Gain extensive experience using Java to create and process XML documents. Use Java to build a working prototype of an application that can format, exchange and control XML.

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Course Description:

In this course you learn to use XML's object-oriented modules to access databases in standalone and Web-based applications on UNIX/Linux and Windows. You learn to create dynamic Web pages, incorporating data from databases, and build an e-commerce system.

Participants will learn to…

• Leverage the power of Java and XML to build enterprise applications

• Create well-formed and valid XML documents

• Parse XML using DOM and Java

• Process XML sequentially with the event-driven SAX

• Generate and modify XML documents programmatically with DOM and JDBC

• Exploit JDOM as an alternative to SAX & DOM

• Style XML with XSLT for presentation or data transformation

Who Needs to Attend:

Anyone who needs to exchange data over the Internet, including programmers, Web developers, project analysts, project managers, and software engineers.

Prerequisites:

Java programming experience is required.

Course Content:

SECTION 1 – OVERVIEW OF XML TECHNOLOGIES

XML in the enterprise

• The benefits of pairing Java and XML

• Styling for B2B transformation and B2C presentation

The well-formed XML document

• The document root and prolog

• Syntax

• Namespaces

• Content

• Elements

• Attributes

• Entities

Parsing fundamentals

• Document Object Model (DOM)

• Simple API for XML (SAX)

SECTION 2 - EXCHANGING AND VALIDATING DATA

Designing XML enterprise applications

• Data modeling with XML

• B2B/B2C object modeling for Java

• Enforcing validation in data exchange

Writing Document Type Definitions (DTDs)

• Embedding business rules into DTDs

• DTD syntax and components

• Validating elements and attributes

XML Schemas

• Limitations of DTDs

• Writing XML to validate XML

• Using DBM files for fast key/value lookup

• Examining Perl's different DBM modules

• Mapping DBM file data onto hashes

• Solving file-locking issues with DBM file

SECTION 3 - SEQUENTIAL JAVA PARSING OF XML WITH SAX

The SAX architecture

• Choosing the right SAX parser

• Loading the reader and parsing the document

• Interpreting SAX events

Java SAX event handlers

• Retrieving data through the ContentHandler

• Locating document problems with the ErrorHandler

• Resolving external entities with the EntityResolver

• Using the DTDHandler to process notations

SAX validation

• Configuring SAX parser features

• Handling validation exceptions

DOM PARSING WITH JAVA

DOM syntax for Java

• Fitting DOM into XML

• Extracting data through the DOM tree view

• Working with DOM nodes

• Processing DOM data

Validating DOM

• Determining when to use validation

• Enabling validation in the parser

• Handling DOM exceptions

Constructing Java objects with DOM

• Mapping XML data into Java

• Building a user-friendly GUI from DOM

SECTION 4 - GENERATING AND UPDATING XML WITH DOM

Extracting data with Java Database Connectivity (JDBC)

• Establishing the database connection

• Querying and modifying a database with SQL

Modifying DOM data

• Identifying specific nodes

• Restructuring the document tree

Building XML documents from scratch

• Generating XML from a JDBC ResultSet

• Creating element and text nodes

• Outputting a document using a Serializer

JDOM: THE ALTERNATIVE TO DOM AND SAX

Abstracting DOM and SAX with JAXP

• Avoiding proprietary parser APIs

Transitioning to JDOM

Java-optimized XML parsing with JDOM

• Creating a JDOM Document with SAXBuilder and DOMBuilder

• Modifying elements and attributes

• Building XML on the fly

• Outputting a document using an XML Outputter

SECTION 5 - DATABASE INTEGRATION WITH CGI SCRIPTS

Linking databases to CGI scripts

• Accessing databases from within your CGI script

• Separating design from implementation

• Importing design templates

Handling images

• Writing Web pages that call other CGI scripts

• Retrieving graphics from a database

• Delivering image content

Producing on-the-fly graphics

• Processing retrieved data

• Converting data to graphical form using Perl graphics modules

• Sending dynamically created graphics to the user

SECTION 6 - TRANSFORMING DATA WITH XSLT

• Working with XSL templates

• Formatting XML for the browser and hand-held devices

Course Labs:

One lab for each section