Tutorials

		Practical how-to information.

Top Ten Tips to Using XPath and XPointer By John E. Simpson
XPath and XPointer allow developers to find specific information inside an XML document and manipulate that information. John Simpson, author of XPath and XPointer, offers ten tips that XML developers can put to use immediately. [Aug. 21, 2002]

Getting Started With Cocoon 2 By Steve Punte
An introduction to the Cocoon 2 XML publishing framework, demonstrating Cocoon's architecture with some simple applications. [Jul. 10, 2002]

Learning C# XML By Niel Bornstein
The first in a series providing an introduction to Microsoft's C# XML APIs from the perspective of a Java programmer. [Mar. 6, 2002]

Server Side SVG By J. David Eisenberg
SVG tools aren't just for the client side: find out how the Apache Batik toolkit can enable your web server to SVG on the fly, providing fallback to JPEG or PNG images for browsers without SVG support. [Feb. 27, 2002]

The Visual Display of Quantitative XML By Fabio Arciniegas A.
A tutorial on how to use SVG and XSLT to present your data in the most appropriate, efficient and attractive way possible. [Feb. 27, 2002]

Using W3C XML Schema By Eric van der Vlist
A comprehensive introduction to XML Schema, a W3C XML language for describing and constraining the content of XML documents. Includes quick reference tables. [Oct. 17, 2001]

Building Web Services with FileMaker Pro By Bill Humphries
By creating PHP code to work with FileMaker Pro's XML interface, Bill Humphries shows how to create FileMaker-based solutions for workgroup intranets. [Oct. 17, 2001]

Using the Jena API to Process RDF By Joe Verzulli
Jena is a freely-available Java API for processing RDF. This article provides an introduction to the API and its implementation. [May. 23, 2001]

Mapping DTDs to Databases By Ronald Bourret
This in-depth article describes best practice for mapping XML documents to databases. [May. 9, 2001]

An Introduction to Prolog and RDF By Bijan Parsia
In the first of a series on creating Semantic Web applications with Prolog, Bijan Parsia introduces Prolog and its use in processing RDF. [Apr. 25, 2001]

TREX Basics By J. David Eisenberg
TREX is an alternative schema language created by James Clark, designed to be simpler and more lightweight than W3C's XML Schema. [Apr. 11, 2001]

An Introduction to Scalable Vector Graphics By J. David Eisenberg
This introduction to SVG teaches you all you need to know about the W3C's vector graphics format in order to start putting it to use in your own web applications. [Mar. 21, 2001]

Answering the Namespace Riddle By Leigh Dodds
Dodds introduces RDDL, the Resource Directory Description Language, the result of a recent project conducted by the XML developer community to make XML namespaces easier to use. [Feb. 28, 2001]

Adventures with OpenOffice and XML By Matt Sergeant
We explore the new XML output format in the open source word processor OpenOffice, and its potential to change the face of open source XML content management. [Feb. 7, 2001]

What Is RDF By Tim Bray
An introduction to the W3C's Resource Description Format, a standard for exchanging metadata, and a key technology for the W3C's "Semantic Web". [Jan. 24, 2001]

Using XSL Formatting Objects, Part 2 By J. David Eisenberg
The second part of our XSL Formatting Objects tutorial explains how to use lists and tables in documents. [Jan. 24, 2001]

Using XSL Formatting Objects By J. David Eisenberg
The W3C's XSL Formatting Objects technology provides an XML language for specifying the layout of documents. In the first article of our XSL FO tutorial series we show you how to set up your pages. [Jan. 17, 2001]

Using W3C XML Schema - Part 2 By Eric van der Vlist
The second half of our comprehensive introduction to the W3C's XML Schema Definition Language, including coverage of namespaces, object-oriented features and instance documents. [Dec. 13, 2000]

Validating XML with Schematron By Chimezie Ogbuji
Schematron is an XSLT-based language for validating XML documents. This article explains why schema languages are required and introduces the principles behind Schematron. [Nov. 22, 2000]

Learning to RELAX By J. David Eisenberg
The RELAX schema language is a simpler alternative to W3C XML Schemas. This easy-to-read tutorial shows you just how easy it can be to RELAX. [Oct. 16, 2000]

Adapting Content for VoiceXML By Didier Martin
In the second part of his "Write Once, Publish Everywhere" project, Didier Martin takes us through creating content for voice browsers. [Aug. 23, 2000]

Write Once, Publish Everywhere By Didier Martin
Didier Martin leads us through building a portal accessible by HTML, WML, and VoiceXML. This week's article introduces the project and covers the login process. [Aug. 16, 2000]

What Is XSLT By G. Ken Holman
Part One of XML.com's series on the W3C's Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation technology, written by XSLT instructor G. Ken Holman. [Aug. 16, 2000]

Putting RDF to Work By Edd Dumbill
Tool and API support for the Resource Description Framework is slowly coming of age. Edd Dumbill takes a look at RDFDB, one of the most exciting new RDF toolkits. [Aug. 9, 2000]

Visual Basic and the XML DOM: An Annotated Example By Mark Wilson, Tracey Wilson
Our annotated example gives an easy introduction to using Visual Basic and XML together. This article is an extract from the book "XML Programming with VB and ASP." [Jul. 12, 2000]

Exposing Application Services With SOAP By James Snell
In this tutorial for advanced users of Visual Basic, James Snell shares his experience of the Microsoft SOAP toolkit and demonstrates how to construct web services. [Jul. 12, 2000]

XPathScript: An Alternative To XSLT By Matt Sergeant
XPathScript brings the power of XPath into a familiar ASP-like web development environment, using mod_perl and Apache. In this article, XPathScript's author explains its main features and advantages. [Jul. 5, 2000]

Character Encodings in XML and Perl By Michel Rodriguez
This article examines how to handle character encodings with XML and Perl: which encodings are handled natively, converting to and from Unicode, and what to do when your tools don't support Unicode. [Apr. 26, 2000]

Groves Explained By Fabio Arciniegas A.
Every so often somebody on an XML mailing list will tell you that groves are the answer to all your problems. But what exactly are they? Fabio Arciniegas A. presents an introduction to groves and their use. [Apr. 19, 2000]

On Display: XML Web Pages with Mozilla By Simon St. Laurent
Widespread support for XML in browsers is finally on the horizon. In the first of a series covering Mozilla, IE, and Opera, Simon St.Laurent looks at formatting XML with CSS2 inside Mozilla. [Mar. 29, 2000]

Pyxie By Sean McGrath
Ingeniously combining concepts from SGML with the ethos of simplicity, Pyxie presents a powerful alternative to existing methods for processing XML. [Mar. 15, 2000]

Fooling with XUL By Edd Dumbill
With the mounting excitement about Mozilla, we decided to check out the promise of the XML, DOM, and CSS in combination with the XUL user interface language. [Mar. 15, 2000]

Fooling with XUL - Part 2 By Edd Dumbill
[Mar. 15, 2000]

Namespace Myths Exploded By Ronald Bourret
Published over a year ago, the "Namespaces in XML" recommendation may only be a small specification, but it's caused more than its fair share of confusion. Find out what the right-thinking developer should do about XML namespaces. [Mar. 8, 2000]

Advanced XML Applications in Zope By Amos Latteier
Concluding his three-part tutorial on XML and Zope, Amos Latteier discusses the wider implications of creating XML applications with Zope, demonstrating with the creation of an RSS channel class. [Feb. 23, 2000]

Design Patterns in XML Applications: Part II By Fabio Arciniegas A.
In the concluding part of this series, Fabio Arciniegas A. examines the use of XML-specific design patterns in applications and DTD design. [Feb. 16, 2000]

Getting Started With Microsoft's New XML Processor By Lisa Rein
Microsoft has released the first of a series of "technology previews" of its XML processor. Lisa Rein presents an introduction to MSXML2 and a quick-start guide for using it with IE5. [Feb. 9, 2000]

Design Patterns in XML Applications By Fabio Arciniegas A.
Design patterns are a useful technique for the transmission of knowledge about recurrent problems in software development. Fabio Arciniegas A. investigates their application to XML processing. [Jan. 19, 2000]

Internet Scripting: Zope and XML-RPC By Amos Latteier
Examining how the Zope application server uses XML-RPC to allow remote scripting of objects via the Web. [Jan. 12, 2000]

Creating XML Applications With Zope By Amos Latteier
Zope is an open source Python-based web application server. Amos Latteier, author of Zope's XML support, shows how to use it to create simple XML-based applications. [Dec. 15, 1999]

XML Processing with Python By Sean McGrath
XML'99 got underway Sunday with tutorials from XML experts. Today we bring you a taste of those tutorials from Sean McGrath, who is teaching a course on XML with Python. Sean presents an overview of the popular language, and some sample XML processing programs. [Dec. 6, 1999]

Describing your Data: DTDs and XML Schemas By Simon St. Laurent
Are you confused about which XML schema syntax to use? Concerned that your XML applications remain interoperable with future XML schema standards? Simon St. Laurent guides us through the maze of XML schema languages, focusing on DTDs and XML Schemas. [Dec. 1, 1999]

XML Programming with C++ By Fabio Arciniegas A.
SAX or DOM? Fabio Arciniegas A. examines various approaches to using XML in C++ applications, demonstrating when to use each approach, with plenty of examples to illustrate his points. [Nov. 17, 1999]

Using Expat By Clark Cooper
Clark Cooper offers a detailed explanation of Expat, the C language library for XML parsing, and provides a directory of Expat functions. [Sep. 1, 1999]

Overview of Expat By Clark Cooper
In the first part of our look at Expat, Clark Cooper shows the basics of working with the library, including communication between handlers, character encoding, and namespace processing. [Sep. 1, 1999]

Expat Function Reference By Clark Cooper
In part two of our look at Expat, Clark Cooper offers a directory of Expat functions, including code and explanations on each. [Sep. 1, 1999]

Backends Sharing Data By Edd Dumbill
What if you could script remote procedure calls between web sites as easily as you can between programs? Edd Dumbill shows how it can be done in PHP. [Aug. 11, 1999]

Building an XML-based Metasearch Engine on the Server By Ralf Westphal
Ralf shows you how to move the metasearch process to the server and deliver browser independent HTML to any client. [Jul. 8, 1999]

Monitoring Updates with XML and Java By Lisa Rein
XSA is a Java-based tool for monitoring updates that uses XML to organize information about software products. [Jun. 23, 1999]

Getting Started with XML Programming, Part II By Norman Walsh
Norman Walsh looks at how to program to use the DOM as programming-language-independent interface to documents. He shows how to interact with the DOM using Java. [May. 5, 1999]

Getting Started with XML Programming By Norman Walsh
How is processing an XML document really different than processing a plain old text file? [Apr. 21, 1999]

The Extensible Style Language - XSL By Norman Walsh
XML offer Web developers the ultimate in flexibility -- the ability to write your own tags. But how can you be sure your custom tags will be interpreted properly. Enter XSL, the style language for XML. Norm leads a tour of the salient points. [Jan. 19, 1999]

Comparing XSL and CSS By Norman Walsh
In part 2 of this tour of XSL, Norm looks at the differences and similarities between XSL and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). [Jan. 19, 1999]

Understanding XSL By Norman Walsh
In part 3 of this tour of XSL, Norm looks at the XSL features needed to write a simple style sheet, and provides some exercises for continued learning about XSL. [Jan. 19, 1999]

Building the Annotated XML Specification By Tim Bray
XML.com's technical editor explains the conceptual design and syntactical execution of our popular Annotated XML Specification. [Sep. 12, 1998]

Using The Perl XML::Parser Module By Clark Cooper
In this article Clark presents two Perl programs which demonstrate some of the XML::Parser module's capabilities. [Sep. 12, 1998]

Flipping the Links By Tim Bray
How Java was used to convert the XML to HTML. [Sep. 12, 1998]

Conclusion: How Much Work Was It? By Tim Bray
The conclusion of Tim Bray's explanation of how he created the Annotated XML Specification. [Sep. 12, 1998]

How the Annotated XML Specification Works By Tim Bray
Tim describes the architecture of the AXML system and the design decisions he made. [Sep. 12, 1998]

The XSA DTD By Lisa Rein
View the DTD used by XSA [Jun. 23, 1998]

A Guide to XML By Norman Walsh
If you are looking for a good overview of XML, with sufficient technical detail, then this article from the World Wide Web Journal is a good place to start. [Oct. 2, 1997]