Publisher's Synopsis
XML is a disruptive technology: one that has already upset the balance of power throughout the technology industry, and offers organizations powerful opportunities for competitive advantage. In this book, Frank Coyle puts XML in context for both business and technical professionals, focusing on the big picture: the real value of XML, and the new Web services paradigm it has spawned. Coyle explains how XML makes it possible to deliver distributed computing solutions via loosely-coupled networks centered on the Web and XML -- and how this, in turn, transforms the way organizations manage data, build software, and assemble software systems. He introduces XML's simple rules for defining data vocabularies and its tools for structuring data, showing how XML's simplicity is the source of its power. He introduces the family of technologies surrounding XML, including namespaces, schema, and standards for presentation, transformation and meta-description. Next, Coyle shows XML at work in a wide array of applications, from financial services to wireless. He introduces SOAP, UDDI, and WDSL; shows how Web services enable an entirely new generation of software; and explores how the software is reacting to the radical changes brought about by XML-based technology. Coyle concludes by introducing three new XML-related initiatives designed to address the challenge of securing business-critical XML traffic.
