XML and Soap Programming for BizTalk Servers [With 1]

by Brian E. Travis

Description: With XML Programming For BizTalk Servers, enterprise developers get the work-ready information and tools they need to help their organizations meet the challenge of doing business in... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0735611262
• ISBN13: 9780735611269
• Release Date: September 2000
• Publisher: Microsoft Press
• Length: 428 Pages
• Weight: 2.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 7.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A must read for IT professionals to keep up w/ technologies

Bill Gates called XML "breakthrough technology". SOAP is the best protocal to translate this technology into applications. Brian Travis is the most-regarded XML instructor and solutions developer. In this book, he provided comprehensive and thorough introductions to XML and the SOAP technologies, with a lot of practical, real-world applications. And he did this in a very smooth and interesting way, making it easy to understand and follow through. If you previously have some working experience with the Web, after finishing the book you are ready to build your e-commerce site using XML, BizTalk and SOAP immediately. I found the CD-ROM that comes with the book extremely helpful. It has everything you need to get started. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who is involved in developing any sort of business solutions over the Internet. Even though you are not the hand-on person, this book will help you better understand the technology and make the right decisions.

A must get introduction to SOAP and BizTalk

Considering the groundswell behind XML, SOAP and others at Microsoft and around the industry the books available are pretty sparse. The book is very good although they should have chosen a more widely used language than Omnimark as an example. Book is a readable and well organized introduction and the companion CD (including e-book version of the book) is very good. I would like to see a deeper follow up from the authors.

Above the Rest

I've been following the efforts of the W3C and the developers at Microsoft for over a year now. I have read a lot of books on the subject of XML. If you need to get up to speed in a short period of time with XML, SOAP, and Biztalk, this is the one you want. The author is clear and concise and often funny. It's a must have reference.

Why does the title contain "BizTalk"?

This is the best introduction to XML syntax and the application of XML I have ever read. The author describes XML in real world terms from a practical standpoint. The title, which includes "BizTalk", isn't even really necessary.Even if you don't care about BizTalk, the first half of this book is a great value for understanding XML in an e-commerce environment. Highly recommended.

Great Introduction to XML

This book is billed as an introduction to XML, SOAP, and BizTalk, but I found that just the XML introduction could stand alone as an excellent book.I have read several books on XML, and they are either a re-statement of the XML spec that is freely available on the Web, or else a description of how to use XML in a very narrow task, like building Web pages or as a replacement to HTML.The first part of this book covers the XML spec, including the well-formed document and the importance of schemas. It also provides an excellent introduction to the XSLT language for XML transformations, using a novel approach to teaching.The second half of the book is devoted to the BizTalk open document specification. The author notes that a BizTalk server can be written in any language to run on any platform, not just Microsoft. The book has complete code for two BizTalk servers, one is written using Visual Basic and Active Server Pages, the other in OmniMark, a language for building Web sites. I would have preferred to have the second BizTalk server be written in Java or perl, but it was refreshing to be exposed to a new language. There is even an appendix on OmniMark, which provides a quick overview of this language that seems to be underestimated.In all, this book is well worth the money, if only for the introduction to XML and XSLT. The SOAP and BizTalk parts are just icing on the cake.