xmlweb

Issue #44

Last Update March 2, 2006

Technology No Nonsense XML Web Development by David Katz January 31, 2006 XML is becoming an increasing important tool for system building and web development. An open standard with text files that can be read by any editor or word processor, XML promotes, portability and interoperability for both software and data files. Its growing importance is signaled by its increasing use as a database structure, as a basis for data sharing in the financial industry (FIXML, FPML and others), and, most significantly, as the underlying structure to the Open Document word processing file standard. It is also used to build complex and highly-maintainable websites with database connectivity. In our review Agile Web Development with Ruby and Rails we looked at one (non-XML) method of creating complex websites. No Nonsense XML Web Development with PHP, by Thomas Myer, provides an excellent introduction and reference to XML and PHP as a web building toolkit.

Most websites are built using a language called HTML, which stands for HyperText Markup Language. The structure and content of a web page are contained in a text file that provides instructions for a web server program and web browser by using tags, a defined set of keywords with a particular format. These tags denote formatting instructions (font, bold, italic, new paragraph, table format, etc.), links to other files and pages, and form structure, among other things. The simplicity and universality of HTML has worked well for years, but there is no place for user definition of new tags for new functions. XML, which stands for eXtensible Markup Language, remedies this by allowing a programmer or web designer to invent new tags and define the actions that these tags invoke. This multiplies the power of a markup language enormously.

No Nonsense XML Web Development with PHP provides a good primer for those new to this area, but with some web building experience. The first five chapters give a good overview of XML and the tools needed to deal with it: XHTML, XSLT, Document Type Definitions, and XPATH. Chapters 6 through 9 deal with using XML in conjunction with JavaScript, PHP, SOAP and Web Services, and databases (MySQL is used for examples). This book does not teach JavaScript, PHP, database handling or the other techniques needed in conjunction with XML; a shelf of books would be needed to do all that. But this book does lay out, in a clear and useful way, how these interfaces are used. The examples that fill the book go a long way toward equipping even a novice PHP programmer with the knowledge necessary to complete a useful task. Appendix B completes a project started in the PHP chapter.

By putting XML and its tools, PHP, JavaScript, databases and Web Services under one roof, Mr. Myer has provided programmers with a flexible and expansive step-b-step guide to doing real work in an XML environment.

No Nonsense XML Web Development with PHP by Thomas Myers. Sitepoint Pty. Ltd., Australia. ISBN# 0-9752-402-0-X $39.95 US