Comprehensive XML Tutorial: From Basics to Advanced Applications
Master XML (Extensible Markup Language) with this structured tutorial, suitable for both beginners and experienced developers. This comprehensive guide covers XML fundamentals, DTD/XSD validation, XSLT transformations, XPath, and XQuery, providing a complete learning path with categorized resources and detailed explanations.
Comprehensive XML Tutorial Outline
This tutorial covers XML (Extensible Markup Language), a markup language for data, and related technologies. It's designed for both beginners and experienced developers. The links below are categorized for easier navigation.
Core XML Concepts
- What is XML?
- How XML Differs from HTML
- XML Versioning
- Benefits of Using XML
- XML Example
- Simple vs. Complex XML Elements
- Elements and Attributes in XML
- Well-Formed XML Documents
- Valid XML Documents
- Rules for Writing Well-Formed XML
- XML Comments
- XML Tree Structure
- XML Encoding Errors
- XML Data Binding
XML Validation and Schemas
- XML Validation
- Document Type Definition (DTD)
- Creating XML with DTD
- Using CSS with XML
- XML Schema Definition (XSD)
- XML Schema Validation
- XML Schema Data Types
- DTD vs. XSD
- CDATA vs. PCDATA
XML-Related Technologies
XPath Tutorial
- What is XPath?
- XPath Expressions
- XPath Nodes
- XPath Syntax
- XPath Absolute Path
- XPath Relative Path
- XPath Axes
- XPath Operators (Comparison, Boolean, Numeric, String, Node)
- XPath Wildcards
- XPath Predicates
XQuery Tutorial
- What is XQuery?
- XQuery Features
- XQuery vs XPath
- XQuery vs XSLT
- XQuery Environment Setup
- XQuery First Example
- XQuery FLWOR
- XQuery HTML Format
- XPath in XQuery
- XQuery Syntax
- XQuery Add
- XQuery Functions
- XQuery Sequences
- XQuery Sequence Functions
- XQuery String Functions
- XQuery Time & Date Functions
- XQuery If-Then-Else Statements
- XQuery Regular Expressions
XSLT Tutorial
- What is XSLT?
- XSLT Syntax
- xsl:value-of
- xsl:for-each
- xsl:sort
- xsl:if
- xsl:choose
- xsl:key
- xsl:message
- xsl:apply-templates
- xsl:import
XML Interview Questions
- XML Interview Questions
- XQuery Interview Questions
- XSLT Interview Questions
- XPath Interview Questions
This tutorial provides a structured path for learning XML and related technologies. Each link goes to a more detailed section.
| 23) Types of XML APIs? | Tree-based APIs (like DOM) load the entire XML document into memory, allowing random access. Event-based APIs (like SAX) process the XML sequentially, using callbacks for each event (start element, end element, etc.). |
| 24) What is the `XmlReader` class? | Provides fast, non-cached, forward-only access to XML data. It's efficient for reading large XML files when you don't need random access. |
| 25) CDATA vs. PCDATA? | CDATA (Character Data) is treated as plain text; PCDATA (Parsed Character Data) is parsed as XML markup. |
| 26) What is XQuery? | A query language for selecting and manipulating data from XML documents. |
| 27) What is an XML namespace? | A mechanism for qualifying names, preventing naming conflicts between different XML documents or parts of documents that might have elements or attributes with the same names. |
| 28) What is SGML? | SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) is a meta-markup language that defines the syntax for creating markup languages (like HTML and XML). |
| 29) Can graphics be used in XML? | Yes, using technologies like XLink and XPointer to reference external graphics. |
| 30) Is XML case-sensitive? | Yes. |
| 31) Basic structure of an XML document? | Must have a root element; all elements must be properly nested and closed; attribute values must be quoted. |