Building Oracle XML Applications [With CDROM]

Steve preaches words of wisdom and exhortation to the many would-be software development practitioners endeavoring to claim the promises of Java and XML. His book is second to none with regard to explaining Java-Oracle-XML because (1) he provides deep and wide coverage of the concepts (2) he provides meaningful example code for nearly everything discussed in the book (3) he has a command of Java, PL/SQL and XML that enables him to speak fluently in any of these languages. Consequently he becomes an ambassador from any of these camps to any of the others.The book shelves are crowded with XML, Java and Oracle books that dabble in the nexus of these technologies - applications. Where they all fall short of describing the intersection of these technologies in ways that are germane to business (Oracle XML Applications) OXA succeeds. Especially noteworthy are the many examples of using LOBs to store, manipulate and retrieve XML documents and his treatment of XSLT in chapters 7 and 9. After taking great pains to explain the use of XPath he then goes to great lengths to show how it is used in XSLT to transform XML documents into HTML, XML or other document types. Pay special attention to the explanation of the operation on page 279.Those who read his book will certainly benefit from its disclosures.

A fine book, strongly recommended. No laborious explanations of the obvious, treats the reader as intelligent. Well chosen examples, all related to practical and real-life situations. If you work in an Oracle shop this is the one book you should read on XML.Only criticisms are (i) the high level of XML awareness assumed by the book, (ii) it is a fairly comprehensive tutorial on XSLT, but isn't quite structured right as an XSLT tutorial (material is scattered through the book), and (iii) lack of discussion on scalability and performance of XML technologies. It would also have been nice to see some personal opinion on how Oracle's XML technolgies fit in the wider world, and where things are likely to head with 9i, given the author's position.

First, I must say, when I picked this book a few weeks ago, I already was working with XML/Oracle/Etc for almost a year. At the time the variety of books in the market was very limited (I had to learn XSLT from a site in the Czecz republic because no book offered a decent coverage!). So, I picked this book to see what I had missed, and what I was doing perhaps not in the best way. This book was everything that I expected and more. It covers *a lot* of material, XML, XML Storage (How to use Oracle Clobs, for example), XPATH, XSLT and more - the authors don't cut corners, they explain everything thoroughly, and that's why the book takes more than 700 pages. The examples are excellent - concise and right to the point. The material is written in a clear and comprehensive way. Usually programming books take a lot out of me - but not this one! I thought I knew a lot about XML, but I learned much I didn't know from this book. To summarize, this is how a programming book should be! Simply above and beyond the call of duty. I also think it would be useful for people which intend to use XML with databases other than Oracle.

Finally!You've heard the one about the IT manager and the CEO, the punch line reading something like "the information you've given me is technically accurate but totally useless"? This is exactly how I was beginning to feel about Oracle's XML documentation (primarily on TechNet) -- tons of what I needed, with no degree of coherency or focus to task.I eventually gave up on wading through countless Oracle URLs and READMEs and simply decided to wait for the release of Steve Muench's book. I'm glad I did. Steve takes us on a journey of well-documented *examples* that explain the "why" and "how" of the Oracle XML API, not just the "what". Especially good is Chapter 5, the PL/SQL XML API - great for long-time Oracle dweebs that have yet to polish up on Java.I have few criticisms - I had hoped to see an electronic version of the examples on the included CD (any maybe they're there but they were not immediately apparent). I also recently purchased O'Reilly's XML Pocket Quick Reference - it does a bit better job at concisely explaining XML and XSL syntax. Rather than dis Muench's effort, I prefer to believe that the Quick Ref is an essential companion to this otherwise stellar find.If you plan to "do XML" with Oracle, you MUST BUY THIS BOOK, period. 'Nuff said.

This is perhaps the best book on XML written so far. Stepping out from the stereotype model of writing a book in XML, the material provides deep insight into the Oracle XML capacities by providing real world examples and issues faced with reading/writing XML datagrams from databases through Oracle XML capacities and covers a wide gamut of issues (mostly performance) faced by application developers in using XML as the format for data exchange and solutions to counter most of these issues. The best part of the book are the chapters on XSLT and the numerous examples that shows the power of XSLT in rendering and transforming XML data. The book is highly recommended for both beginners and experienced programmers in XML(/Java). There is something for every level of reader interested in using XML for B2B applications.