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C H A P T E R

XML Processing

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 service applications often pass information using XML documents. Appli 

cation developers whose applications accept XML documents must understand how

best to extract information from these XML documents and use that information in

their business processing. They must also understand how to assemble XML docu 

ments from the results of this business processing.

This chapter provides an extensive coverage of XML document handling. To

make it more manageable, you may want to concentrate on the sections of particu 

lar interest to you. These sections are as follows:

   XML Overview  on page 122 Provides an overview of basic XML con 

cepts. If you are not familiar with XML, this section provides a concise sum 

mary of key XML concepts and technologies. Even if you do know XML well, 

you may want to skim this part since it highlights issues important for design 

ing XML based applications. 

   Outline for Handling XML Documents  on page 128 Describes how appli 

cations typically handle XML documents.

   Designing XML Based Applications  on page 131 Covers such design top 

ics as receiving and sending XML documents, validating XML documents, 

mapping XML documents to data objects, applying business logic on docu 

ments or objects, and keeping business processing logic separate from XML 

processing logic. This discussion also includes recommendations that help de 

termine how to best design an XML based application. Architects and applica 

tion designers should find this section of particular interest.

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