XML & Perl

Description

If you are a Perl programmer looking to explore Perl's XML capabilities or an XML developer with a basic understanding of Perl, this book will provide you with all the tools required for XML processing with Perl. XML and Perl teaches you to create portable, powerful, and extensible applications when you use XML and Perl together. You'll also learn to customize your XML processing facilities to accomplish unique tasks.

Authors Mark Riehl and Ilya Sterin, who have written Perl XML modules and administer the official Perl XML web site (www.perlxml.net), have filled this book with practical code samples and exercises that will help you test drive your new knowledge. With this book, you'll quickly see the advantages of using XML and Perl together, and you'll be able to perform even complicated tasks more easily with powerful Perl XML modules.

CONTENTS:

I The Foundation
1 Basics of XML Processing in Perl 3
Chapter Roadmap 3
XML - What Is It and Why Should I Use It? 4
What Can I Do with XML? 7
What Is Perl? 10
And That's Not All 14
Summary 14
2 Now Let's Start Digging 15
Chapter Roadmap 15
What Is XML Processing? 16
XML Parser Paradigms 20
Parsing an XML Document and
Extracting Statistics 22
Generating XML Documents 24
Searching XML Documents 27
Transforming XML Documents 28
Our First Perl XML Programs 32
The Problem: Generating and Parsing an
XML Document 32
Summary 43
Exercise 44
II Parsing XML Documents Using Perl
3 Event-Driven Parser Modules 47
Chapter Roadmap 47
What Are the Major Approaches to
XML Parsing? 49ഊAdvantages of Event-Driven Parsers 50
Disadvantages of Event-Driven Parsers 50
What Is a Sequential Access Event-Driven
XML Parser? 51
XML::Parser Perl Module 52
SAX1 - Simple API for XML Version 1 65
SAX2 77
Summary 111
Exercises 112
Relevant Links 112
4 Tree-Based Parser Modules 113
Chapter Roadmap 113
What Is a Tree-Based XML Parser? 114
Tree-Based XML Parser Modules 115
What Is the Document Object Model? 131
DOM-Based XML Parser Modules 131
Summary 147
Exercises 147
Relevant Links 147
III Generating XML Documents Using
Perl Modules
5 Generating XML Documents from Text
Files 151
Chapter Roadmap 151
Introduction to XML Generation 152
Different Methods of Generating
XML Data 153
Examples of XML Document Generation 155
Summary 171
Exercise 171
vi Contentsഊ6 Generating XML Documents from
Databases 173
Chapter Roadmap 173
Why Store Data in XML? 175
Introduction to the Perl Database Interface 175
XML::Generator::DBI Perl Module 180
XML::DBMS Perl Module 185
Summary 197
Exercises 197
Relevant Links 198
7 Transforming Miscellaneous Data
Formats to XML (and Vice-Versa) 199
Chapter Roadmap 199
Why Convert Another Data Format
to XML? 200
XML::SAXDriver::CSV Perl Module 201
XML::SAXDriver::Excel Perl Module 209
Developing a Custom Event Handler 213
Summary 218
Exercises 218
IV Advanced XML and Perl
8 XML Transformation and Filtering 221
Chapter Roadmap 221
XSLT Introduction 222
XML::XPath Perl Module 237
XML::LibXSLT Perl Module 244
XML::Sablotron Perl Module 253
Summary 263
Exercises 263
Relevant Links 263
vii Contentsഊ9 AxKit 265
Chapter Roadmap 265
Serving Web Content with AxKit 266
Installing the Required Software 268
Making the Content for Delivery 273
Additional AxKit Tools 280
Summary 285
Exercise 285
Relevant Links 285
10 Perl and XML Web Services 287
Chapter Roadmap 287
What Are Web Services? 288
Summary 309
Exercises 309
Relevant Links 309
V Appendices
A What Is XML? 313
Introduction to the eXtensible
Markup Language 313
History of XML 313
What Exactly Is XML? 314
Components of an XML Document 317
Defining the Structure and Content of an
XML Document 324
Additional Sources of XML Information 341
B Perl Essentials 343
Perl Module Installation 343
viii ContentsഊAcronym List 347
References 351
Glossary 353
Index 363
Colophon 382
ix Contents