What This Book Covers

This book spends its time reviewing the big changes that have occurred in the 2.0 release of ASP.NET. Each major new feature included in ASP.NET 2.0 is covered in detail. The following list tells you something about the content of each chapter.

• q Chapter 1, "XML Syntax." This first chapter gives a good grounding in the XML specification. This chapter looks at the reasoning to include XML and its related technologies within an application's architecture. In addition to this introduction, this chapter will also look at the syntactical rules of the XML markup language.

• q Chapter 2, "XML Editors." This chapter takes a look at the XML tools that can be used for working with XML and its related technologies. These are also tools used in the chapters throughout the book. This chapter introduces you to the various tools out there, where they can be found, as well as some basics for working with them.

• q Chapter 3, "XHTML and CSS." The next set of chapters looks at presenting XML and XML-based presentation technologies. This first chapter focuses on the popular XHTML specification and how it can be used to present content within a browser. In continuing on with the presentation theme, this chapter looks at how to present XML documents visually in a browser using Cascading Style Sheets.

• q Chapter 4, "XSL-FO." This chapter takes a look at presenting XML using an XML-based presentation markup language-Extensible Stylesheet Language Formatting Objects (XSL-FO), also known as simply XSL.

• q Chapter 5, "Document Type Definitions (DTDs)." This chapter takes a look at defining an XML structure using DTDs which have been around for quite awhile. Though it is preferred to use XML Schema today, DTDs should still be understood as developers may encounter legacy XML documents.

• q Chapter 6, "XML Schemas." XML Schemas are the latest and most preferred way to define the structure and data types of an XML document. This is an important topic to understand as it is referenced throughout the book. This chapter takes a deep look into XML Schemas and how to build them.

• q Chapter 7, "RELAX NG." RELAX NG is a new XML specification that allows you to validate an XML structure as well as make a link to datatype libraries. This standard was born to simplify what was perceived as difficult and complicated about XML Schema. This chapter looks at how to work with RELAX NG.

• q Chapter 8, "XSLT." This chapter looks at transforming XML documents in a multitude of ways using XSLT. Starting with the basics of XSLT, this chapter gives you an understanding of how and when to use this technology.

• q Chapter 9, "XPath." XPath allows for the searching and manipulation of particular subsets of an XML document. This chapter takes a look at this popular technology and will focus on the latest release of XPath-version 2.0.

• q Chapter 10, "XQuery." XQuery is another search and manipulation technology that often competes with XPath. This chapter takes a look at XQuery and what makes it different than XPath. By the end of chapters 9 and 10, you should have a good understanding of both XPath and XQuery and when to use which technology.

• q Chapter 11, "XML in the Data Tier." In the continuing look at XML as data, this chapter focuses on the use of XML in the data tier. With focuses on Microsoft's SQL Server 200 and SQL Server 2005, as well as Oracle, MySQL, and more, this chapter shows what XML capabilities there are for working with the various data storage technologies.

• q Chapter 12, "XML Document Object Model (DOM)." This chapter will take a look at using the XML-DOM to program your XML documents. Included in this chapter is an introduction to the XML Document Object Model as well as information about how to parse XML using the XML-DOM.

• q Chapter 13, "Simple API for XML (SAX)." Another method to use to program your XML documents is through the use of SAX. By the end of this chapter, you should understand the differences between working with the XML-DOM and SAX and when to use which technology.

• q Chapter 14, "Ajax." One of the more talked about programming technologies of 2005 and 2006 has been programming using XMLHTTP, also known as Ajax. Google has made this programming style popular through its use in various Google applications; the use of this asynchronous JavaScript and XML programming technique is now a sought after feature. This chapter takes a look at XMLHTTP and how to use this object to build truly unique applications.

• q Chapter 15, "XML and .NET." This chapter takes a look at using the System.Xml namespace and other XML capabilities that are provided with Microsoft's .NET Framework. Also covered is XML in the Microsoft development space and reading and writing XML using the classes provided via the .NET Framework 2.0.

• q Chapter 16, "XML and Java." This chapter takes a look at using XML with the Java language and what XML documents can do within a Java application environment.

• q Chapter 17, "Dynamic Languages and XML." This chapter takes a look at how to use XML with a PHP application. Also reviewed will be XML with Perl and Ruby.

• q Chapter 18, "RSS and Atom." One big use of XML as of late has been in regards to content syndication. Both RSS and Atom (competing standards) offer the ability to expose content for aggregation purposes. This chapter takes a close look at both of these technologies and how they can be effectively used.

• q Chapter 19, "Web Services." Getting beyond the hype, this chapter takes an introductory look at Web services and what it actually means to expose content and logic as SOAP in this disparate world.

• q Chapter 20, "SOAP and WSDL." Digging deeper into Web services, this chapter takes a look at the main specification in the Web services world-SOAP. This chapter will focus on SOAP documents including looking at SOAP headers and SOAP faults. Furthering the discussion around SOAP-based Web services, this chapter looks at the WSDL and UDDI specifications. WSDL is used to define a SOAP interface, whereas UDDI is used to locate services. Both of these specifications will be discussed in detail.

• q Chapter 21, "Advanced Web Services." This chapter takes a look at these advanced specifications and what they do for your Web services. In addition to examining the specifications, this chapter also describes implementing these specifications in your applications today.

• q Chapter 22, "REST." REST, a competing standard to SOAP, is heavily used in the UNIX world. In fact, companies such as Amazon have seen considerable success in using REST compared to using SOAP. This chapter will take a look at exposing data and services using "the other" standard.

• q Chapter 23, "XML Form Development." Forms, as popular as they are on the Web, can now be defined using XForms. This chapter takes a close look at XForms and how it can be used, along with other XML-based technologies, to produce various types of forms.

• q Chapter 24, "The Resource Description Framework (RDF)." The RDF specification allows for the relation of metadata to presentation content. RDF is a framework for describing and interchanging metadata and is introduced in this chapter as well as demonstrated through some examples.

• q Chapter 25, "XML in Office Development." This chapter takes a close look at using XML in Office development with a particular focus on Microsoft Office.

• q Chapter 26, "XAML." This chapter takes a look at XAML-the new way Microsoft is promoting the presentation of a GUI. XAML provides for presentation that is fluid and enriching. This chapter takes a look at the basics of XAML and how to build some basic XAML applications.