But it would outlive its usefullness after some time.




5. I would reccomend this book only to people who are new to Java Programming and want an overall treatise with something on everything possible server side. But for those who are already in this field for a while and want to build on their knowledge this book would be a big disappointment. The other main drawback of this book is its bulkiness.

   This book does cover some of the topics like servlets in detail good enough for a serious programmer but most of the other topics introduced are not exhaustive enough for a serious developer.

   To sum it up, rather buy books on individual topics and build a solid base than adorn your bookself with fancy Wrox books.

No comments about Database and XML Technologies: 5th International XML Database Symposium, XSym 2007, Vienna, Austrial, September 23-24, 2007, Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Computer Science).

5 comments about XML for ASP.NET Developers (Kaleidoscope).

1. This book does a good job explaining the ins and outs of XML programming with the .Net Framework.

   These are the types of books you need to look for. Take a small part of the .Net framework and give it a decent amount of coverage. Overall, the examples are fairly substantial and apply very well to real world programming situations.




2. Dan Wahlin is one of the top experts on XML, and this book is absolutely fantastic. Almost every question that I have ever had about working with XML and .NET has been answered... except that I don't use C#. So, I always need a translator.

   If you use C#, this is the perfect book. If you don't, learn to translate from it, cuz this is the best book around.




3. I bought the book a month ago and stayed idle in my library until I started using SQL2000 Web Notifications and needed some extra help on the principles.

   And that was it. I can only tell you that it kept me reading it for three consequtive days, enough time to keep myself going, understand may parts, realise many possibilities/options and even optimise some code. This is not a book to solve a particular problem but it is a book to get you all excited about XML/XSLT/XLink/XPath and realise how this have been integrated to many of Microsoft Applications... (Notifications is one, CS2002 another).

   I regret that I havent had that book before hand. It would have saved me many more hours of searching.

   The only minus is that it makes you so excited that you end up spending another couple $$$ on other books to get into more details so I just shopped...
   1 of: XPath and XPointer
   1 of: Applied Microsoft .NET Framework Programming
   1 of: XSLT and XPath On The Edge, Unlimited Edition
   1 of: XSLT Programmer's Reference 2nd Edition

   couple this with Professinal C# (2nd Edition) or even Beginning C# and you can do most things imaginable with c# and XML.

   Thank you Dan.




4. I just bought this book. But I don't know where to download the example code? Please help me.



5. While I've understood the basics of XML for some time, I've just not had a need until recently to dig into the nuts and bolts of working with it on the .NET platform. As an ASP.NET developer specifically, and with that need to know now on the table, I went on the hunt for books to help, and Mr. Wahlin's offering was an obvious choice.

   First off, Mr. Wahlin is a terrific writer. The clear, friendly, and conversational tone of the book resonated for me, although I did find some of the verbosity and repetition a bit excessive in some spots.

   The book begins with a good review of XML concepts, more than enough for a newbie, but easy to sift through for the more seasoned reader in need of a knowledge refresher. It continues through all the necessary concepts, including the XML classes in .NET, transformations, and of course, ADO.NET, the database core of the .NET platform. (On ADO.NET, it includes a general introduction, but of course focuses on it in an XML context.)

   I have to say that one of the best outcomes of reading the book and experimenting with what I learned along the way is that many of the ADO.NET concepts that still seemed abstract to my not-quite-up-to-OOP brain suddenly fell into place and made much more sense to me when tied to the structures and concepts of XML.

   No book is perfect, and I could have used some more detailed coverage in some areas. But overall, it's a great walk through the world of XML for the seasoned ASP.NET developer in need the grand tour. It sure was a help to me...

5 comments about Office 2003 XML.

1. Hurrah! Microsoft has said for several years that it strongly supports XML. Well MS Office 2003 is one of the first major products that conforms to this. As you probably know, earlier versions read and wrote to Microsoft's own doc format. A binary format. Third party developers then had to write code to read and write files in this format. Doable, but certainly an aggravation to some, given the complexity of the format.

   Which is why MS Office 2003 was eagerly awaited. Now, XML is a fully supported data format. It also lets you see in an easy and direct way the complexity of deciphering the doc format, if you had never tried to do that firsthand.

   Here, the book walks you through the various XML outputs and their associated schemas. There is the usual XML verbosity. (No surprises here.) But you can now read, in plaintext, how the suite structures its code in an OO fashion. So much nicer!

   Not that the book is trivial. Many examples show how a lot of XML's capabilities are used. Like namespaces, XSLT, XSL and XPath. A reassuring point is that your needs might not have to extend to all these usages. The book also has many very simple XML examples that could be germane.




2. I've read the Addison Wesley book on Microsoft's new Office XML standards and this book is much much better. The book covers four applications; Word, Excel, Access and Infopath. It covers both the storage XML format for Word and Excel, as well as the use of XML within Word and Excel itself from the end-user side. The coverage of the storage format is excellent, and that, being a developer, is something I can appreciate.
   
   For end-users of Word and Excel who are just looking to consume XML in your document or spreadsheet, or to mine XML using Infopath, this is a well written book that is worth your money and you can ignore the technical segments. For engineers looking to work with the new Microsoft XML storage formats you will find a lot to like here, and you may just find some cool things to do with XML to do on the forward facing end-user side of the house.



3. This book answers a very specific need - you are working with the new Office xml formats. If you are directly reading or writing WordML, SpeeadsheetML, or the other xml formats - stop what you are doing, buy this book, and read it. It will put you miles ahead.
   
   Clear, concise, and about as complete as it can be with Microsoft's incomplete documentation to work from. I had it open on my desk next to me the whole time I was working with these file formats.
   
   It has some stuff for InfoPath and Office WebServices. I didn't read those part but the rest is so well written I would bet that part is indespensible too.



4. Clear, concise, and packed with practical knowledge. I work with XML, XSLT, and C# for a living, and this book had me using XSLT to whip up WordprocessingML documents in no time. I especially appreciated learning how to turn off the default "Word" display of ML documents in Internet Explorer. I'm also using Evan's great XSLT that mimics Word's "data-only" output format-- as part of a process to validate foreign tag sets in WordML documents. Thank you!



5. This book provides a good overview of Microsoft's Office XML formats. In addition to covering these formats, it also provides some useful material related to Microsoft Office smart documents, an extension mechanism for Microsoft Office applications.
   
   Note: Microsoft Office XML is completely distinct from the Open Office.org XML format (OASIS OpenDocument) which is not covered in this book.

1 comments about Dictionary of XML Technologies and the Semantic Web (Springer Professional Computing).

1. The Semantic Web embraces a complex of technologies, concepts, good practices and procedures, and finally is a soup of acronyms, new terms, specialise terminology, etc.
   
   This book is an excellent source of information about semantic web because is a real dictionary about XML and Semantic Web. Every entry in the dictionary is very well explained and almost every entry has a diagram, an illustration or an example.

5 comments about Building XML Web Services for the Microsoft .NET Platform.

1. I can't believe such kind of book could even be published. I don't understand the logic and structure the author presents his ideas. One who read the book will tend to question the author's own understanding of the web services and .NET. If you read his very first example in book (P. 14), you will have to agree with me that he is not C# savvy. It seems to me that the author probably only concerns to get it published and he disregards the quality of the book. You can find plenty of spelling errors also (for example, P41. 'defer' should be 'refer'). I have to disuade whoever wants to buy this book. Bad book, poor writting skills and poor coding skills. Don't buy it.



2. It is almost impossible to keep track trying to make sense of much of the written text. The author jumps from one concept to another without any logical structure. You can read a paragraph many times over without being able to understand what are the ideas behind the words.



3. Don't waste your money on this book. The author makes it obvious through the examples provided that his knowledge of C# language structure is poor and the examples provided are 100 miles of bad road. Right off the bat in the early chapters of the book I tried to follow the examples in the book, but by instruction provided they don't work. You find yourself working around the mistakes in the book to get the examples to work. This book is a better reference for Schemas and Service Protocols than anything. Stay away if you are looking to learn about Web Services. I'd recommend a book by Wrox.



4. I've probably read 100 technical books, but this is the worst I've ever opened. The number of errors just kills me... Why people don't compile their code and THEN paste it into their book is beyond me... Chapter two has an example where you create a Console Application, then you're asked to rename the Service1 file, but the Console Application wizard creates a Console1 file (the Web Service wizard creates a Service1 file). These errors are just inexcusable and the errors and issues go on forever... The errata should be as large as the book itself. Even larger if they included an apology for all the mistakes. I'd be totally ashamed to have my name on this book. If you're curious, buy a used copy for $5 and see for yourself. Even at that price, you'll probably feel ripped off.



5. I typically like the MS Press books when it comes to exploring new technologies. Not so with this book. Not only were there errors in most of the code examples, but Short's examples skipped over a number of details and steps that left you figuring them out on your own. Since the code didn't work anyway, I was left trying to figure out if my guesses were wrong or the code was. Buy the O'Reilly book.

5 comments about Professional XML, 2nd Edition (Programmer to Programmer).

1. This is a very boring book. Chapters look like well organized, but content inside is mass and hard to follow. Don't buy this book.



2. Hi, All
   
   I bought the Professinal XML 2nd editon and quite like it so far. However I could not download any source code form www.wrox.com anymore, would anyone help to tell me where I can find a complete copy of the source code? Could some one help to email me one? My email address is wangqunx@yahoo.com. I really appreciate your help.



3. This book would have been more useful if all pages were blank, then at least I could use it to keep notes. I would not buy any other books by any of the authors of this book it is so poorly written. A total waste of time and money. Topics are presented in a very unorganized manner, there is no effort to develop understanding but rather ideas are presented before being explained. There is too much verbose and poorly worded explanatory material to make this even a good reference book. Avoid this book unless you're looking for something to start a fire.



4. Written in 2001 it's really starting to get dated with advances in many of the XML and related specs (not to mention new specs). But overall it's a good solid tome if you had to just have one but I'd prefer to have something more recent. That said it helped me pass my IBM developer certification for "XML and related technologies" in 2003.



5. I am astounded at the vicious, even obscene references to this book! One reviewer was using the book (according to him, "defacing the book") in a class, so this may account for the resentment towards the work and its authors. (It is interesting to see that when I reported the obscene reviews to Amazon, they removed them almost immediately. Impressive!)
   
   In any case, the book is covering a subject that is huge and complex. Furthermore, the specifications for the XML technologies are not static. So it is quite a task to try to cover all of this material in one book. The authors have done a good job of it -- better than most, to be sure. I would say that it would be best to wait to get the third edition that is coming out since this one is a bit dated, but if a reference is required now it is still a very good one to have.
   
   There are many confusing things that are inherent in XML. One simple example is the difference between "Document Type Declarations" and "Document Type Definitions" (DTD's). The authors go out of their way to point out that this confusing issue exists and to help you avoid mixing up the two concepts. We have to face the fact that the XML Specs are tedious, confusing and difficult to learn at times, and should not take our frustration with the subject out on this book! Childish comments like, "This book is boring", etc., are not helpful. LEARNING XML IS BORING! Grow up and get over it! ("Here we are now, entertain us..." Smells Like Teen Spirit, Nirvana 1991)
   
   IBM listed this book as the reference for their XML Certification (141) exam for a reason. I'm using it and finding it to be a very complete, helpful learning tool.
   
   (One flaw I do notice in the book is that it has a definite MicroSoft slant. This leads to occasional errors like this one:
   or using type="text/xsl". The type should equal "application/xml". The MicroSoft MIME types are not and WILL NOT be registered with the IANA.)

5 comments about The Official XMLSPY Handbook.

1. Shipping a new CD is not an acceptable resolution. Why is there not an errata page on the Wiley web site along with downloads for the examples in the book? Why does the book not have its own URL? Why does it take at least three redirects and more than two minutes for the Wiley.com/compbooks web site to load?

   The back of the book proclaims, "This is it - the only XMLSPY reference book authorized by Altova, Inc." which is not true, there is also the "XMLSPY 5 User & Reference Manual."

   The content of the book is acceptable, if limited, but I am not happy with the quality of this book or the service given by the publisher. But if you are committed to use XMLSPY, which is a pretty good way to develop XML applications, this book and Wiley may be your only choice. The Tutorial in the software is very shallow.




2. Shipping a new CD is not an acceptable resolution. Why is there not an errata page on the Wiley web site along with downloads for the examples in the book? Why does the book not have its own URL? Why does it take at least three redirects and more than two minutes for the Wiley.com/compbooks web site to load?

   The back of the book proclaims, "This is it - the only XMLSPY reference book authorized by Altova, Inc." which is not true, there is also the "XMLSPY 5 User & Reference Manual."

   The content of the book is acceptable, if limited, but I am not happy with the quality of this book or the service given by the publisher. But if you are committed to use XMLSPY, which is a pretty good way to develop XML applications, this book and Wiley may be your only choice. The Tutorial in the software is very shallow.




3. Shipping a new CD is not an acceptable resolution. Why is there not an errata page on the Wiley web site along with downloads for the examples in the book? Why does the book not have its own URL? Why does it take at least three redirects and more than two minutes for the Wiley.com/compbooks web site to load?

   The back of the book proclaims, "This is it - the only XMLSPY reference book authorized by Altova, Inc." which is not true, there is also the "XMLSPY 5 User & Reference Manual."

   The content of the book is acceptable, if limited, but I am not happy with the quality of this book or the service given by the publisher. But if you are committed to use XMLSPY, which is a pretty good way to develop XML applications, this book and Wiley may be your only choice. The Tutorial in the software is very shallow.




4. This book shines light on the pillars of XML: XML, XSL, and XSD (schemas) with simple procedures to create and manipulate XML documents. The book is organized with each major technology in its own chapter, or basic and advanced features in 2 chapters (great for learning/mastering a particular aspect of XML, such as XSL stylesheets).

   Respectfully, the flame comments about the wrong CD coming with the book seem irrelevant now -- the book now comes with all the exercises and an incredible 90-day trial version of XMLSPY (the normal download trial is for 30 days).

   The information builds logically, walking you through simple examples to introduce the XML terminology, then adding nitty-gritty fine-level details demonstrating, in context, what would otherwise be abstract and complex terminology.

   I enjoyed the casual, friendly writing style. There are asides about some features defined in the XML standard, but not used in the real world. Other times the author points out the way he generally does something. There are several quick procedures using the XMLSPY editor that would otherwise require repetitive or manual actions.

   There's a chapter on WSDL. I haven't read it yet (loaned the book to a friend learning XML), but a local MSDN director raves about being able to edit and examine WSDL visually with XMLSPY.

   THE BEST FEATURE of the book may well be the 90 day trial version of XMLSPY Enterprise Edition. The 3 months use of a $400/$500 program the CD gives you for the cost of this excellent instructional book!

   NOTE: If you can read and write schemas by hand, you probably won't need all the info on XML terminology and simple examples, though you'd probably still benefit from how to do things with XMLSPY and the full 90 days to explore it.




5. I just finished this book cover to cover.
   One should keep in mind while reviewing any literature on xmlspy, that there is a wealth of things one can do with this tool. And that it takes huge volumes to cover all those details.
   Considering that this 326 page book has done a good job.
   The book will definitely get you started.
   Only the first 250 pages are useful. The chapters on WSDL, SOAP are too abstract to be of any use.
   Also in the first 250 pages, the 2 chapters on XSTL are not done well. I was surprised to see a lot of dead code in the snippets printed.
   I also came across a lot of printing errors.
   Oh yeah the CD provided is for some dummies series XML book. The software was unusable.
   So you are actually buying a book with around 150 pages. But I will still spend that money if I am given the opportunity to decide once again.

   Hopefully there will be a revised 2nd edition.

5 comments about XML by Example (2nd Edition) (By Example).

1. I read the first 6 chapters of the book in 12 hours then I stopped and gave up from it, because I got lost and confused, and I feel like I need much more than that to know what's there in the XML world, well the book name is learn by example but actually it is not that, it is "get confused by examples", the examples are so easy to look at but after reading them and read the little tiny bit explanation about them if any, you don't know what is going on there and don't know what is the point, don't know why we want to do that, why we need that from the first place ??
   I'm not a new programmer but I just started learning XML and I really don't need a book from the very beginning but still I grabbed this book because I thought It will get me somewhere by practicing with the examples,
   there isn't enough examples showing clarity
   After that I started reading XML Bible 2nd addition, it has a lot of information and it has a lot more details about each topic compared to this book but still difficult to read and has lots of Errata !!!.
   I'm still looking for a book in XML that makes me really understand Schemas, namespaces, XSL, and XSLT, Xlink, relations between them and CSS,
   I'm using xmlSpy, and there you will find everything there regarding XML and how to make XSL, XSD, Schemas and DTD then the XML files and XSL and XSLT which really need to understand how they all work together but you find nothing about them in XML by example book, I'm not saying the book should explain xmlSpy but you have to know all these technologies to work on XML project.
   I couldn't give this book 2 stars because I can't recommend it to anyone. I can't understand why others can give it 5 stars, I don't believe they can do something with xml just by reading this book!!!
   In the end if you think you want to start with this book then don't, read w3c.School and get all the definition for XML technologies then get a much more detailed book for it which I'm still looking for.



2. 'XML By Example' is a great book if you are looking to learn XML for the first time or freshen up if you haven't used the technology for some time. Having never used XML when I got this book, I quickly dove in and was able to grasp what XML is used for, what makes it's simplicity such a necessity, and how it is used in the real world. After reading this book you should be able to read an XML document, understand what a schema/dtd is, understand how XSL is used to take XML and generate HTML from it, as well as be able to write your own XML files.
   
   In the 1990s, 2 of the most important technologies were the release of Java by Sun and the birth of XML. Both inventions have changed the way programming and data manipulation/transaction are handled in the world and this book is a great introduction to learn how to use XML in your every day world. I highly recommend this book to anyone.
   
   **** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED



3. I am well grounded in HTML and CSS, but I found the book to be confusing. Most of what I didn't like about this book stems from the fact that there are no exercises, chapter summaries, and the "examples" weren't very clear to me. There is probably a better book.



4. XML by Example describes XML (Extensible Markup Language) along with Document Type Definitions. This book has great code samples and understandable explanations. If you have no idea how XML works, XML by Example is a good beginning to the syntax and structure. Marchal has written a fine book. It has something to offer anyone curious about XML.



5. I'll keep this brief. Most of the reviewers claim that this is either a great easy-to-follow book or it's too difficult to understand for beginners. I'd say that the truth is somewhere in between. It's not hard to follow, but it's not exceptionally clear. Fortunately, the examples are pretty good. Unfortunately, the book is definitely not comprehensive. You'll learn quite a bit about XML and XSL, but you'll have to seek out a more advanced reference if you plan on doing this stuff professionally. If you want to learn the basics of XML, go with "XML Weekend Crash Course". If you already know the basics and want a more comprehensive reference, go with "XML in a Nutshell". This isn't a bad book, but there are better choices out there.