Xmlspy Handbook [With CDROM]

This book shines light on the pillars of XML: XML, XSL, and XSD (schemas) with simple procedures to create and manipulate XML documents. The book is organized with each major technology in its own chapter, or basic and advanced features in 2 chapters (great for learning/mastering a particular aspect of XML, such as XSL stylesheets).Respectfully, the flame comments about the wrong CD coming with the book seem irrelevant now -- the book now comes with all the exercises and an incredible 90-day trial version of XMLSPY (the normal download trial is for 30 days). The information builds logically, walking you through simple examples to introduce the XML terminology, then adding nitty-gritty fine-level details demonstrating, in context, what would otherwise be abstract and complex terminology.I enjoyed the casual, friendly writing style. There are asides about some features defined in the XML standard, but not used in the real world. Other times the author points out the way he generally does something. There are several quick procedures using the XMLSPY editor that would otherwise require repetitive or manual actions.There's a chapter on WSDL. I haven't read it yet (loaned the book to a friend learning XML), but a local MSDN director raves about being able to edit and examine WSDL visually with XMLSPY.THE BEST FEATURE of the book may well be the 90 day trial version of XMLSPY Enterprise Edition. The 3 months use of a $400/$500 program the CD gives you for the cost of this excellent instructional book!NOTE: If you can read and write schemas by hand, you probably won't need all the info on XML terminology and simple examples, though you'd probably still benefit from how to do things with XMLSPY and the full 90 days to explore it.

We regret than an error occurred in the first printing of the XMLSPY Handbook, and these copies contained the wrong CD-ROM. We immediately recalled these copies, and redistributed a new printing with the corrected CD.However, a small number of the first printing may still be in circulation.If you happen to have purchased a copy of XMLSPY Handbook which contained the wrong CD ROM, we apologize for the error, and are happy to replace it for you, at no charge.Simply call our customer support center at 1-800-762-2974, or send an email to [email protected] WebbExecutive EditorWiley

I am a web developer out of work - I got this book to improve my skills. The XML Spy handbook covered all of the key XML technologies including DTD, XML Schema and XSLT stylesheets in a clear and concise manner, using XML Spy. It also had very good explanations about complicated topics like namespaces, regular expressions and web service description language - things I had heard about but never really understood until now. The xml spy handbook makes xml easier to learn then other books which I found were too theoretical or boring.

When it comes to reference books for XML and related standards, the "Essential XML Quick Reference" by Aaron Skonnard, Martin Gudgin, et. al. (ISBN 0201740958), has been a favorite of mine for the longest time - but the lack of a good introductory book that teaches XML basics, XSLT, XML Schema, and even WSDL from the ground up was a continuous source of frustration for me.But not anymore! With the "XMLSPY Handbook" Larry Kim has created just that: a comprehensive book that explains XML, Namespaces, XSLT, XPath, XML Schema, SOAP, and WSDL using a wide array of relevant examples - and at the same time uses these to introduce the various features of XMLSPY, one of the most popular XML development environments, which incidentally makes learning XML a lot easier.The CD that comes with the book also includes a 90-day eval of the full-blown "bells and whistles" enterprise version of the software, which gives ample time to go through all the examples provided and try everything out yourself.