Crs 302
Understanding the potential of XML for E-business

This course takes the form of an intensive two day seminar. Its purpose is to provide a high level technical overview of and how XML can be used in the implementation of E-commerce and Business-to_Business systems, and to provide answers to questions such as

  • What is a markup language ?
  • What is a markup specification ?
  • What is a Well-formed document ?
  • What are the components of XML ?
  • How is the Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) applied ?
  • How is a document validate against a Document Type Definition (DTD) ?
  • How do XML Schemas overcome the limitations of DTDs ?
  • How can XML documents be transformed into HTML ?
  • What is involved in using XML for Data Processing ?
  • Databases such as Oracle and SQLServer support XML - what does that mean ?
  • Can you tell me what acronyms such as SOAP, WSDL, UDDI, SAX, XSLT stand for ?
  • Why is there so much interest in the combination of XML and Java ?

XML - The Fundamental Concepts

Markup Languages

  • Examples of markup languages
  • HTML as a markup language
  • XML as a markup language and how it differs from HTML
  • XHTML
  • Markup language vs. Markup Specification

Structure of XML Documents

  • XML Components - Root, Attribute, Entity, Element, Declaration
  • Well formed XML documents
  • Valid XML documents
  • Namespaces
  • Concept of Metadata

Fundamental concepts of working with XML Documents

  • Applying style to an XML Document vis the Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL)
  • Using XSL to transform XML to HTML
  • Using XSL to transform an XML document into another XML document
  • Document Type Definitions (DTDs) and XML Schemas
  • Validating an XML document against a DTD
  • Using XML Schemas to model data and to validate XML documents
  • Storing and retrieving XML data with relational databases
  • The Document Object Model (DOM) and its uses in processing XML documents

How XML is used in Business-to-Business applications

  • Using XML to model data
  • Using Java to manipulate XML data - via Java servlets and Java server pages
  • Tools for parsing and processing XML data (SAX and JDOM)
  • Hyperlinking XML documents (XLink, XPointer)
  • XML based data transfer
  • Relating XML Schemas to Database Schemas
  • Oracle and SQLServer support for XML
  • XSQL
  • Web services and the role of XML

Intended Audience

The course is for managers, analysts, developers, designers, programmers needing a broad, and "unhyped" overview of XML and its actual and potential uses.

Attendees are expected to have some experience of using computers and the Internet. Technical concepts will be fully explained as they are introduced, and at a level appropriate to the topic being discussed.