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XML Introduction course
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Overview
This introduction to XML presents the Extensible Markup Language at a reasonably technical level for anyone interested in learning more about structured documents.
Audience
Existing web developers and content creators who need to understand XML structures.
Course Objectives
At the end of this course, delegates will be able to write well-formed XML documents, validate and enforce business rules using XML schemas; understand the DTD of any XML-document and be able to construct simple DTD's; transform XML documents.
Prerequisites
This course assumes a strong grasp of HTML and Windows. It does not assume any previous knowledge of XML although programming or scripting experience is helpful. According to the audience’s abilities and requirements the course will be tailored at the trainer’s discretion.
Course Contents (2 days)
- Introduction
- What is a Markup Language:
SGML, HTML and XML - XML in context: SGML, HTML and XML
- Separating Content from Presentation
- Self-Describing Data:
the need for Structured Documents - XML as a Standard Document Format
- XML and Relational Data
- XML and Object Models
- The Need for Validation
- XML Transformations
- Web Services
- What is a Markup Language:
- XML Grammar
- Structure of an XML Document
- Handling Whitespace
- Character and Entity References
- Well-Formed XML
- Elements and Attributes
- Processing Instructions, Comments
and CDATA Sections
- Document Type Descriptors
- Document Types
- Internal and External Subsets
- PUBLIC and SYSTEM DTD’s
- DTD Structure
- Defining Elements
- Attributes
- Required, Implied, Default, and Fixed Attributes
- IDs and IDREFs
- Entities
- Conditional Sections
- Limitations of DTDs
- Techniques Using Entities
- XML Schema
- XML Namespaces
- XML Transformations
- XSL and XSLT
- XSLT on the Client
- XSLT Output Formats
- Xpath overview
- Structure of an XSLT Stylesheet
- Literal Replacement Elements
- Dynamic Content
- Conditional Processing
- Sorting and Filtering