Comprehensive XML Training Class | Webucator Programming Classes

Overview

This comprehensive XML training class teaches students to create well-formed XML documents, to build sophisticated XML Schema for validating XML documents and to build eXtensible Stylesheets (XSLs) for transforming XML documents into XHTML, and other XML structures.

Goals

Learn to create well-formed XML documents.
Learn the difference between HTML and XHTML.
Learn to create basic DTDs.
Learn to create basic XML schemas.
Learn to validate XML documents against DTDs and XML schemas.
Learn to create basic XSLTs to transform XML documents for output as text, HTML, and other XML structures.
Learn the purpose and power of XML Schema
Learn to declare simple-type and complex-type elements
Learn to derive custom types
Learn to declare attributes
Learn to annotate schemas
Learn to understand namespaces
Learn to work with multiple XML schema documents
Learn to use XPath to access XML elements and attributes
Learn to loop through XML elements
Learn to use conditionals in XSLT
Learn to create and call templates
Learn to work with multiple XSLTs
Learn to reference external XML documents

Outline

XML Basics
1. What is XML?
2. XML Benefits
  1. XML Holds Data, Nothing More
  2. XML Separates Structure from Formatting
  3. XML Promotes Data Sharing
  4. XML is Human-Readable
  5. XML is Free
3. XML in Practice
  1. Content Management
  2. Web Services
  3. RDF / RSS Feeds
4. XML Documents
  1. The Prolog
  2. Elements
  3. Attributes
  4. CDATA
  5. Whitespace
  6. XML Syntax Rules
  7. Special Characters
5. Creating a Simple XML File
DTDs
1. Well-formed vs. Valid
2. The Purpose of DTDs
3. Creating DTDs
  1. The Document Element
  2. Other Elements
  3. Choice of Elements
  4. Empty Elements
  5. Mixed Content
  6. Location of Modifier
  7. Using Parentheses for Complex Declarations
  8. Declaring Attributes
4. Validating an XML Document with a DTD
XML Schema Basics
1. The Purpose of XML Schema
2. The Power of XML Schema
3. A First Look
  1. A Simple XML Schema
4. Validating an XML Instance Document
Simple-Type Elements
1. Overview
2. Built-in Simple Types
  1. 19 Primitive Data Types
  2. Built-in Derived Data Types
  3. Defining a Simple-type Element
3. User-derived Simple Types
  1. Applying Facets
  2. Controlling Length
  3. Specifying Patterns
  4. Working with Numbers
  5. Enumerations
  6. Whitespace-handling
4. Specifying Element Type Locally
5. Nonatomic Types
  1. Lists
  2. Unions
6. Declaring Global Simple-Type Elements
  1. Global vs. Local Simple-Type Elements
7. Default Values
8. Fixed Values
9. Nil Values
XSLT Basics
1. eXtensible Stylesheet Language
2. An XSLT Stylesheet
  1. xsl:template
  2. xsl:value-of
  3. Whitespace and xsl:text
3. Output Types
  1. Text
  2. XML
  3. HTML
4. Elements and Attributes
  1. xsl:element
  2. xsl:attribute
  3. Attributes and Curly Brackets
XML Schema Basics
1. The Purpose of XML Schema
2. The Power of XML Schema
3. A First Look
  1. A Simple XML Schema
4. Validating an XML Instance Document
Simple-Type Elements
1. Overview
2. Built-in Simple Types
  1. 19 Primitive Data Types
  2. Built-in Derived Data Types
  3. Defining a Simple-type Element
3. User-derived Simple Types
  1. Applying Facets
  2. Controlling Length
  3. Specifying Patterns
  4. Working with Numbers
  5. Enumerations
  6. Whitespace-handling
4. Specifying Element Type Locally
5. Nonatomic Types
  1. Lists
  2. Unions
6. Declaring Global Simple-Type Elements
  1. Global vs. Local Simple-Type Elements
  2. Default Values
  3. Fixed Values
  4. Nil Values
Complex-Type Elements
1. Overview
2. Content Models
  1. xs:sequence
  2. xs:all
  3. xs:choice
3. Complex Model Groups
4. Occurrence Constraints
5. Declaring Global Complex-Type Elements
6. Mixed Content
7. Defining Complex Types Globally
Attributes
1. Overview
2. Empty Elements
3. Adding Attributes to Elements with Complex Content
4. Adding Attributes to Elements with Simple Content
5. Restricting Attribute Values
6. Default and Fixed Values
  1. Default Values
  2. Fixed Values
7. Requiring Attributes
Reusing Schema Components
1. Overview
2. Groups
  1. Element Groups
  2. Attribute Groups
3. Extending Complex Types
Tying It All Together
1. Workshop: Creating and reusing XML schemas
Annotating XML Schemas
1. Overview
2. Annotating a Schema
3. Transforming an XML Schema for Documentation
Namespaces
1. Overview
2. Purpose of Namespaces
3. Target Namespaces
4. Default Namespaces
5. Locally Declared Elements and Attributes
6. Qualified Locals
7. The XMLSchema-instance Namespace
8. Using Multiple Namespaces
XSLT Basics
1. eXtensible Stylesheet Language
2. An XSLT Stylesheet
  1. xsl:template
  2. xsl:value-of
  3. Whitespace and xsl:text
3. Output Types
  1. Text
  2. XML
  3. HTML
4. XSLT Elements and Attributes
  1. xsl:element
  2. xsl:attribute
  3. Attributes and Curly Brackets
XPath
1. XPath in XSLT
2. XPath Expression
3. XPath Terminology
  1. Context Node
  2. Current Node
  3. Context Size
  4. Proximity Position
4. Location Paths
5. Axis
6. Node Test
7. Predicate
8. Accessing Nodes
9. Abbreviated Syntax
10. XPath Functions
11. XPath Operators
Flow Control in XSLT
1. Looping in XSLT
2. Sorting with XSLT
3. Looping and Sorting
4. Conditions with XSLT
XSLT Templates, Parameters and Variables
1. xsl:apply-templates
2. xsl:call-template
3. Passing Parameters
4. Removing Content
5. Template Modes
6. Template Priority
  1. Default Priorities
  2. Assigning Priorities
7. XSLT Variables
Multiple XML and XSLT Documents
1. Including XSLTs
2. Importing XSLTs
3. Conflict resolution
4. The document() Function
Working with Keys
1. Key Basics
  1. <xsl:key/>
  2. The key() Function
  3. Improving Performance with Keys
    1. Cross References
    2. The Key Way
  4. Grouping
    1. The generate-id() Function
    2. Using generate-id() for Grouping
Advanced XSLT Techniques
1. Working with Numbered Lists
  1. The position() function
  2. xsl:number
2. Outputting Processing Instructions
3. Copying Nodes
  1. xsl:copy
  2. xsl:copy-of
Tying It All Together
1. Workshop: Sharing data and transforming it for the Web

Class Materials

Each student in our Live Online and our Onsite classes receives a comprehensive set of materials, including course notes and all the class examples.

Class Prerequisites

Experience in the following would be useful for this XML class:

HTML

Preparing for Class

Onsite: Course Setup
Live Online: Course Setup | WebEx Setup

Comprehensive XML Training

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