1 comments about Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 Class Library Reference Volume 6: System.Xml and System.Data (Microsoft .Net Framwork).

1. Well I am a very powerful computer programmer now, even though I do not have either college, or university degree. I am working on a bachelors degree at the University of Berkley.

5 comments about Flash XML StudioLab.

1. The book is too wordy, I think the reader donot want to read a story book, also it is better to put notes under screen shots and pictures.

   I hope Friendsofed can notice the readers feedback. More content, few joke.




2. am I supposed to do with a fony Tarot application. I toatlly agree with the previous reviews. TO much hassel. I am getting into some flash application development, for which I got the taste after working my way through Friends of Ed's Dynamic Content Studion, which, by the way, is an EXCELLENT book....

   but this....c'mon




3. last week I bought the book , and till now it looks SO gerat



4. As Flash might finally emerge from experimental eye-catching gimmick to become the next generation front end for high commercial, dynamic web applications, this book really sets the wrong tone (explaining more about Tarot than XML does not match the book's title, right?).

   Although writing the first four chapters must have been fun for the authors - for us, the readers, its just painful. Long and rather vague, XML is described from many angles without getting on a level where you really would know where to start in a practical sense. So when you really have to know about XML, or just need some reference, this book is most probably not for you.

   Chapter 5, trying to compensate for the lengthy introduction, finally presents the XML object in warp speed. (If you are new to the subject, statements like "it would be so much easier if objects could be made directly from objects instead of having to remember its class" are more confusing than helpful, reflect bad style and do not really sell the idea behind object oriented programming).

   Chapters 6 to 10 are not that bad when showing how XML shuffles the tarot cards. Still it might be too cloudy for beginners as the authors just lack focus.

   The Rest of the book (XML Sockets, Perl Scripting, mySQL, PHP) gives you some ideas for the next books to buy, but definitively offer nothing you can start to do real business with.

   In a nutshell: When having read this book you will know what XML is on a high level and how you deal with it once it sits within your flash movie. But this is not what XML was primarily made for.
   When having read this book you still will not have much of a clue from where you will get interesting, business relevant XML data and how to make your flash application talk to the professional world of high end, high paid real world applications. Neither is there much help about dealing with end to end responsibilities. (test, debug, tune end to end transactions from Flash front-end, via web- and application servers down to databases and vice versa).

   For my taste this book still remains with the classic, design oriented flash programmer rather than to finally extend Flash's scope into the realm of serious application development. The book's focus is ways too much on how XML is used internally within flash, rather than to make XML do what it was designed for: standardized communication across new and existing systems and new (web) services. Otherwise you might really ask yourself, what all the fuzz about XML really is.

   As I have already said: do not polish your Porsch in your garage, take it out , learn to drive and experience the real world!




5. This book is a waste of money. I would suggest you check out XML in Flash by Craig Swann and Gregg Caines instead.
   
   The introduction, which admittedly is quite good, lasts over half the book. After the lengthy introduction, the authors spend little or no time explaining the actual meat of dealing with XML in Flash. Most of the latter chapters will state that a certain task can be done with XML in Flash, but provide no insight on how to accomplish this task. Maybe I'm just weird, but I already knew that XML was useful for Flash applications, and the reason I bought the book was to learn how to do it, not to be told that it is possible!
   
   For instance, the "XML Download/Upload" chapter is particularly frustrating. The early pages of the chapter tell the reader that Tomcat can be used to link Flash to a server via XML. However, after this statement, the authors offer absolutely no information as to how one might use Tomcat to serve XML to Flash, what servlets are available to accomplish this task, or how one goes about connecting to a Tomcat servlet from Flash. In my opinion, this is like telling a novice driver that "a car can take you places," and then turning them loose on the highway.
   
   If you want to learn how to use XML applications with Flash, don't waste your money with this book, purchase the book XML In Flash instead -- it's more in-depth, more concise, and best of all, cheaper.

2 comments about XPath, XLink, XPointer, and XML: A Practical Guide to Web Hyperlinking and Transclusion.

1. If you are like most, your introduction to hypertext was when you used a browser for the first time. You saw how intuitive it was that links were visible on a web page, and how easy it was to click on a link and be taken anyplace else on the web. The great acceptance of the web and its browsers was due in no small part to the ease of use, and the ease of writing HTML pages.

   Then after a few years, some deficiencies became apparent. HTML does not separate content from presentation. To do so, XML arose, with its user definable tags.

   But XML, by itself, does not take the concept of linking beyond a link being a one way connection between a single source and a single destination. Yet the concept of hyperlinks is much broader and older than the web's instantiation, having been worked on in the 1960s by Nelson and Englebart.

   This book expounds on how hyperlinks generalise the links in HTML. You can have multiple sources and multiple destinations. The links can be bidirectional. Given a destination, you can find the documents with sources that link to it. Currently, with web pages, you have to use a search engine to see who links to your pages. And no search engine reaches over 50% of the web.

   The book describes the concept of a linkbase: a database of links. It can be stored separately from the underlying documents that it references. This lets you annotate a document without changing it! Imagine the possibilities. The document could be on a CDROM, or on someone else's website.

   The implementation of these concepts is through XLink, XPath and XPointer. The authors use Backus-Naur Formalism to describe the grammar and they illustrate it with examples. My only quibble is that perhaps they could have written problem sets, for newcomers to cut their teeth on.

   If you want to see a possible future direction of the Semantic Web, have a gander at this book.




2. I found that the author did a really good job in describing these technologies.

   This book is written by two academic and it shows in so far as it is on the one hand a little more theoretical and abstract than most other computer book I read and on the other hand well informed by a large context.

   The book starts by describing the different hypertext system that exist and existed alongside with the world wide web. In doing so they explain clearly how HTML linking model came into being and the deficiencies of this model.

   The remainder of a book is in part a preview into the future of XML linking (where these technologies are going) as well as an explanation of Xpath, Xlink and Xpointer syntax.

   As you probably know, Xlink is still a W3C working draft at this time. Xpointer is a W3C recommendation but neither xpointer, nor xlink have been largely implemented in the industry. This raise the question as to why would you read this book?

   Personally I wanted to know where the linking model was going and I also wanted to understand the W3C working draft better. To a lesser extend, I was considering implementing these technologies.

   My only objection to the book is its subtitle "A practical guide...". Practical is a relative term. This book gives very valuable pointers (no pun intended) for developpers wishing to implement these technologies but it does not give very practical down to earth examples. In some other web ressources, I found for instance some XSLT code to tranform Xlink into scripting languages that simulate the xlink functionality and to tell the truth I was expecting to find this kind of material here.

No comments about Interoperability of Drm Systems: Via the Exchange of Xml-based Rights Expressions (Forschungsergebnisse Der Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien).

1 comments about XML The Microsoft Way.

1. Although at work we use Microsoft products almost exclusively for development we have not yet moved to .NET. Despite this it was becoming important to gain a better understanding of XML technologies as some of our projects were begining to incorperate them. I wanted a book that went over XML fundamentals paying particular attention to how they are used by pre Visual Studio.NET development tools. As a developer who works primarily in Visual Basic 6.0 it was important that the book also use that language for most of the examples.

   This book covers about 80% of what I wanted. Having read it and worked through a few examples I am starting to use some of the tools within my applications. There was very little information in the book that was not useful in my understanding of the topic.

   Having said that there was a major ommision. The book gave very little coverage to how to use XML with databases, SQL Server in particular. I don't think that there was a single mention of SQL Server 2000's XML features, something that is at the heart of the Microsoft XML world. In a related issue the coverage of xml features in ADO 2.x was also non-existent.

   In short, the book is full of usefull information for 'real world' developers. It could however use an additional chapter or two on using XML with SQL server 2000 and another chapter on using XML with ADO 2.x

5 comments about C# Developer's Guide to ASP.NET, XML, and ADO.NET (Kaleidoscope).

1. This book is an excellent reference to C# programmers to tackle web development. It covers the most cutting-edge topics in .NET technology, in particular Web Services and Security. As it is mentioned in the title, this book is not C# tutorial from scratch, but to use C# programming language for web applications.

   It is clear that this book is for the C# audience to use ASP.NET, XML and ADO.NET. It covers enough topics with excellent examples. Although, it is a good reference for C# developers with hands on .NET framework and not a C# programming language tutorial.

   The book includes 11 chapters covered in 590 pages. The introduction chapter describes ASP from the scripting languages to ASP.NET. Chapter 2 is devoted to page framework. Chapter 3, 4, and 5 focus more deeper on ASP and configuration. Chapter 6 is devoted to Web Services. Chapter 7 point out the Security topic. HTTP containers are reported in chapter 8. Chapter 9 covers user controls and server controls. Chapter 10 is devoted to XML, and the last chapter is devoted to ADO.NET. An outstanding index section covered in 60 pages that include the most searched keywords and subtitles.

   The authors share in this book their strong knowledge of .NET framework, with very interesting comments and examples. I recommend strongly this book for C# community to use it as a reference for .NET platform. ---Reviewed by Abder B.




2. I would never buy this book if I knew that it is not accompanied by downloadable source code.



3. This book has several good chapters but too simple on a few important chapters. It is a shame that the source code is neither included in a CD, nor downloadable from the publisher web site. Source code listing occupies a large portion of the book. The book also contains many "reference" sections that list members of classes without explaining them. Such references are simply useless.
   
   Chapter 1 is the introduction of the book. It did a good job in pointing out the problems with asp.old and summarized the new feature of asp.net.

   Chapter 2 contains the real meat of the book: asp.net page and controls. The chapter covers a lot of materials. Unfortunately, the explanation of concept is too simplified and it does not show any insight. The section that describes HTML control and server control simply lists all the controls and members without detailed comments on how to use them. The examples are too simple. The authors should really split chapter into multiple chapters and discuss each subject in detail. After all, this is the most important part of ASP.NET.

   Chapter 3 discusses the ASP.NET tracing and debugging. The tracing portion is OK but the debugging portion is too simplified.

   Chapter 4 discusses the state management and caching. This is a good chapter that clearly explains how things work. The examples are good.

   Chapter 5 discusses configuration and deployment. The overall chapter is OK. The discussion on XCopy deployment is excellent and very useful.

   Chapter 6 discusses web services. Unfortunately, this chapter is like chapter 2. It does not have enough depth on the discussion of such an important subject.

   Chapter 7 discusses security. This is another good chapter with clear discussion and good examples.

   Chapter 8 discusses the HttpHandlers and HttpModules. The discussion and examples of HttpModules are very good.

   Chapter 9 discusses the user control and server control. This discussion of server control is OK but I hope the author will go into more depth on user control since it is important.

   Chapter 10 discusses XML. This chapter has a few good examples. However, this chapter does not have nearly enough depth if XML is one of the three subjects listed on the title. Some of the XML technologies in .NET, such as XML Serialization, are not discussed at all in this chapter.

   Chapter 11 discusses ADO.NET. Again, this chapter is too simply single ADO.NET is one of the three subjects listed on the title. The discussion on data adapter is too simple and strongly-typed dataset is not discussed at all.

   In overall, the authors did a good job on some chapters but several most important chapters are too simple. Not making source code available is a disaster since the book has to use a large portion of 590 pages on code listing. Also, some reference sections of this book are useless. The book should give more room to in depth discussion on how things work, what is useful, what works and how. --Reviewed by Li C.




4. If you are really looking for programming I would suggest go for some other books. This book I bought just because of reading some reviews but after reading the book I realize it was not true.
   According to me this is a book for level - starter.



5. The review by "Southern California .NET User Group" pretty well sums up my impression of this book. Contrary to what that review states, there is source code download available at http://www.awprofessional.com. However there is a little too much shovelware in this book, space that could have been devoted to more in depth coverage. People with intermediate "ADO.old" experience and knowledge of C++/C#/Java will benefit most from this book and it is certainly better than the online documentation at Microsoft.

No comments about XML.NET Developer's Guide.

5 comments about XML Programming (Core Reference).

1. XML Programming was nearly the best book on XML programming I have found. Here are the pluses.
   1) It does a very good job of taking you through the basics fast and gets into specifics of coding quickly. It walks you through the process of building real applications using XML as their foundation.
   2) The book covers more than the Microsoft angle. It does show some Linux and Java examples, although it definitely emphasizes the Microsoft solutions.

   The reason I didn't rate this book higher was one thing that just kept annoying me throughout the book. It reads like they took an old book and threw in some material on newer XML specifications and Microsoft products, without updating the older material. Some examples of this are
   1) They talk about the MSXML parser, but the last version they cover is 3.0 (even though 4 is included on the accompanying CD) and MSXML 4 has been out for quite some time, certainly longer than .NET. Yet there are entire chapters covering .NET and mentions of it throughout the book (mostly regarding Beta 2).
   2) They show XML Notepad as an editor. Microsoft has discontinued the XML Notepad and the link in the book goes to a page that no longer exists.
   3) Other links in the book do not exist and the tools have been renamed and thereby are harder to find on Microsoft's site.

   The other primary minus for me was the author's assumption regarding your programming background. The authors use Visual Basic, ASP, Java, SQL and C++ without always explaining the code (Java and C++ are in the minority; VB, ASP and SQL are widespread). Most of the people reading this may not be familiar with all of these languages and thereby get a little lost in some of the examples.

   So, if you're already comfortable with Microsoft programming and want to get up to speed quickly on XML, I would say this book is worth your while, but be ready for web links that don't work and check the products they refer to for newer versions.

   If you're not comfortable with SQL and VB at a minimum, start there and then come back to this one or a similar title.




2. I agree with the previous reviewer who describes this as a "rushed-to-press contentless tome". I bought this book because other recent MS Press volumes are so good (Richter, Petzold). This one, however, has more in common with the slapdash Wrox junk with the yearbook covers. Specifically, what you'll find in this book is a poorly written, high-level, already out-of-date overview of various XML-related technologies. If, by some weird chance, you're actually looking for information on, oh, "XML Programming," -- code snippets aside, it just isn't in here. I don't know what the reviewer who said it got him/her "up to coding quickly" is talking about. The book in fact has little to do with programming. Finally, I note that the lead author's bio mentions that he has authored 12 technical books. Lord preserve us from these jargon-spewing, dozen-tome-authoring hacks, and God bless the likes of Charles Petzold, who has written two books on programming in 20 years -- two elegant classics. It's time that tech publishers require a great deal more of their authors. It isn't enough to know how to code or yatter in techspeak. If you're writing a book, shouldn't you know how to... write?



3. I normally refrain from recommending Microsoft Press books because so many of them are printed versions of their online help or MSDN content. If you want to learn XML from the ground up, this book isn't for you. If you're familiar with the concepts of XML and have wanted more clarification on how to use XML as a tool within your applications, then you should look at this book.

   It does offer decent explanations of XML and XML technology, and it does offer examples in VB, C++, and Java, but code itself isn't well documented.

   There is mention of the .Net Framework and Visual Studio .Net, but the book was obviously written before either of them went "gold", so don't expect to see examples of XML Web Services using .Net.

   All in all, its a good reference book and worth looking into getting (as long as you don't pay full retail price for it.)




4. The chapters in the book are well organized. Detailed explanation about XML, application development is given. The book in the later part covers the Interoperability and SOAP applications.

   This book explains in detail about the XML basics and gives a clear idea about XML programming. The examples give good understanding of what is required. As one reads on at later parts, the code is a bit difficult to understand. The code is discussed in VB, ASP and in .NET framework. I suggest this book for one who is working with .NET framework and similar technologies. As the book is published by Microsoft Press, more emphasis is on Microsoft approach in programming.




5. The authors apparently made too many assumptions on the readers. They freely used buzzwords without giving any proper definition, and they used half a dozen different terms for the same concept, even on the same page. Take a look at this excerpt in Chap-1:

   The are two categories of XML documents. A document is either "well-formed" or "valid". A document can be well-formed only if it obeys the syntax of XML. A document that includes sequences of markup characters that cannot be parsed or are invalid cannot be well-formed.

   What the heck is the "syntax of XML" and "sequences of markup characters"? what does "cannot be parsed" means?

   The authors seem to be in a big hurry to give any explanation.

   The book is also full of geekspeak and long, ornate marketing stuff that bores intermediate and advanced readers, yet confuses beginners.

   Wanna buy the book? forget it. Even if some friend gives it you, don't waste your time on it.

   I wish somebody had advised me beforehand.

   I gave it 1-star, only because amazon has no option for a minus 5 star.

5 comments about Real World XML Web Services: For VB and VB .NET Developers (Developmentor Series (Dm)).

1. This is a good book but suffers from bad writing style.
   The author uses many "and/or" clauses one is forced to
   pause to understand what he is really attempting to say.
   He also asks questions in the middle of an explanation.

   For example on page 38 section 2.4.7 he says:
   "An element doesn't need to have content;it may be empty. An empty element is an element that has no text content and no child elements. Would such an element be of complex or simple type? it depends; if the element has attributes it is of complex type. Note that attributes are not considered part of an element's content, therefore whether or not an element has attributes has nothing to do with whether or not the element is empty: an empty element may nor may not have attributes."

   Does the author have to use 108+ words to tell us that an empty element is just that. Empty!
   For example read his last sentence and see whether you understand what he is talking about.

   He could simply state the last part: "an empty element may or may not have attributes" for us to understand. Where "therefore whether or not an element has attributes has nothing to do with whether or not the element is empty:" came from I have no idea!

   I am not sure whether the author is affected by English as a second language or whether he bothered to understand what he was writing. In an attempt to simplify the content he ends up in verbosity and ruins what would have been a good book.

   Overall if one can put up with long winded paragraphs it is a good book.




2. Web Services. I can't believe there is anyone left alive in the technology sector that hasn't heard these two words. Everywhere you look there are articles, books, and web sites that talk about this technology. Do a book search for "Web Services" on amazon.com and you will be quite amazed how many Web Services books there are. With so many available picking one buy may seem overwhelming. The good news is it just got a little easier to do.

   Real World XML Web Services is an absolute "must have" for anyone who wants to learn more about XML Web Services. Even if you are not a VB/VB.net developer you will find great value in this book. It goes into extensive detail, and will surely teach even more savvy Web Services folks a thing or two.

   Because of the books detail level, I don't think that it is a first-read on the subject though. I think that someone who really doesn't know much about Web Services will be drowned in the detail (which is incredible). A person can get more out of this book by doing some tutorials, and experimenting with Web Services first. Then, after having a good base of understanding is when this book should be cracked.

   Summary

   Chapter 1. Introduction to Web Services.
   This is a brief intro chapter that gives some history and background info about Web Services. Some of the overview consists of typical Web Service architecture, and when to use (and NOT to use) Web Services.

   Chapter 2. XSD: The Web Services Type System.
   Great chapter. Goes into the concepts of XSD. Topics include the XSD Type System, XSD and XML namespaces, authoring XSD Schemas, and a ton of information about XML Serialization.
   .
   Chapter 3. SOAP: Invoking Web Services.
   This chapter covers what SOAP is, SOAP architecture, SOAP message formats, RPC with SOAP, and also covers error handling.

   Chapter 4. Describing Web Services.
   A chapter all about the Web Services Description Language (WSDL), which is the language used to describe Web Service interfaces. I liked this chapter a lot because Yasser does a great job of really illustrating and explaining it well. Clear, easy to follow examples are used to drive concepts home.

   Chapter 5. The Microsoft SOAP Toolkit.
   As you might have guessed, this chapter is all about using the Microsoft SOAP Toolkit to invoke and expose Web Services. If you would like to know more about the toolkit you will like this chapter. Exposing and invoking Web Services via the high and low-level API's is covered, as well as using header handlers to invoke and expose.

   Chapter 6. .NET Web Services.
   This chapter discusses creating .Net Web Services with Visual Studio .Net, as well as customizing the WSDL of the Web Service to meet your needs.

   Chapter 7. SOAP Header and Fault.
   All about SOAP headers and SOAP Fault. There is some great information about communicating errors in a common way so that any platform can get to it.

   Chapter 8. Interface-Based Web Service Development.

   Explains about Interfaces and the .Net Web Services world. Defining interfaces, implementing multiple interfaces, and programming against interfaces are some of the topics covered.

   Chapter 9. Handling Data IN.NET Web Services.
   This is a chapter that shows how to take data from many different types of sources and be able to manipulate it using XML Schemas, ADO.Net, and the XML Framework. Typed Datasets are also covered.

   Chapter 10. Reusable Infrastructure with Soap Extensions.
   This chapter teaches how to built a flexible and reusable infrastructure using SOAP extensions.

   Chapter 11. UDDI: A Web Service.
   This huge chapter pretty much tells us everything about UDDI that you could want to know. The chapter starts with an explanation of what it is and what it is made of. Then the chapter goes into different usage scenarios and various other UDDI topics. Programming, querying, and publishing Web Services with UDDI are just some of the other topics covered. This is an excellent chapter.

   Chapter 12. Other SOAP Toolkits.
   This chapter talks about Web Services Interop . Different clients are discussed including JAVA clients, VB 6 clients, and NET clients.

   Chapter 13. A Web Service Walkthrough.
   This chapter wraps up the book by walking the reader through building a Web Service. This is a great way to end the book as it ties together all the things that were discussed.

   Appendix A: Data Type Mappings
   Appendix B: .NET Web Services Tips and Tricks.

   Two good appendixes that give us more information, as well as tips and tricks.
   
   I give this book a 10 out of 10. Yasser did a fantastic job on it. Again, although I do not think this is a "first read" book on Web Services, I believe it is a "must have" Web Services book. Any developer that works with, or wants to work with Web Services will find it valuable.




3. Web Services. I can't believe there is anyone left alive in the technology sector that hasn't heard these two words. Everywhere you look there are articles, books, and web sites that talk about this technology. Do a book search for "Web Services" on amazon.com and you will be quite amazed how many Web Services books there are. With so many available picking one buy may seem overwhelming. The good news is it just got a little easier to do.

   Real World XML Web Services is an absolute "must have" for anyone who wants to learn more about XML Web Services. Even if you are not a VB/VB.net developer you will find great value in this book. It goes into extensive detail, and will surely teach even more savvy Web Services folks a thing or two.

   Because of the books detail level, I don't think that it is a first-read on the subject though. I think that someone who really doesn't know much about Web Services will be drowned in the detail (which is incredible). A person can get more out of this book by doing some tutorials, and experimenting with Web Services first. Then, after having a good base of understanding is when this book should be cracked.

   Summary

   Chapter 1. Introduction to Web Services.
   This is a brief intro chapter that gives some history and background info about Web Services. Some of the overview consists of typical Web Service architecture, and when to use (and NOT to use) Web Services.

   Chapter 2. XSD: The Web Services Type System.
   Great chapter. Goes into the concepts of XSD. Topics include the XSD Type System, XSD and XML namespaces, authoring XSD Schemas, and a ton of information about XML Serialization.
   .
   Chapter 3. SOAP: Invoking Web Services.
   This chapter covers what SOAP is, SOAP architecture, SOAP message formats, RPC with SOAP, and also covers error handling.

   Chapter 4. Describing Web Services.
   A chapter all about the Web Services Description Language (WSDL), which is the language used to describe Web Service interfaces. I liked this chapter a lot because Yasser does a great job of really illustrating and explaining it well. Clear, easy to follow examples are used to drive concepts home.

   Chapter 5. The Microsoft SOAP Toolkit.
   As you might have guessed, this chapter is all about using the Microsoft SOAP Toolkit to invoke and expose Web Services. If you would like to know more about the toolkit you will like this chapter. Exposing and invoking Web Services via the high and low-level API's is covered, as well as using header handlers to invoke and expose.

   Chapter 6. .NET Web Services.
   This chapter discusses creating .Net Web Services with Visual Studio .Net, as well as customizing the WSDL of the Web Service to meet your needs.

   Chapter 7. SOAP Header and Fault.
   All about SOAP headers and SOAP Fault. There is some great information about communicating errors in a common way so that any platform can get to it.

   Chapter 8. Interface-Based Web Service Development.

   Explains about Interfaces and the .Net Web Services world. Defining interfaces, implementing multiple interfaces, and programming against interfaces are some of the topics covered.

   Chapter 9. Handling Data IN.NET Web Services.
   This is a chapter that shows how to take data from many different types of sources and be able to manipulate it using XML Schemas, ADO.Net, and the XML Framework. Typed Datasets are also covered.

   Chapter 10. Reusable Infrastructure with Soap Extensions.
   This chapter teaches how to built a flexible and reusable infrastructure using SOAP extensions.

   Chapter 11. UDDI: A Web Service.
   This huge chapter pretty much tells us everything about UDDI that you could want to know. The chapter starts with an explanation of what it is and what it is made of. Then the chapter goes into different usage scenarios and various other UDDI topics. Programming, querying, and publishing Web Services with UDDI are just some of the other topics covered. This is an excellent chapter.

   Chapter 12. Other SOAP Toolkits.
   This chapter talks about Web Services Interop . Different clients are discussed including JAVA clients, VB 6 clients, and NET clients.

   Chapter 13. A Web Service Walkthrough.
   This chapter wraps up the book by walking the reader through building a Web Service. This is a great way to end the book as it ties together all the things that were discussed.

   Appendix A: Data Type Mappings
   Appendix B: .NET Web Services Tips and Tricks.

   Two good appendixes that give us more information, as well as tips and tricks.
   
   I give this book a 10 out of 10. Yasser did a fantastic job on it. Again, although I do not think this is a "first read" book on Web Services, I believe it is a "must have" Web Services book. Any developer that works with, or wants to work with Web Services will find it valuable.




4. I need not say more. Its the best book I have read on web services.



5. I purchased this book from Amazon mainly relying upon the reviews written by other people. As it turns out I can only assume that the other reviews were paid for either by the author or by the press.

   The book is REALLY HARD TO READ, we are talking as dry as the sphinx's arm pit. The CD rom that comes with it contains the examples, however these are a mish-mash of VB6 and some .Net neither of which run easily. The .Net versions require updating in Visual Studio and can have some odd results. Some examples are even written with the server component in VB6 and the client in .Net - confusing to say the least.

   If you want to learn how to practically implement a Web Service using VB then you should NOT look at this book. Most of the first 4 chapters are all about XML schemas and what they mean - with no "Real World" examples of how to create them in VB just the code of the schemas already created.

   And another thing there is a large chunk of information about a "Real World" authentication and encryption implementation, however and I quote "I recommend that you use off-the shelf security implementations" - The author wouldn't even use this code! Microsoft has a Web services extension designed for authentication which the author doesn't mention anywhere.

   Very disappointment to have spent good dollars on this book. I will be trying desperately to get my money back from Amazon.

3 comments about Practical XML for the Web (Tools of the Trade).

1. There are dozens of books on XML, the difference is that this is solely focused on the web and very practical oriented; it's not that much about XML theory but it's full of real world examples. The most valuable chapters in my opinion are the ones covering XML support inside the various browsers, the info about client-side XSLT, XML and CSS and DOM manipulation with JavaScript are something that you will not find elsewhere



2. Love this book - as a seasoned web developer with heaps of experience I find this book a great reference tool, fantastic prompter when I'm struggling with XML techonologies, all round very well written and did I mention already PRACTICAL.
   If your confused now or then by XML or you know nothing and want to learn from scratch then BUY this book.
   Chapters are well defined and organised, it covers everything from css - to XSLT, client side, server side applications and good practices. Well written - without this book my XML nappies would be on the floor.



3. This is a good book which is a good reference for me. However, when I got the book and was working through some of the real world exercises. I wanted to download the files that are referenced by the book for the excercises. This is because the book explains more things related to the files than are in the snippets in the book. Anyway, I went to the site referenced and I am continuously getting the page of Death "page can not be displayed". Needless to say I am left wanting.