Mastering XML

SQL Server 2005 has new XML handling features that Microsoft is very proud of. Therefore, in order to pass the 70-431, mastering these features is pretty much essential. This presupposes that one is confident with XML!

Although I thought I had an idea of what XML and some its allied technologies was about, if I am honest, I can't really say I am confident and my experience is rather limited (a largely unsuccessful attempt at using XML DOM a few years ago). XML is now popping up all over the place and seems to be involved in many of the newer Microsoft technologies including SQL Server 2005. When I did the the modules that discussed XML features in the 2779 course, I could understand what was going on at a high level (from what I do know about XML) but I did wonder if I really understood what was going on.

I've decided as part of my preparation for the 70-431 I can no longer put off getting to grips with XML technologies - at least enough to use the XML features of SQL Server 2005 with some confidence. So this week I went hunting for a new book. I found XML in Easy Steps by Mike McGrath (ISBN 1-84078-124-6). I like this book as it pretty much does exactly as it suggests and builds up its explanation of XML, and allied technologies, a step at a time. Beyond basic XML, which admittedly is fairly straight forward to understand, it covers the following XML technologies: DTDs, XMLSchema, XML namespaces, XSL transformation, XPath language, CSS (for XML formating), XLink, XPointer and XML DOM. Although SQL Server 2005 uses XQuery to extract information from XML, XQuery is a new language built on XPath and I am hoping understanding XPath will ease my way into understanding XQuery. I have already spent some time with this book and the XML haze is already beginning to clear. I will let you know how I get on with the book and how it helps with understanding the XML features that I need to understand for the 70-431 exam.