Chapter 19. Extensible Markup Language (XML)

Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence.

Hal Borland

Like everything metaphysical, the harmony between thought and reality is to be found in the grammar of the language.

Ludwig Wittgenstein

I played with an idea, and grew willful; tossed it into the air; transformed it; let it escape and recaptured it; made it iridescent with fancy, and winged it with paradox.

Oscar Wilde

Objectives

In this chapter you will learn:

• To mark up data using XML.

• How XML namespaces help provide unique XML element and attribute names.

• To create DTDs and schemas for specifying and validating the structure of an XML document.

• To create and use simple XSL style sheets to render XML document data.

• To retrieve and modify XML data programmatically using .NET Framework classes.

• To validate XML documents against schemas using class XmlReader.

• To transform XML documents into XHTML using class XslCompiledTransform.

Outline

19.1 Introduction

19.2 XML Basics

19.3 Structuring Data

19.4 XML Namespaces

19.5 Document Type Definitions (DTDs)

19.6 W3C XML Schema Documents

19.7 (Optional) Extensible Stylesheet Language and XSL Transformations

19.8 (Optional) Document Object Model (DOM)

19.9 (Optional) Schema Validation with Class XmlReader

19.10 (Optional) XSLT with Class XslCompiledTransform

19.11 Wrap-Up

19.12 Web Resources