Useful Books and Software

• metadata interpretation
• the different forms of content syndication
• the increasing use of web services
• how to use popular RSS news aggregators on the market

New Price: $13.99 / Used Price: $12.00

XML is essentially an enabling technology, dry and boring on its own. As a result, most books on the market are dry, and academic in nature teaching theory rather than practice. This book actually teaches practical, real-world applications of XML, using the very latest version of PHP (PHP 5) as the base language .

No Nonsense XML Web Development with PHP explains how XML can be put to use in real-world projects. The book also covers buzz topics such as RSS and Web Services.

If ever there were a candidate for "Most Hyped Technology' it would be Extensible Markup Language (XML). 'No Nonsense XML Web Development With PHP' cuts through the hype and shows you how to get the most of this powerful, multifaceted technology.

• Create a full-blown Content Management System (CMS) based on XML.
• Create a dynamic site map using XSLT.
• Generate XML feeds (including RSS) for your Website.
• Facilitate transfer of important information between disparate systems using XML-RPC
• Use the Document Object Model (DOM) to manipulate documents.
• Rapidly process XML using PHP 5.0's built-in SimpleXML functionality.

No-Nonsense XML Web Development With PHP is ideal for Web developers who want to discover what can be done using XML, whether they be experienced with PHP or relative newcomers. All that's needed to get started is a good understanding of HTML and some experience with PHP.

The book is written in the usual SitePoint style: it's clear and fun to read, with plenty of blocks of example code that you can apply immediately to your own Websites.

There's no need to re-type any of the code from the book. As always, all customers will receive instant download access to all the code and files used in the book so you can apply them immediately to your own projects.

New Price: $11.88 / Used Price: $8.43

New Price: $13.95 / Used Price: $9.70

RSS is examined in detail. The XML vocabulary and document structure is examined and explained clearly. Each element is illustrated with carefully chosen examples. The changes through RSS 0.9x to 2.0 are covered in depth as are extensions and modules such as BitTorrent, EasyNews and others. The style of the book is succinct and precise. The information is densely packed but well structured, making it both readable as an introduction and overview, but also highly functional as a reference. The author is authoritative but friendly in his style, and peppers the text with interesting examples and pertinent URLs. The book assumes a solid knowledge of XML and how the web works, but is not intended to be the exclusive province of the technically minded.

Publisher: Packt Publishing
Author: Heinz Wittenbrink
Release Date: 2005-12-01
ISBN/EAN: 1904811574 / 9781904811572

New Price: $31.49 / Used Price: $41.17

Java and XML, 3rd Edition, shows you how to cut through all the hype about XML and put it to work. It teaches you how to use the APIs, tools, and tricks of XML to build real-world applications. The result is a new approach to managing information that touches everything from configuration files to web sites.

After two chapters on XML basics, including XPath, XSL, DTDs, and XML Schema, the rest of the book focuses on using XML from your Java applications. This third edition of Java and XML covers all major Java XML processing libraries, including full coverage of the SAX, DOM, StAX, JDOM, and dom4j APIs as well as the latest version of the Java API for XML Processing (JAXP) and Java Architecture for XML Binding (JAXB). The chapters on web technology have been entirely rewritten to focus on the today's most relevant topics: syndicating content with RSS and creating Web 2.0 applications. You'll learn how to create, read, and modify RSS feeds for syndicated content and use XML to power the next generation of websites with Ajax and Adobe Flash.

Topics include:

• The basics of XML, including DTDs, namespaces, XML Schema, XPath, and Transformations
• The SAX API, including all handlers, filters, and writers
• The DOM API, including DOM Level 2, Level 3, and the DOM HTML module
• The JDOM API, including the core and a look at XPath support
• The StAX API, including StAX factories, producing documents and XMLPull
• Data Binding with JAXB, using the new JAXB 2.0 annotations
• Web syndication and podcasting with RSS
• XML on the Presentation Layer, paying attention to Ajax and Flash applications

If you are developing with Java and need to use XML, or think that you will be in the future; if you're involved in the new peer-to-peer movement, messaging, or web services; or if you're developing software for electronic commerce, Java and XML will be an indispensable companion.

The book begins with an overview of XML and its uses, and goes on to explain how to parse XML by using the Simple API for XML (SAX 2). Next, there is coverage of how XML is validated by using Document Type Definitions (DTDs) and XML Schema, and transformed by using eXtensible Stylesheet Language (XSL). Brief coverage of Sun's Java API for XML is followed by a detailed look at the Java Document Object Model (JDOM), a new API devised by the author in association with O'Reilly, the publisher.

The last part of the book is more advanced, and covers applications of XML and Java. There are chapters on Web-publishing frameworks, XML Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs), using XML to read and write configuration data, and generating XML with Java. There is also a short business-to-business example. Appendices provide an API reference to the various specifications discussed in the book.

The strengths of Java and XML include the author's deep knowledge of his subject, and a writing style that is both clear and enthusiastic. If you happen to know a lot about Java and not much about XML, this is the ideal title. Readers who already have a good grasp of XML basics might be frustrated by the amount of introductory material. --Tim Anderson

Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Authors: Brett McLaughlin, Justin Edelson
Release Date: 2006-12-08
ISBN/EAN: 059610149X / 9780596101497

New Price: $27.96 / Used Price: $19.91

Content Syndication with RSS offers webloggers, developers, and the programmers who support them a thorough explanation of syndication in general and RSS in particular. Written for web developers who want to offer XML-based feeds of their content, as well as developers who want to use the content that other people are syndicating, the book explores and explains metadata interpretation, different forms of content syndication, and the increasing use of web services in this field.

This concise volume begins with an introduction to content syndication on the Internet: its purpose, limitations, and traditions, and answers the question of why would you consider "giving your content away" like this? Next, the book delves into the architecture of content syndication with an overview of the entire system, from content author to end user on another site. You'll follow the flow of data: content, referral data, publish-and-subscribe calls, with a detailed look at the protocols and standards possible at each step. Topics covered in the book include:

• Creating XML syndication feeds with RSS 0.9x and 2.0
• Beyond headlines: creating richer feeds with RSS 1.0 and RDF metadata
• Using feeds to enrich a site or find information
• Publish and subscribe: intelligent updating
• News aggregators, such as Meerkat, Syndic8, and Newsisfree, and their web services
• Alternative industry-centric standards

New Price: $2.78 / Used Price: $0.30

New Price: $10.40 / Used Price: $8.97

You'll learn the ingredients of a successful blog, and then get detailed installation, configuration and operation instructions for the leading blogging software: Blogger, Radio Userland, Movable Type, and Blosxom. After showing you how to acquire, set-up, and run these leading software packages, Essential Blogging takes you through the more advanced features, so that by the time you finish, you'll be up and blogging with the best of them.

"Essential Blogging" covers:

the important components of a blog and a blog post

installing and configuring the tools

a survey of desktop blogging clients

advice and experience from real-world bloggers

hosted blogging with Blogger and Blogger Pro

desktop blogging with Radio Userland

server blogging with Movable Type

posting, editing, and deleting blog entries

adding pictures to blog entries

syndicating your stories with RSS

consuming RSS feeds with Radio Userland

customizing the appearance of your blog with templates

managing and customizing archives of blog entries

adding comments to your blog

self-hosting your blog vs using a blog-hosting service

going under the hood with the Blosxom blogging system

Written by prominent bloggers and authors of blogging tools, "Essential Blogging" is a no-nonsense guide to the technology of blogging.

Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Authors: Shelley Powers, Cory Doctorow, J. Scott Johnson, Mena G. Trott, Benjamin Trott
Release Date: 2002-08-28
ISBN/EAN: 0596003889 / 9780596003883

New Price: $4.64 / Used Price: $1.71

New Price: $29.25 / Used Price: $29.25

Beginning with an introduction to all the current and coming versions of RSS and Atom, you'll go step by step through the process of producing, aggregating, and storing information feeds. When you're finished, you'll be able to produce client software and Web sites that create, manipulate, aggregate, and display information feeds effectively.

"This book is full of practical advice and tips for consuming, producing, and manipulating information feeds. I only wish I had a book like this when I started writing RSS Bandit." - Dare Obasanjo, RSS Bandit creator: http://www.rssbandit.org/

Publisher: Wrox
Authors: Danny Ayers, Andrew Watt
Release Date: 2005-05-06
ISBN/EAN:

New Price: $23.75 / Used Price: n.a.