Project Cool Guide to XML for Web Designers [Paperback]

The best thing about this book is its clear (and friendly) style when approaching the difficulties of XML and related acronyms. With simple examples (using food menus and newsletters), it shows how XML is used to structure document content. Perhaps the best section here is the clear explication of DTDs used to define XML documents. Only after XML and DTDs are covered does the book turn to display issues with coverage of CSS and XSL (for defining visual styles for elements) and HTC (for scripting events). Of course, Web programmers might be most interested in HTC, but as the author notes, different players on a Web site's team must work together to use XML effectively.

Another standout section presents interviews with some of the major XML innovators, plus an excellent explanation of how the W3W reviews and approves standards like XML. Of course, XML is still much more difficult to master than HTML. But this book makes a good case that you can start hand-coding XML successfully right now. Project Cool Guide to XML for Web Designers is probably the simplest available choice for learning XML for any Web designer or developer. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: XML basics, W3W standards review process, DTDs, CSS, and XSL.

Your task will be to understand what XML and a structured document allows you to do on the presentation and display side and how to use the tools and your design skills to take full advantage of these capabilities. You'll need to understand the dynamics of a structured document enough that when a client says "I want to deliver this information on both a computer and a PDA and I don't want to create different versions of my material," you can say "sounds like a possible XML application." Or when said client wants to bring 300 product spec sheets on line and make them easily searchable by part number and product category you can say "let's explore the possibility of implementing an XML-based solution for this project." Then you'll pull together a team that includes programmers. database gods and goddesses, designers, and production types. Together this team will explore and implement the solution, each person working on the parts that match his or her skills.

Yes, you will also need to know how to structure tags within a webpage and how to be sure your document is "well-formed," but the tags that you use will depend on the larger structure that you and your team are creating.

This isn't as simple as it sounds. You will have to learn new technology - for example, you might want to learn how to program IE 5.0 behaviors, a display feature that takes advantage of XML structure. Or at the very least you'll want to understand how they work and how you can adapt the styles of behavior libraries so that your page elements will look the way you want them to look.

And there is almost-new technology you'll need to know. For example, you'll want to have a basic understanding of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets, a standard that lets you define the display characteristics of elements on a web page. While you certainly don't need to be a JavaScript expert, it helps have a general sense of what JavaScript is and know that it is one of the tools you can use to control the actions of a web page. (One place to learn the basics of both of these this is our very own Project Cool Developer Zone website)

XML from a designer's perspective requires an understanding of both concepts and a set of related technologies. Together, these pieces combine to add some exciting new opportunities to webbased publishing. -- Review