Xmlu.com Toybox

Play with XML!

This section is designed as a showcase for XML tools and techniques. Due to the experimental nature of the applications in this section, please excuse the occasional error message or problem in making the things work. These are provided so you can download the things and hopefully increase your knowledge of the workings of XML.

If you have problems and want to report them, please contact us so we can move these things from experimental to reality. Also, if you have some ideas for this section, please let us know.

XML and XSL Demonstrations

This demonstration highlights several technologies that the engineers at Xmlu.com and Architag International have been demonstrating at various shows around the country. These demonstrations show XML used on the browser and the server, XSL on the client and the middle-tier, and XML manipulated in the browser that updates the database on the server.

Check them out online.

XSL Tutorial, Part 1: Background (From <TAG>): This is the first of a multiple-part series on XSLT, a very important W3C standard that provides a way of transforming XML documents from one structure to another. XSLT can be used to create HTML, so your XML documents can be viewed in a Web browser, or XSLT can be used to transform your XML documents to any other XML structure, or even non-XML structures. In this first part, you will learn about the background of XSL and why it was broken up into two standards, XSL and XSLT. In following months, I will go over the syntax of XSLT and how to use it in your applications.

XSL Tutorial, Part 2: XSLT Operation This is part 2 of a multiple-part series on XSLT, a very important W3C standard that provides a way of transforming XML documents from one structure to another. XSLT can be used to create HTML, so your XML documents can be viewed in a Web browser, or XSL can be used to transform your XML documents to any other XML structure, or even non-XML structures. In this part, you will learn about the programming model for the XSLT programming language, and understand the event-driven, rules-based architecture of the language.

XSL Tutorial, Part 3: Getting to HTML This is part 3 of a multiple-part series on XSLT, a very important W3C standard that provides a way of transforming XML documents from one structure to another. XSLT can be used to create HTML, so your XML documents can be viewed in a Web browser, or XSL can be used to transform your XML documents to any other XML structure, or even non-XML structures. In this part, you will learn how to write template rules for converting an XML document into a pleasing HTML document. Then, you will see how to transform the document on the server, to provide cross-browser support of your information set.

Real-time XML Editor

The best way to learn about XML is to start creating documents. There is nothing better than real-time feedback that alerts you as soon as you enter something wrong. This demonstration gives you a way to start learning about XML by making mistakes and getting instant feedback to improve your knowledge.

XML's simplicity makes it possible to write parsers in a very small space. An XML parser can fit nicely as a COM object called from a Web page.

Architag has a real-time XML editor, called XRay, that helps you "look inside" your XML documents the way the parser sees them. You can download a copy of XRay here.