Introduction 

Does the internet programming have to be awkward and user unfriendly? Yes it does until the internet programming model is changed from HTTP/HTML to another one. I already hear very angry criticism saying that this model is being successfully used by thousands of programmers all over the world. Yes that is true. However have you ever asked yourself the questions like: It is strange that after more than 10 years of internet existence there is no a decent HTML editor. Development of HTML page is always a tweaking with HTML tags. Were these editors developed by incompetent beginners? No , they were designed by very skillful people, but the HTML language is not up to the task. And that is not all. The data exchange between the server and the client is ultimately primitive. There are no common objects. Even with ASP.NET the situation has not improved much. Unfortunately the model can not be changed instantly. We have to live with it for a few more years and this article is about how some internet data exchange problems can be solved.

[I] found out that UPS had an XML interface to get their tracking information directly. [I] wrote a .NET dll to make the request, and process the response into an object. It also turns out that all the other major shippers have similar ways to retrieve the tracking data.

To turn the actual data into an RSS feed, [I] used a handy class called RSSMaster. They did a great job of making it easy to create an RSS feed from a data source.

There were two major goals for the project. First, to create a DLL that could interface with the different tracking systems. Second, to use that data to create an RSS feed.

In today's world XML is the popular medium for exchanging data. To make use of that XML Data, it is very important for the sender and receiver to understand and manipulate data. Currently the most popular APIs available for manipulating the XML Documents are DOM and SAX. In this article, we define both the API's, understand their differences and analyze their appropriate use with some real time scenarios.

It introduces XSLT, going through the basics of using it to transform XML on the client-side, by way of easy-to-follow tutorial examples (we have included the first three examples here). Chapter 6 of the book takes client-side XSLT to a more advanced level, and Chapters 8-11 include coverage of server-side XSLT usage.

 

This sample is taken from Chapter 5 "Introduction to XSLT"of the glasshaus title "Practical XML for the Web".

It sets the scene for server-side XML, and shows what you can do with it, by way of a parallel example done in ASP, PHP, and JSP (we have only included the first of the example sections here). The three chapters that follow this one in the book are case studies, which go into using XML with the three server-side languages mentioned above in much more detail.

This sample is taken from Chapter 8 "Introduction to Server-Side XML" of the glasshaus title "Practical XML for the Web".