Course Details

XML is today's most popular way to store and send information. In this course, you'll master the essentials of XML through easy-to-follow, real-world examples. Even if you've never tried computer programming, you'll discover how quickly you can learn to produce powerful "code."  And the biggest surprise is how much fun programming can be!

XML is today's most popular way to store and send information. In this course, you'll master the essentials of XML through easy-to-follow, real-world examples. Even if you've never tried computer programming, you'll discover how quickly you can learn to produce powerful "code."  And the biggest surprise is how much fun programming can be!

From the very first lesson, you'll dive in, creating your first XML document. You'll use one of the greatest bargains in computer programming—Microsoft's free yet powerful Visual Studio (VS) Express. Then you'll go on to learn the elements of programming: variables, loops, and branching. Using VS's full-featured design editor, you'll see how to build efficient, professional-looking user interfaces.

XML stores and transmits information for applications, but is also widely used with Internet browsers like Chrome and Internet Explorer. You'll learn methods for formatting XML so it looks great on Web pages using cascading style sheets and XSL. And you'll explore all the main XML techniques—XPath, XSL, schemas, namespaces, DOM, and SAX. You'll practice using XML to search, manipulate, validate, and merge XML files. We'll also work with SVG, XML's drawing language for displaying graphics like charts, drawings, and diagrams.

Finally, you'll deepen your understanding of XML and programming by transforming the cookbook program into two equally useful programs. First is an all-purpose quiz that will help anyone practice for any kind of test—geography, driver's test, whatever. And the second program is a coin-collection scrapbook with over a dozen fields of information (and optional photographs) for each coin. This program, too, can be easily modified to manage any kind of collection—stamps, rocks, baseball cards, anything.

When you've finished this course, you'll also understand how XML simplifies computer programming, and you'll have built a surprisingly sophisticated cookbook program that displays, modifies, searches, imports, and deletes recipes stored in XML format. It's your first step toward writing custom programs or furthering your career!