XML is a simple, flexible meta-language for creating markup languages describing particular documents or domains. Fifth generation browsers like Internet Explorer 5 and Mozilla can view XML pages directly, but that's not XML's only use. XML can also be used to define formats for printed documentation, files saved by programs, and data interchange between applications. XML is already being used in areas as diverse as mathematical notation, object serialization, vector graphics, meta-information, and more.

This tutorial will show you how to use a variety of free tools, to design XML-based markup languages, write XML documents, validate the documents against DTDs, format those documents with style sheets, and deliver them to end users.

The tutorial gets under way by exploring well-formed XML documents. We'll introduce elements and attributes, discuss when each is appropriate, and show how you can use them to divide data and documents into a tree of XML elements. You'll learn how style sheets that allow you to separate the organization of your data from its presentation, and even provide different views of the same data or document to different readers. We'll begin with the simpler CSS style sheets, then move on to the more complex and powerful XSL language.

Then we'll introduce DTDs to impose additional constraints on the form a document takes. You'll learn how to write DTDs that declare and organize the various elements and attributes used in your document, how to plan the structure of a document in advance, and how to use entities declared in the DTD to assemble a document from multiple smaller documents.

Outline:

• Well-formed XML
• DTDs
• XSLT

Prerequisites:
Students should have at least a user's understanding of the Internet, and be comfortable writing basic HTML.