Learning the basic syntax of XML is easy enough, but learning how to use XML is more difficult. "Effective XML" makes it possible to become a more effective programmer sooner. It crystallizes the hard-won expertise of XML pioneers into 50 rules of thumb for the optimal design of XML documents and applications.

Praise for Effective XML

"This is an excellent collection of XML best practices: essential reading for any developer using XML. This book will help you avoid common pitfalls and ensure your XML applications remain practical and interoperable for as long as possible."

--Edd Dumbill, Managing Editor, XML.com and Program Chair, XML Europe

"A collection of useful advice about XML and related technologies. Well worth reading both before, during, and after XML application development."

--Sean McGrath, CTO, Propylon

"A book on many best practices for XML that we have been eagerly waiting for."

--Akmal B. Chaudhri, Editor, IBM developerWorks

"The fifty easy-to-read items cover many aspects of XML, ranging from how to use markup effectively to what schema language is best for what task. Sometimes controversial, but always relevant, Elliotte Rusty Harold's book provides best practices for working with XML that every user and implementer of XML should be aware of."

--Michael Rys, Ph.D., Program Manager, SQL Server XML Technologies, Microsoft Corporation

"Effective XML is an excellent book with perfect timing. Finally, an XML book everyone needs to read! Effective XML is a fount of XML best practices and solid advice. Whether you read Effective XML cover to cover or randomly one section at a time, its clear writing and insightful recommendations enlighten, entertain, educate, and ultimately improve the effectiveness of even the most expert XML developer. I'll tell you what I tell all my coworkers and customers: You need this book."

--Michael Brundage, Technical Lead, XML Query Processing, Microsoft WebData XML Team

"This book provides great insight for all developers who write XML software, regardless of whether the software is a trivial application-specific XML processor or a fullblown W3C XML Schema Language validator. Mr. Harold covers everything from a very important high-level terminology discussion to details about parsed XML nodes. The well-researched comparisons of currently available XML-related software products, as well as the key criteria for selecting between XML technologies, exemplify the thoroughness of this book."

--Cliff Binstock, Author, The XML Schema Complete Reference

If you want to become a more effective XML developer, you need this book. You will learn which tools to use when in order to write legible, extensible, maintainable and robust XML code.

Page 36: How do you write DTDs that are independent of namespace prefixes? Page 82: What do parsers reliably report and what don't they? Page 130: Which schema language is the right one for your job? Page 178: Which API should you choose for maximum speed and minimum size? Page 257: What can you do to ensure fast, reliable access to DTDs and schemas without making your document less portable? Page 283: Is XML too verbose for your application?

Elliotte Rusty Harold provides you with 50 practical rules of thumb based on real-world examples and best practices. His engaging writing style is easy to understand and illustrates how you can save development time while improving your XML code. Learn to write XML that is easy to edit, simple to process, and is fully interoperable with other applications and code. Understand how to design and document XML vocabularies so they are both descriptive and extensible. After reading this book, you'll be ready to choose the best tools and APIs for both large-scale and small-scale processing jobs. Elliotte provides you with essential information on building services such as verification, compression, authentication, caching, and content management.

If you want to design, deploy, or build better systems that utilize XML--then buy this book and get going!

The author teaches programmers how to use XML effectively and produce better code. Harold explains the critical rules of thumb employed by the experts to get the most out of XML and provides 50 ways to use XML to produce code that is extensible, legible and maintainable.