Sams Teach Yourself XML in 21 Days

By Steven Holzner

• Table of Contents
  • About the Author
  • Acknowledgments
  • We Want to Hear from You!
  • Introduction
  • Part I: At a Glance
  • Day 1. Welcome to XML
  • Day 2. Creating XML Documents
  • Day 3. Creating Well-Formed XML Documents
  • Day 4. Creating Valid XML Documents: DTDs
  • Declaring Attributes in DTDs
  • Day 6. Creating Valid XML Documents: XML Schemas
  • Day 7. Creating Types in XML Schemas
  • Part I. In Review
  • Day 8. Formatting XML by Using Cascading Style Sheets
  • Day 9. Formatting XML by Using XSLT
  • Day 10. Working with XSL Formatting Objects
  • Part II. In Review
  • Part III: At a Glance
  • Day 11. Extending HTML with XHTML
  • Day 12. Putting XHTML to Work
  • Day 13. Creating Graphics and Multimedia: SVG and SMIL
  • Day 14. Handling XLinks, XPointers, and XForms
    • Introducing XLinks
    • Beyond Simple XLinks
    • Introducing XPointers
    • Introducing XBase
    • Introducing XForms
    • Summary
    • Workshop
  • Part III. In Review
  • Part IV: At a Glance
  • Day 15. Using JavaScript and XML
  • Day 16. Using Java and .NET: DOM
  • Day 17. Using Java and .NET: SAX
  • Day 18. Working with SOAP and RDF
  • Part IV. In Review
  • Part V: At a Glance
  • Day 19. Handling XML Data Binding
  • Day 20. Working with XML and Databases
  • Day 21. Handling XML in .NET
  • Part V. In Review
  • Appendix A. Quiz Answers

Day 14. Handling XLinks, XPointers, and XForms

Today you're going to take a look at three more XML applications: XLinks, XPointers, and XForms. In HTML, you can use hyperlinks to link documents, but in XML, you have more options, which is what the XLink and XPointer specifications are all about. XForms are designed to replace the standard forms you see in Web pages, which display buttons, text fields, and so on; XForms is designed to bring that kind of functionality into the XML world.

Here's an overview of today's topics:

• XLinks
• XBase
• XLink attributes
• Using xlink:href
• Extended links and arcs
• XPointers
• XPointer node tests
• XPointer predicates
• XForms
• Separation of data and presentations in XForms
• XForms types
• XForms controls

Today's discussion focuses on concepts taken over from HTML into XML (and often XHTML) by the W3C. You use XLinks to create hyperlinks in XML and XPointers to get even more specific than that: XPointers can build on XPath expressions, allowing you to point at a specific node or node set. XForms brings the idea of Web controls—such as buttons, text fields, and list boxes—to XML. Although XLink, XPointer, and XForms are all accepted W3c specifications, the actual implementation of each is spotty. More software is coming, but it's not here yet. Today, you'll see what you can do with the available software, with some good examples, such as the XSmiles XML browser, which supports XForms.

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