Top ten XML articles, top five tutorials - December 2010

1. Working with XML on Android: Build Java applications for mobile devices

   Android is a modern, open source operating system and SDK for mobile devices. With it you can create powerful mobile applications. This becomes even more attractive when your applications can access Web services, which means you need to speak the language of the Web: XML. In this article, you will see different options for working with XML on Android and how to use them to build your own Android applications.

2. Content feeds with RSS 2.0:Syndication goes mainstream

   A lot has happened in the RSS world since developerWorks last looked at RSS: Two new specifications have come out, RSS has become one of the most popular XML standards, and tools and feeds are popping up everywhere. RSS has contributed to the explosion of weblogs, and it is becoming a standard part of other Web sites, too. This article reviews RSS 2.0, looks at new RSS developments, and jump-starts your understanding of this important format.

3. The Java XPath API: Querying XML from Java programs

   XPath expressions are much easier to write than detailed Document Object Model (DOM) navigation code. When you need to extract information from an XML document, the quickest and simplest way is to embed an XPath expression inside your Java™ program. Java 5 introduces the javax.xml.xpath package, an XML object-model independent library for querying documents with XPath.

4. Introduction to Facebook APIs: Write Facebook apps for the Android platform with the Facebook SDK for Android

   You can incorporate Facebook functionality into your own applications. From the mobile perspective, the Facebook Platform supports APIs for mobile web applications, and mobile SDKs for native mobile applications for the iPhone, iPad, and Android platforms. In this article, explore the Facebook Platform APIs and the Facebook SDK for Android, the SDK released by the Facebook mobile team.

5. Simplify Ajax development with jQuery: Discover how easy Ajax and DOM scripting can be

   jQuery is a JavaScript library that helps simplify your JavaScript and Asynchronous JavaScript + XML (Ajax) programming. Unlike similar JavaScript libraries, jQuery has a unique philosophy that allows you to express common complex code succinctly. Learn about the jQuery philosophy, discover its features and functions, perform some common Ajax tasks, and find out how to extend jQuery with plug-ins.

6. XML for PHP developers, Part 1: The 15-minute PHP-with-XML starter: Learn how PHP5 has vastly improved how you work with XML in PHP

   This first article of a three-part series introduces PHP5's XML implementation and helps those relatively new to using XML with PHP to read, parse, and manipulate, and write a short and uncomplicated XML file using the DOM and SimpleXML in a PHP environment.

7. Use the YouTube API with PHP: Process and integrate data from YouTube into your PHP application with PHP's SimpleXML extension

   The YouTube video sharing site allows Web application developers to access public content through its REST-based developer API. The SimpleXML extension in PHP is ideal for processing the XML feeds generated by this API and using them to build customized PHP applications. This article introduces the YouTube Data API, demonstrates how you can use it to browse user-generated video content; access video metadata, comments and responses; and perform keyword searches.

8. The Java XML Validation API: Check your documents for conformance to schemas

   Validation reports whether a document adheres to the rules specified by the schema. Different parsers and tools support different schema languages such as DTDs, the W3C XML Schema Language, RELAX NG, and Schematron. Java 5™ adds a uniform validation Application Programming Interface (API) that can compare documents to schemas written in these and other languages. Learn about this XML validation API

9. Tip: Convert Excel data to XML: Extract data from the popular spreadsheet program

   Believe it or not, not every document is originally written in XML. In this tip, Benoit Marchal explains how to unlock data from Excel files to process them in XML, and examines the pros and cons of different solutions.

10. A simple SOAP client: A general-purpose Java SOAP client

    This article describes a simple, general purpose SOAP client in Java that uses no specialized SOAP libraries. Instead of creating the SOAP request XML document for you under the hood, this client lets you create your own request with any XML editor (or text editor). Instead of merely giving you the remote method's return values, the client shows you the actual SOAP response XML document. The short Java program shows exactly what SOAP is all about: opening up an HTTP connection, sending the appropriate XML to invoke a remote method, and then reading the XML response returned by the server.

Expand your skills with these recent, popular tutorials:

1. Build a digital book with EPUB: The open XML-based eBook format

   Need to distribute documentation, create an eBook, or just archive your favorite blog posts? EPUB is an open specification for digital books based on familiar technologies like XML, CSS, and XHTML, and EPUB files can be read on portable e-ink devices, mobile phones, and desktop computers. This tutorial explains the EPUB format in detail, demonstrates EPUB validation using Java technology, and moves step-by-step through automating EPUB creation using DocBook and Python.

2. Build a mobile RSS reader: Handle XML with Android

   What good is a mobile computing environment if you can't keep track of your favorite news feeds on the go? Sure, you can use Android's browser to read your favorite Web sites, but it's unlikely the sites are optimized for a screen two inches high. And besides, then you'll miss the opportunity to integrate RSS or other XML data with other mobile applications to make your own mash-ups. This tutorial shows you how to use the Android Developer Tools to read, parse, and display XML data.

3. Build a web-based notification tool with XMPP: Write real-time web applications with XMPP, PHP, and JavaScript

   Real-time web applications are networked applications, with web-based user interfaces, that display Internet information as soon as it's published. Examples include social news aggregators and monitoring tools that continually update themselves with data from an external source. In this tutorial, you will create Pingstream, a small notification tool that uses PHP and JavaScript to communicate over the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP), a set of XML technologies designed to support presence and real-time-communications functionality.

4. Writing REST services: Create REST services with Java technology and the Atom Publishing Protocol

   This tutorial discusses the concepts of REST and the Atom Publishing Protocol (APP) and shows how they apply to services. It also shows how to use Java™ technology to implement REST/APP-based services.

5. Introduction to XML

   XML, the Extensible Markup Language, has gone from the latest buzzword to an entrenched eBusiness technology in record time. This newly revised tutorial discusses what XML is, why it was developed, and how it's shaping the future of electronic commerce. It also covers a variety of important XML programming interfaces and standards, and ends with two case studies showing how companies are using XML to solve business problems.