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Understanding and Applying XML
Concepts, Capabilities, Uses & Reality Check

Understanding and Applying XML introduces the XML architecture and explains how and why XML has evolved into the pervasive infrastructure for virtually every recent eBusiness technology and standards advance.  This one-day vendor-independent seminar will meet the needs of IT and business area management and staff who require an overview of XML and familiarity with the uses of XML.  The course explains in non-technical terms how XML works and how XML powers everything from Web Services and Microsoft’s .NET to the latest versions of IBM, Oracle and Microsoft DBMS.

Understanding and Applying XML explains how the key XML components make the extensible XML architecture so usable is so many different ways.  Through examples, graphics and demonstrations, learners will explore the major XML concepts and elements, including document definition using DTDs and schema, document tags and vocabularies, the parser, the DOM and extensible stylesheets.

Understanding and Applying XML shows how the XML architecture implements the central eBusiness principle of treating electronic documents as business objects.  Participants will learn how XML implements this primary architecture principle via the core XML functions of document presentation and document transformation.

Understanding and Applying XML defines and describes many of the crucial standards, XML extensions and XML variants that make XML such an adaptable architecture for eBusiness applications.  The seminar shows how UDDI, WSDL and SOAP work together to create a new business computing model - XML Web Services - and illustrates how the various W3C and other consortium open standards enable business functions from workflow definition to business reporting.

Understanding and Applying XML examines the diverse business applications of XML, developing from the core functions of document publishing and transaction processing, and from the use of XML as transformation middleware to achieve enterprise application integration.  Participants learn through numerous examples and mini-case studies how real organizations use XML to power a myriad of business applications and how XML differs from and compliments EDI.

Understanding and Applying XML introduces the latest generation of DBMS, leading up to the native XML DBMS.  Learners will see how the major vendors (IBM, Microsoft and Oracle) have developed different approaches to using XML to store and manage multi-media content capable of supporting distributed transaction processing.

Who Should Attend

  • IT and business area leaders who plan and have responsibility for application projects using XML

  • IT and business area staff who require an overview of XML and familiarity with the uses of XML

  • Developers and Project Leaders preparing to learn application development using XML

  • Project Teams and other work groups who will use XML and want to ensure that all team and group members share a common vocabulary and concepts understanding

What You Will Learn

XML Architecture: Pieces, parts and how they fit together

  • Concepts: Vocabulary, Grammar, and ‘Well-formed Documents’

  • Components: Tags, Grammar, DTD, Schema, XSLT, the Parser and the DOM

  • Philosophy: Abstraction of content from appearance, Object definition

  • Metadata:  The Resource Definition Framework (RDF) and XMI

  • Core Functions: Document Definition, Validation, Presentation and Transformation

XML Business Uses: Applying the Architecture

  • Content exchange, both structured and unstructured

  • Combination and integration of structured and unstructured content from multiple sources across media

  • Internal document object addressability, especially within BLOBs

  • Middleware transformation between platforms and data types

  • Standard definition of business objects, both industry-wide and across industries

  • Standard definition and directory of business services and Web Services

  • Application program interface for creating loosely-coupled near-real-time relationships between business partners

  • Query language for multi-modal content access

  • XML content access via Object-relational Database Management Systems

XML Standards: W3C and other Consortium Efforts

  • Service Contract Language- UDDI and WSDL

  • Service Request API- SOAP

  • Work Flow & QoS- Web Services Flow Language (WSFL)

  • Services Directories- BizTalk and ebXML

  • W3C XML Extensions- XLink, XML Base, XHTML

  • Voice Access- Voice XML

  • Content Search and Access- XML Linking Language, XInclude & XQuery

  • Business process definition- Business Process Modeling Language (BPML)

  • Financial industry- Financial Products XML, Extensible Business Reporting Language & Market Data Definition Language

Seminar Outline

Part 1: Introduction to XML

  • Why is there an XML?

    • Exercise: The value of tags

    • The genesis of XML

    • The role of the W3C

  • Case Study

  • Components & Architecture

    • Secure network

    • Document definition

      • Vocabulary

      • DTD

      • Schema

    • The Parser

    • XSL (Extensible Style Sheets)

  • XML Concepts

    • Objectives

      • Describe document as object

      • Document content bridge

    • Philosophy

      • Abstract document content from appearance

      • Standardize document content definition

      • Standardize object method definition

      • Standardize vocabulary

    • Metadata Standards

      • Resource Definition Framework (RDF)

      • XMI for object definition

      • UML extensions for defining documents

Part 2: XML Component & Function Demonstrations

  • XML Document Construction

    • Well-formed documents

    • XML Grammar

  • XML Document Description & Validation

    • DTD

    • Schema

  • XML Document Processing

    • Document Object Model (DOM)

    • Document structure exposure

    • DOM methods

  • XML Document Transformation

    • The power of style sheets

    • XSLT

    • XPath

  • XML Document Presentation

    • XML to HTML Transformation

    • XLink & XPointer

  • XML and Java

    • JAXP

    • SAX

    • JAX-RPC

    • JAXR

    • Futures

Part 3: XML Business Applications

  • Publishing

    • Content Flexibility

    • Reporting

  • Transaction Processing

    • EDI Compare & Contrast

    • Purchasing

    • Exchanges

  • The Power of Tags

    • Tag-based Hyperlinks

    • Tagged Access to Legacy Content

  • Business Registry and Services Description

    • BizTalk

    • ebXML

    • Business Process Definition (BPML & Wf-XML)

  • XML-Powered Middleware

    • Adaptors & Connectors

    • Transformation Gateways

Part 4: XML Web Services

  • Loosely-coupled vs. Tightly-coupled Services

  • The ‘Find’ Function

    • UDDI

    • WSDL

    • WS-Inspection

  • The ‘Transact’ Function

    • SOAP

    • Envelopes

    • W3C Extensions

  • XML & Java

Part 5: 2nd Generation XML Standards

  • W3C Standards

    • XHTML

    • XML Schema Definition Language (XSDL)

    • XML Linking Language (XLink)

    • XML Base

    • Voice XML

  • Other Consortium Standards

Part 6: XML Content Storage & Access

  • XML Queries: XPath & XQuery

  • Mainstream Solutions: Internal DBMS Adaptors

  • Leading Edge Solutions: Native XML Databases