Ajax RSS Reader

Learn how to build an Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax) Really Simple Syndication (RSS) reader, as well as a Web component that you can place on any Web site to look at the articles in the RSS feeds.

Herrington, Jack D. IBM (2006). Design>Web Design>XML>Ajax

Ajax Tradeoffs: The Many Flavors of XML

Ajax stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML and the idea is that with modern Web browsers you can, with acceptable reliability, keep a channel open to the server to pass data back and forth as your Web application is used. This contrasts with standard Web techniques that follow links, causing the entire page to load anew. Many aspects of Ajax-based development require design different decisions than traditional Web pages: How to manage the back button, how to display updated data, how often to send updates, and more. The focus for now will be on just one group of related aspects: what format should the data exchange take?

Elza, Dethe and David Mertz. IBM (2007). Design>Web Design>XML>Ajax

Assemble a Cross-Platform Firefox Extension

XUL is a surprisingly easy way to build cross-platform browser extensions or even stand-alone applications. Discover how to build powerful, flexible Mozilla browser extensions that go beyond the capabilities of other tools like embedded scripting languages or CGI--because they're built right into the user's browser.

Ogbuji, Uche. IBM (2007). Articles>Information Design>XML>Web Browsers

Building the Semantic Web

In the information age it is widely understood that there is now too much information. Some of this newly created information will most certainly be valuable, but despite marked improvement in search tools, finding the valuable information is a slow panhandle. Perhaps in light of this situation, the W3C under the direction of Berners-Lee has begun to build the foundation for the next phase of the web. This phase, called the Semantic Web, will make information stored with this technology much more processible by machines.

Emonds-Banfield, Peter. Orange Journal, The (2002). Articles>Web Design>XML>Metadata

Calling a Web Service Using VB6 with SOAP 3.0

This article shows you how to create a client that calls a web service from Visual Basic 6 using SOAP 3.0. If you are still using Microsoft VB 6.0 or C++ and don't plan to move into VB.NET, you will find this method very useful.

Krishnaswamy, Jayaram. ASP Free (2006). Articles>Web Design>XML>SOAP

Can XForm Transform the Web?

Today's Web forms are hopelessly tied to the original GUI of NCSA Mosaic for X Windows, circa 1994.

Khare, Rohit. University of California Irvine (2000). Design>Web Design>XML>Forms

A Child's Garden of XML

Sooner or later, most web designers will be called upon to create an internal site. And will quickly learn that one's own company can be tougher to deal with than any client. Dave Linabury offers tips on surviving the process (and building something good in spite of it).

St. Laurent, Simon. List Apart, A (2000). Design>Web Design>XML

Convert Atom Documents to JSON

Converting an Atom document to JSON might, at first, appear to be a fairly straightforward task. Atom is, after all, just a bit of XML and XML-to-JSON conversion tools are widely available. However, the Atom format is more than just a set of XML elements and attributes. A number of subtle details can make proper handling of Atom difficult. This article describes those issues and demonstrates a mechanism implemented by the Apache Abdera project to convert Atom documents into JSON and produces a result that is readable, usable, and complete.

Snell, James. IBM (2008). Articles>Web Design>XML>Ajax

Creating RSS Files for Your Web Site

Recently I have received more and more questions about the Rich Site Summary (RSS) format and its use for Web masters. The short answer is that RSS is a great way for any Web site to advertise their content in an always up-to-date fashion.

WebRef (2000). Design>Web Design>XML>RSS

Database-Driven Tree Structures with XML and XSLT

This article deals with the display of tree-structures that are driven by a database. There are actually a few approaches to transform a 2-dimensional structure into a tree, and it seems odd that most are unknown to many developers.

Opitz, Pascal. Content with Style (2005). Design>Web Design>XML>XSL

The Death of HTML?  

Knobel considers whether recent developments in Web technology, such as the increasing popularity of XML, have fated HTML to obsolescence.

Knobel, Cory P. Intercom (2002). Design>Web Design>XML

Deep XML

At the recent XML conference, Norm Walsh hosted a nocturne on Practical RDF, the highlight of which was his tour through thenorman.walsh.name setup. From the outside you may think this is a mere blog, but it’s actually a side-effect of a frighteningly gnarly confluence of metadata streams which are shaken and stirred to produce a sprawling network of resources a small part of which you might want to peruse for Norm’s news & views. I have a picture that made the audience at the session gasp in disbelief.

Bray, Tim. Deep XML (2003). Articles>Information Design>Web Design>XML

Defining an XML Document Model with a DTD

An XML document is considered 'well written' when its syntax is correct, and 'valid' when it respects a document model. While a document must be 'well written,' it does not necessarily have to be 'valid.' However, as XML is a meta language, there are an infinite number of XML formats, and most XML documents should respect a particular document model, which can be defined in one of two ways: By a Document Type Definition (DTD); By an XML Schema. In this article, we are going to look at how you should go about implementing the former, using a DTD.

Gallard, Samuel. Intranet Journal. Design>Web Design>XML>Metadata

Delivering Content with RSS for Web Developers

The delivery of web content is being revolutionized by a new technique known as syndication. The most common format for syndication is RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, an XML (eXtensible Markup Language) format for coordinating the delivery of time-based content streams, or 'feeds.' This means that RSS can be used to deliver content that changes over time. RSS provides for the inclusion of additional data, similar to email attachments, using the ENCLOSURE tag.

Apple Inc. (2006). Design>Web Design>XML>RSS

Doing It With XML

An introduction on using XML for web development, tools for editing XML, and how to use CSS or XSL to control the presentation and processing of XML.

Sall, Ken. WDVL (1999). Design>Web Design>XML

Don't CSS your XML

CSS should not be used to present homemade XML as web pages. You end up with nothing but style. Neither man nor machine can understand the structure of your document. CSS should only be used for widely supported XML applications like XHTML.

Tverskov, Jesper. Smack the Mouse (2004). Design>Web Design>CSS>XML

Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity Statement

The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a simple, very flexible text format derived from SGML (ISO 8879). Originally designed to meet the challenges of large-scale electronic publishing, XML is also playing an increasingly important role in the exchange of a wide variety of data on the Web.

W3C. Reference>Web Design>XML

Firefox 2.0 and XML

Firefox 2.0 brought several important changes in its XML support. It's currently reaching its peak in user deployment. Learn about updated XML features in Firefox 2.0, including a controversial change to the handling of RSS Web feeds.

Ogbuji, Uche. IBM (2007). Articles>Information Design>XML>Web Browsers

GUIs and XML Configuration Data

Discusses how XML is used in the configuration of GUI interfaces. He looks at Mozilla's XML-based User Interface Language (XUL) which allows you to write applications that run without any particular dependency on the choice of underlying operating system. This may seem strange at first, but you'll soon see that this Mozilla project offers powerful tools for GUI building that allow you to develop for an extensive base of installed users.

Mertz, David. IBM (2004). Design>Web Design>User Interface>XML

httplib2: HTTP Persistence and Authentication

In this latest Restful Web column, Joe Gregorio explains HTTP persistent connections, pipelining, and the sad state of HTTP authentication.

Gregorio, Joe. XML.com (2006). Articles>Web Design>XML>Security

Inline XML

I was sitting at my desk a few days ago, whiling away the time and I suddenly wondered why HTML includes a <code> tag, and a <var> tag, and yet it takes marking up code no further than that. It’d be understandable to have just the <code> tag, but if they’re going to have a <var> tag, shouldn’t they have more programming tags?

Cannon, Lachlan. List Apart, A (2002). Design>Web Design>XML

Introduction to RSS

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is an XML format for news headlines. With RSS-enabled feeds, other web sites can easily include your content in their sites. And other applications (besides web browsers) can be used to view your content.

Duffy, Scott. XGuru (2003). Articles>Web Design>XML>RSS

Introduction to XML for Technical Writers  

XML is still the hot technology for technical writing. New XML tools are being delivered at a fast pace Every day, there are new XML initiative being announced. But when you try to learn about this exciting new technology, when you review the many books that are appearing on shelves, or sites popping up on the Web, you'll find that the information that is available is mostly aimed at developers. This session focuses on the value that it brings to technical writers and their users, and will include code samples.

Manning, Steve. STC Proceedings (2002). Design>Web Design>XML>Technical Writing