XML Resources

This is my selected list of XML resources that I used in my XML for Video Project. While my project is temporarily inactive, I have tried to keep this page up to date. If you are the author or webmaster of any of the resources listed here, I appreciate being kept up to date at FAQ's

  • General information
  • Standards
  • Online discussions
  • Books
  • Tutorials
  • Programming Tools

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    FAQ's

    The XML FAQ
    http://www.ucc.ie/xml/

    Design Principles for XML
    http://www.textuality.com/sgml-erb/dd-1996-0001.html


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    General

    XML.ORG—The XML Industry Portal
    http://www.xml.org/

    An independent industry repository for standards, DTD's, references and other XML documentation.

    Robin Cover's SGML/XML Page
    http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/sgml-xml.html

    One of the first repositories for XML, with all you need to know about XML, XSL and related technologies.

    IBM Developers XML Page
    http://www.ibm.com/developer/xml/

    IBM is a major player in XML, so it's not surprising that this site is comprehensive, with numerous articles, tutorials and references. It's also the home of Xcentral, IBM's excellent XML search engine.

    XML.COM
    http://www.xml.com/

    Good news site with some fine tutorials.

    W3C Synchronized Multimedia Page
    http://www.w3.org/AudioVideo

    Good overview of SMIL with lots of links to tutorials and other documentation.

    Microsoft Developer Network—Web Workshop: XML
    http://msdn.microsoft.com/xml/default.asp?

    Microsoft's XML page: If you want to know how XML works in IE5 or Office, this is the best place to go.


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    Standards

    The following standards are from the W3C, except where noted. Please note that for W3C standards, recommendations are final drafts and are stable; Working drafts are not to be used as references and may change at any time. Keep this in mind.

    Annotated Guide to the XML 1.0 Recommendation
    http://www.xml.com/axml/testaxml.htm

    Tim Bray's annotations to the XML recommendation, from XML.COM.

    XSLT 1.0 Working Draft
    http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-xsl/"

    XHTML 1.0 Working Draft
    http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/

    Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) 1.0 Recommendation
    http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-smil/

    Document Object Model (DOM) 1.0 Recommendation
    http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-DOM-Level-1/


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    Online Discussion

    USENET Newsgroups

    comp.text.xml

    This newsgroup covers all topics related to XML, and XML-based languages.

    microsoft.public.xml

    Microsoft's newsgroup for XML

    Mailing Lists

    Xml-Dev Archives
    http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail-archive/xml-dev/

    Xml-dev is a list for XML developers with some experience working with XML. It's not a beginner's list as such, but it is an excellent list to lurk on as you'll hear from most, if not all, of the XML experts.

    Xsl-list Mailing List
    http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list/

    This list is for all aspects of XSL from beginners to experts. Sponsored by Mulberry Technologies.

    XML Mailing Lists
    http://metalab.unc.edu/xml/mailinglists.html

    More mail lists on XML and related topics.


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    http://www.samspublishing.com/catalog/product.asp?product_id={3717E89F-174C-41B6-8A55-FEB24E3D6CB6}

    XML Book Reviews
    http://www.xmlbooks.com/

    Charles Goldfarb's list of XML book reviews.


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    Tutorials

    Because XML has been so fast moving, it's been hard to find good up-to-date tutorials; most of the material this author used to learn XML is long-outdated (remarkable, since XML has only been around for two years.)

    Three of these tutorials come from the Web Developer Virtual Library at http://wdvl.com/Authoring/Languages/XML/.

    The WDVL: XML: Structuring Data For the Web, An Introduction
    http://wdvl.com/Authoring/Languages/XML/Intro/

    The WDVL: Doing It With XML
    http://wdvl.com/Authoring/Languages/XML/Tutorials/DoingIt/

    The WDVL: Introduction to XHTML
    http://wdvl.com/Authoring/Languages/XML/XHTML/

    XHTML will be the first exposure to XML for many people, and it is the web's future. Learn how to make the transition easily.

    Building an XML Application
    http://www.software.ibm.com/developer/library/buildappl/abstract.html

    Three papers from IBM that teach the basics of writing applications to process XML.

    SGML/XML: Using Elements and Attributes
    http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/elementsAndAttrs.html

    One question newbies have when they create XML documents: What data should be in elements and what should be in attributes? This helps you answer that question.

    Getting Started with XSL
    http://msdn.microsoft.com/xml/XSLGuide/xsl-overview.asp

    This is a Microsoft tutorial on XSL; this is the most recent tutorial I could find as of this writing in July 1999. Note: This tutorial covers the IE5 implementation of XSL, which is different from the April draft.

    Finetuning.com—XML tutorials
    http://www.finetuning.com

    An interesting little site written by Lisa Rein, an early XML author and adopter. To quote the site, "Fighting for truth... justice... a universal syntax… and a universal semantic infrastructure."

    Developerlife.com
    http://www.developerlife.com

    Developerlife.com is a new site with tutorials on XML, Java, the DOM, SAX and Swing.

    Zvon.org: The Guide To The XML Galaxy
    http://www.zvon.org

    Zvon.org has tutorials, references and repositories, and uses XML standards on its own web site. Recommended.


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    Programming Tools

    General

    IBM Alphaworks
    http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/

    Home of many excellent XML tools including the well-known XML4J parser.

    Java

    Ælfred
    http://www.microstar.com/aelfred.html

    This parser is small and fast, only 23K. Be sure to get the SAX driver from the same site (http://www.microstar.com/sax.html). It's very easy to get going with your application, and it's a good choice for Java applets, at least until Java DOM support is better defined in the browser.

    XML4J
    http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/xml4j

    From IBM's Alphaworks division, XML4J is arguably the best XML parser available.

    SAX
    http://www.microstar.com/sax.html

    The official homepage for SAX, the Simple API for XML. Note that this is just the driver; you'll have to get a parser to work with it; I recommend Ælfred. You do not need to get this if you are using XML4J or DCXJP.

    Perl

    Perl-XML FAQ
    http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/perl-xml-faq11.html

    Visual Basic

    VBXML
    http://www.vbxml.com/

    This site covers XML for VB and Microsoft developers.

    C/C++

    Expat
    http://www.jclark.com/xml/expat.html

    Expat is an XML parser in C, written by James Clark. This parser is being used in the Mozilla browser project, from which the next version of Netscape Navigator is being developed.

    XML4C
    http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/xml4c

    IBM has released a version of XML4J for C++, sure to be of great interest to software porting efforts—Amiga developers take note!


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    Authoring and other Development Tools

    DTD Generator
    http://www.pault.com/Xmltube/dtdgen.html

    This useful web page will generate a DTD for you when given a URL to a XML document on the web. It's a nice resource for people new to XML or who find the DTD syntax nasty, as I do.

    LotusXSL
    http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/LotusXSL

    This is a very good Java-based XSLT processor with source.

    Psgml for Emacs
    http://www.snee.com/bob/sgmlfree/

    This site has information on psgml, an add-on to the GNU Emacs editor for editing SGML and XML files. A free psgml manual is available in PDF format for download.

    RUWF? The XML Syntax Checker
    http://www.xml.com/pub/a/tools/ruwf/check.html

    This web page, from XML.COM, will scan your XML files and check them for well-formedness and correct syntax. ("RUWF?" stands for "Are You Well Formed?") Your XML must be on a publicly accessible web site for this to work.

    Tidy
    http://tidy.sourceforge.net

    This very useful tool will scan your HTML file for broken code and poor style, and convert it into good, well-formed HTML. It also will convert your files to XHTML. Highly recommended.

    XMLE—An XML Editor for Developers
    http://boozers.fortunecity.com/farmers/232/xmle/index.html

    Another XML editor. Good editor, but if you use IE5, it tends to take over its associations so that you can no longer view XML in IE until you reinstall the browser.

    XML Spy
    http://www.xmlspy.com/

    Commercial—and popular—XML editor

    XT
    http://www.jclark.com/xml/xt.html

    James Clark's Java-based XSLT processor; If you've ever used an online HTML validator, you've probably seen his work as his nsgmls SGML parser is at the heart of most of those validators.

    Free XML Software
    http://www.garshol.priv.no/download/xmltools/

    Directory of freeware XML software and tools.


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    Last updated on April 25th, 2003
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