Book Author: Bipin Joshi
Apress URL: http://www.apress.com/book/view/9781430209973
ISBN10: 1-4302-0997-6
ISBN13: 978-1-4302-0997-3

Well Mr. Bipin Joshi says “If you aim to master the array of XML provided by the .NET Framework, this book is for you”. No doubt. I just finished reading it. The sub title - From Novice to Professional – suits the content of this book very well. You need to know only basics of XML to start with this book and start doing programming with C# 2008.

You know XML is now a platform independent format. So no wonder the features in development tools used by it are improving day by day.  So as .NET Framework.  At the time of writing this review, .NET Framework 3.5 is just started booming and I already sank in it. So I already know some XML features and I believe it is far enough for reviewing this book.

You will go through read-write operations with XML DOM (Document Object Model) and XMLReader & XMLWriter, using LINQ to deal XML, new ADO.NET XML features, WCF (Windows Communication Foundation – which is new with .NET 3.x) etc.

As usual Apress (publisher) came with its usual book design. It is nice that they are providing pdf (ebook) version of this book also via their website for a small price. This is one of the book from Apress ‘Books for Professionals by Professionals®’

Contents of this book are very impressing.  You do not know XML? No problems, you can learn it from this book. Yes, true. You can go through its first chapter:

·         Introducing XML and the .NET Framework

This chapter gives basic information about - what the heck is this XML, DTD, Parsing, XSLT, XPath, relation with .NET and XML etc.

Second and third chapters:

·         Manipulating XML Documents by Using the Document Object Model  and

·         Reading and Writing XML Documents

gives you idea about the usage of DOM components and XML reading and writing features in .NET. Belive me, it is very easy.

Chapter 4:

·         Accessing XML Documents by Using the XPath Data Model

is all about XPath and its usage. XPath provides a way to query and select a part of an XML document. In .NET its namespace is System.Xml.XPath.

Chapter 5 is one important theme:

·         Validating XML Documents

From this chapter you will learn to create structure for XML document, creating schemas using SOM (Schema Object Model) and the theme – Validating XML Documents against DTDs (Document Type Definition) and XSD (XML Schema Definition) Schemas.

Sixth chapter is all about XML Style Sheet transformations.

·         Transforming XML with XSLT

XSL – eXtensible Stylesheet Language is used for specifying styles for XML – just like CSS for HTML.

From chapter 7 onwards you will be treated more practical.

·         XML in ADO.NET

One of the interesting and important theme.

Chapter 8, 9, 10 and 11 are little bit traditional stuff. Most features many developers know already.

·         XML Serialization

·         XML Web Services

·         XML in SQL Server and

·         Use of XML in the .NET Framework.

I must say it is very useful for beginners. From these chapters you will even get introduced to ‘how to take XML out of SELECT statements’. But also there are more which you may not know.

Chapter 12 and 13 are pretty new.

·         Creating Services by Using Windows Communication Foundation and

·         Working with LINQ to XML

WCF is a component of .NET 3.5. This book explains how to create and host a Service and role of XML in WCF. Working with LINQ (Language Integrated Query) and XML will be really a nice experience. You will be introduced to LINQ if you are new to it.

Last thing I would like to invite your attention is Case Study of a Web Service Driven Shopping cart. We can see how the features explained in this book are used in practice. Most books do not have Case Study sections so I must say this is one of the specialities of this book

Overall, I would like to give a good rating. If you buy this book, you will not get disappointed.

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About the Author

Praveen.V.Nair aka NinethSense, a technology enthusiast and Microsoft MVP Awardee. You can find more about him on his website http://www.ninethsense.com and his blog http://blog.ninethsense.com.