XML programming with VB and ASP

Summary

Here's a book that shows you when and how to use XML from both a programming and business perspective. Laden with source code, XML Programming with VB and ASP helps you build solutions that are flexible, future-proof, and self-describing. It will help you apply XML concepts between the client and the server and the server and data objects or data services.

Finally, you have everything a VB and ASP developer needs to keep up with the explosive growth of XML.

What's Inside:

• Gets you programming fast with over 100 easy VB and ASP code samples
• Advanced 3-tier solutions in UML
• Descriptions and examples for over 50 Microsoft DOM methods and properties
• Case studies on when to use XML in your business
• All about XSL, DTDs, namespaces, and more
• When and how to use webclasses, data islands, and other advanced programming concepts
• Covers Biztalk and Schemas

Translation rights for XML Programming with VB and ASP have been granted for Brazil, China, Germany, India, Japan, and Korea. If you are interested in learning where to buy this book in a language other than English, please inquire at your local bookseller.

Table of Contents

list of figures xv
list of tables xvii
introduction xix
acknowledgments xxiii
about the cover illustration xxv
 

Chapter 1: Why XML?

1.1 Overview 2

1.2 XML enables data sharing 3

Building your own markup language 5

What else can we do with XML? 6

Who is the W3C? (Worldwide Web Consortium) 7

Chapter 2: XML boot camp 9

2.1 Overview 10

2.2 XML and its derivatives is a huge topic 10

Learning more about the XML syntax 11

The X(ML) files 11

Step 1: Discovering the structure 12

Step 2: Building an XML file 17

Step 3: Using style in your design 25

RDF (Resource Description Framework) 26

Chapter 3: Why would a business use XML? 29

3.1 Overview 30

3.2 The business problem 30

3.3 User scenarios 30

Scenario 1Bandwidths and customization 30

Scenario 2Immediately usable data that is reliable 31

Scenario 3New layouts 31

Scenario 4New requirements 32

3.4 Solving the problem with XML and XSL 33
 

Chapter 4: Programming with XML 35

4.1 Overview 36

4.2 The W3C Document Object Model 36

Understanding Nodes and child Nodes 39

4.3 Navigating the Microsoft XML DOM 39

4.4 Data Islandsgetting started with XML 40

How do Data Islands work? 42

How do you take your HTML: DIV(ed) or SPAN(ed)? 45

Binding other HTML elements to a Data Island recordset 46,

Output of source code 48, Full source code 48,

Accessing a standalone Data Island 48

Full source code 49

Saving your Data Island changes 49

Limiting the number and moving through the records 49

Output of source code 51, Full source code 51,

Adding new records to a Data Island 52

Output of source code 53, Full source code 54,

Getting an ADO recordset from XML Data Islands 54

4.5 Getting the Microsoft XML objects onto your PC 55

4.6 Creating the objects 55

4.7 Loading a file synchronously 55

4.8 Loading a file asynchronously 56

Using WithEvents in VB 56

4.9 A roundtrip on using the DOM object with a TreeView 57

Preparing to run the example 58

Module variables 59

Populating the TreeView from the DOMDocument 59

4.10 Saving an XML document to a file in ASP 70

4.11 Handling errors and debugging 71

4.12 Accessing the XML with ASP 71

4.13 Sending data back to the user 71

Creating XML on the server from your relational database 72

Returning an ADO 2.1 recordset as XML 75

4.14 Communicating with the server from VB using XMLHTTPRequest 78

Receiving an XML DOMDocument object in VB 78

Chapter 5: XSLadding style to XML 81

5.1 Overview 82

5.2 What can XSL do? 82

What can the Microsoft XSL implementation do? 83

Where can I see a demo of XSL? 83

5.3 Debugging your XML and XSL with IE5 84

Connecting up your XML and XSL files 85

XML + XSL = HTML in a browser 86

5.4 Building the HTML output 87

xsl:for-each 90, xsl:value-of 90,

Processing all the children 90, Full source code 91,

Using XSL as a Data Island 92

Switching styles with TransformNode 94

5.5 Patterns 99

Sorting 99, Context 99,

Pattern operators 100

Filtering and logical operators 101

Using patterns 102

5.6 How to make a hyperlink 105

5.7 Summary 106
 

Chapter 6: Building XML solutions 107

6.1 Overview 108

6.2 What do we want to achieve in these examples? 109

Data brokering 109

Communications between objects 110

Beyond the network, into the Internet 110

Simplifying frameworks 111

Disconnected programs and data 111

6.3 A quick overview of the examples 112

6.4 Implements 115

6.5 Techniques for reusing business objects 117

6.6 Creating the projects 118

6.7 SimpleUIjust the basics 118

frmAdos and the objects 120

frmBO and the objects 120

How the ADO-only approach works 121

How the business object approach works 125

How the ASP approach works 139

6.8 XMLDemoa more complete example 146

The code for getRecs 149

The DOMtoBO class codepopulating the client-side business object 158

The People and Person class 162

6.9 Summary 164
 

Chapter 7: The Microsoft DOM objects in detail 167

7.1 Overview 168

7.2 DOM objects 168

DOMDocument 170

XMLDOMElement 170

XMLDOMNode 171

XMLDOMNodeList 172

XMLDOMNamedNodeMap 172

XMLDOMCDATASection 173

XMLDOMAttribute 173

XMLDOMDocumentType 173

XMLDOMEntity 174

XMLDOMProcessingInstruction 175

XMLDOMParseError 175

XMLHTTPRequest 176

7.3 DOM object properties 176

async 180, attributes 181,

childNodes 183, docType 188,

documentElement 190

firstChild, lastChild, nextSibling, and previousSibling 191

length 192, namespaceURI 193,

nodeName 194, nodeType 197,

nodeTypedValue 208, nodeTypeString 209,

nodeValue 210, ondataavailable 212,

ownerDocument 213, parentNode 214,

parsed 214, parseError 215,

prefix 216, preserveWhiteSpace 217,

resolveExternals 218, tagName 219,

text 219, url 220,

validateOnParse 221, value 221,

7.4 DOM object methods 222

abort() 224, appendChild() 225,

cloneNode() 228

createAttribute(), createCDATASection(), createComment(), createElement(), createEntityReference(), createProcessingInstruction(), createTextNode() 228

createNode() 233, getAttribute() 235,

getAttributeNode() 236

getElementsByTagName() 236

getNamedItem() 238, hasChildNodes() 240,

insertBefore() 241, load() 241,

loadXML() 242, nextNode() 242,

nodeFromID() 244, removeAttribute() 245,

removeAttributeNode() 246

removeChild() 247

removeNamedItem() 248

replaceChild() 249, reset() 250,

save() 250, selectNodes() 252,

selectSingleNode() 253, send() 254

setAttribute() 254, setAttributeNode() 255,

setNamedItem() 256, transformNode() 257,

transformNodeToObject() 259

Chapter 8: Schemas, BizTalk, and eCommerce 261

8.1 An introduction to eCommerce 262

8.2 Why do our systems need a Schema? 263

Development of flexible web applications 263

So, how does it work then? 263

8.3 Using the data types that are available 266

Full list of Microsoft data types supported 267

Primitive Types 268

Supported data type conversions 269

8.4 BizTalk, where its all happening! 270

A BizTalk XML example 270

Get your schemas here! 272

Cool tools and websites 272

How different are all the Schemas? 273

8.5 Summary 277
 

Chapter 9: Where to go from here 279

9.1 The End 280

9.2 Check out the online glossary 280

9.3 Investigate future technologies 280

9.4 Join the http://www.vbxml.com VB, ASP, and XML discussions 280

9.5 Author Online at http://www.manning.com 280

9.6 Newsgroups 281

9.7 W3C discussion groups 281

9.8 Links, links, and more links 281
 
index 285