Review By: Dmitri Ilkaev
09/01/2008This book is the XML Guild's first collaborative effort. The XML Guild is a consortium of some of the best independent XML consultants in the world. All members have extensive experience in XML and markup technologies and are actively involved in the establishment of standards and best practices. Numerous members have authored books, articles, and papers.

This book provides a set of learning resources most helpful to those who are already proficient in XML and need expert-level advice. It is not intended to be another exhaustive XML bible but a collection of advanced tips and techniques that the authors have used in the real world. Each chapter—XML namespaces, XML schema, XSLT, Web Services, XML APIs, XML and Databases, XQuery, XML Authoring, and XSL-FO (plus one appendix covering XML tools and implementations)—is written by the guild member considered to be an expert on a particular topic. Every section comes with the comprehensive set of code samples, diagrams, and references to Web sites where a reader can find additional information on the subject. Increased difficulty of the examples, analysis of pros and cons of the proposed solutions, as well as overview of the applicability of the number of described approaches are among many advantages of the book. Code samples include not only Java but .NET and C#.

The book brings the power of XML to light to help a reader think about XML in a new ways and with advanced applications of old and new technologies.