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| Part One: XML in Visual Basic .NET |
Part One explains how to use XML in Visual Basic .NET programs. It covers fundamental topics such as reading and writing XML files using Visual Basic code. These techniques are used throughout the rest of the book.
- 1. XML Overview
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This chapter provides a fast introduction to XML and some of the related technologies such as DTD and XSD schemas.
It gives a broad overview to help you understand where XML fits into the Visual Basic programming world.
- 2. DOM
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This chapter describes the Document Object Model. The DOM forms a hierarchical data structure that lets you load,
manipulate, and save XML documents taking full advantage of their internal structure.
- 3. Forward-Only XML
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This chater explains other common models for working with XML files. Visual Basic's XmlTextReader and XmlTextWriter
classes provide fast forward-only access to XML data. The Simple API for XML (SAX) provides a different, event-oriented
approach to quickly reading XML data.
- 4. Serialization
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This chapter tells how a Visual Basic can save and restore data in simple text-based format using XML.
This process, called serialization, allows a program to save extremely complex data structures almost effortlessly.
- 5. Schemas
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This chapter explains different technologies for validating XML data. DTD, XDR, and XSD schemas allow an
application to easily verify that XML data is correct and complete so it doesn't need to spend a lot of effort validating
the data itself using Visual Basic code. Visual Basic provides the most tools for working with XSD schemas so this chapter focuses on those.
Part Two examines methods for displaying XML data on the Web using Visual Basic. Recent versions of Visual Basic have provided an increasingly sophisticated set of tools for working with the Web. These chapters show how you can take advantage of these tools to display XML data.
- 6. XSL
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This chapter explains how you can use XSL (eXtensible Stylesheet Language) to automatically reformat
XML data for display on the Web. It shows how a Visual Basic program can use XSL to convert XML data
into a different format such as HTML, VoiceXML, or plain text.
- 7. ASP.NET
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This chapter shows how you can use Visual Basic .NET code in an ASP.NET Web page to display XML data.
It tells how to use client- and server-side controls to display the data automatically, and how to
manipulate XML data within ASP.NET code for the greatest flexibility.
- 8. Web Services
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This chapter covers one of Microsoft's latest Web technologies. Using Visual Basic, you can build
Web Services that a remote application can invoke to perform some task.
| Part Three: XML In Other Applications |
Part Three describes methods for using XML to interact with some specific applications other than Visual Basic.
One of XML's key benefits is its ability to help facilitate data transfer from one application to another.
These chapters give specific examples showing how you can move data to and from other applications.
- 9. Microsoft Office 2000
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This chapter explains how you can use Visual Basic .NET to move XML data in and out of Microsoft Office 2000
applications such as Word, Excel, Access, and Outlook. These techniques are extremely useful for combining
Visual Basic and Office applications to provide integrated data processing, reports, and summaries.
- 10. Internet Explorer
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This chapter discusses the XML support provided by the most recent versions of Internet Explorer.
Internet Explorer itself provides extensive support for XML data and if you point an Internet Explorer
browser at an XML file, it will display the data in an interactive hierarchical way.
- 11. SQL Server 2000
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This chapter explains the features the database SQL Server 2000 provides for working with XML files.
It tells how to integrate SQL Server with Internet Information Services (IIS) to dynamically display data on the Web.
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