This course is designed to provide a hands-on, technical introduction to the Extensible Mark-up Language (XML) as a data delivery protocol on the Web.
A three-tier web architecture isolates the valuable server assets from the user by establishing an intermediary layer called the “middle tier”. This layer translates calls from Web browsers into commands for server-side resources such as files, databases, and images. XML provides a way of isolating structure and content from format so the information owner can get maximum use out of the information. It makes sense, then, to marry the system architecture of a three-tier application with the data architecture of XML to get a new way to send information to Web users.
First, the instructor introduces the concept of ephemeral XML created on the server, delivered to the client, then manipulated on the client using client-side scripting. The XML document will be treated as a client-side hierarchical database and queried, displayed, filtered, and updated.
Plenty of examples will be used in this intensive class to provide the student with the maximum amount of information and experience in the shortest amount of time.
This course introduces you to three-tier, or n-tier architectures and shows you how to use XML as a data transfer protocol between the middle tier and the client. During these exercises, you will:
- access a relational database and other server-side resources using server-side scripting and create XML on-the-fly for delivery to the client.
- read the XML stream into a browser as a data source object
- display the XML by using DHTML data binding
- display the XML by using client-side scripting
- display the XML by using XSL stylesheets
By the time you finish this course, you will understand the role of the middle tier, and how XML can be used to optimize your three-tier system for security, performance, and versatility. You will be able to take your code home and get it working right away on your own system. |
