TITLE: XML for the Rest of Us

KEYWORD(s): XML, eXtensible Markup Language, objects, architecture, well-formed, documents, tags

LEADER(s): Jonathan Price

AFFILIATION(s): The Communication Circle, USA

CONTACT PERSON: Jonathan Price

CONTACT EMAIL: jprice@swcp.com

LENGTH: Full-day

TIME: Sunday, October 21, 2001; 8:30a -- 5:30p. 

ABSTRACT:

As the Web drives everyone to move from creating documents to managing the flow of content in the form of thousands of interactive objects, the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) provides a standard way to describe that content, grab information from databases, enable business-to-business commerce, and personalize the information provided customers at online stores. This full-day workshop gives non-programmers an overview of the benefits and drawbacks of XML, describes the role of the Document Type Definition as a model of content, then shows you how to mark up documents with the tags from that model. After this workshop, you will be able to

•  Identify reasons your organization may need to switch to XML
•  Mark up text with XML tags, creating “well-formed” XML documents
•  Describe the role of the Document Type Definition (DTD) and stylesheets

In-class exercises help you try out what you are learning. An extensive handout provides full details of the material we are studying, providing a useful reference when you return to work. You do not need to know HTML, but some familiarity with Web publishing will help you understand the context in which XML becomes important. This course does not give nuts-and-bolts instruction on any particular tool.

Topics Covered

• Overview
  • Benefits and drawbacks of XML
  • The role of content management software
  • Personalization
• Creating a well-formed XML document
  • The parts of a well-formed XML document
  • The form of XML tag sets
  • The prolog
  • The XML declaration
  • Comments
  • Processing instructions
  • The root element
  • The distinction between markup and content
  • Element tags, names, and content
  • Empty elements
  • The hierarchy of nested elements
  • Attribute tags, names, and values
  • Entity references
  • Character references
  • CDATA sections
  • Epilog
  • The role of the parser in confirming that your document is well formed

Course leader: Dr. Jonathan Price

Author of How to Write a Computer Manual, and The Trail Guide to America Online, and co-author with Henry Korman of How to Communicate Technical Information, Jonathan Price has coached help teams from major computer manufacturers in the U.S. and Japan, and worked extensively with corporations transforming legacy documents into document databases. For the last three years, he has written extensively on the Web, and coached teams developing Web content. He teaches UCSC’s classes on XML, Internet Prose, and Organizing Information for the Web.

Contact:

Dr. Jonathan Price
918 La Senda Lane, NW
Albuquerque, NM 87107
Home phone: (505) 898 5402
Work phone: (505) 898-4912
Fax: (505) 898-5407

Last modified October 28, 2001 by Scott Tilley.