XML Book List

Here are some books currently in print and soon anticipated about XML. All books that are in print and which I've had an opportunity to review get one of three ratings:
Buy It
An essential book for any XML user.
Browse It
This book may be useful for some people. Skim through it in your local bookstore to see if you like it before laying out your cash.
Recycle It
Toss it in the recycling bin. ("Burn it" would have been more alliterative here, but I have a general aversion to advocating book burning, even in jest. I also considered "bag it" and "barf on it" at which point I decided alliteration wasn't that important.).
Note that these ratings are mutable depending on the competition and the comparison between the book and the current release of Java. Generally a book's rating will go down over time except when a new edition is released.

XML Books Currently in Print

XML Complete
by Steven Holzner

A detailed look at the XML specification from the perspective of a programmer who needs to write code to parse XML files. Not useful for most people who simply want to write XML documents.

Presenting XML
by Richard Light

As is common in the "Presenting..." series, this book rehashes a lot of philosophy, and hype from various white papers and press releases without adding a lot new or providing much technical detail or practical how-to information. As the earliest book to be published about XML, this is virtually guaranteed to be the most out of date.

XML: Extensible Markup Language
by Elliotte Rusty Harold

I can't offer you an unbiased opinion about this book (after all, I wrote it) but I can say that it's the first book I've seen that actually shows you how to publish your XML documents on the Web. On the other hand, the XSL material is out of date.

XML: Principles, Tools, and Techniques
by Dan Connolly

This issue of the W3 Journal contains various interesting perspectives on XML from such luminarios as Jon Bosak, Tim Bray, Peter Murray-Rust, and David Siegel. However it's already out of date, and doesn't go into much technical detail in any depth.

The XML Handbook
by Charles F. Goldfarb, Paul Prescod

Superseded by the second edition

XML in Record Time
by Natanya Pitts-Moultis

XML for Dummies Quick Reference
by Mariva H. Aviram

XML for Dummies
by Ed Tittle, James Michael Stewart, Ramesh Chandak

XML by Example : A Webmaster's Guide
by Sean McGrath

Web Publishing With XML in Six Easy Steps
by Bryan Pfaffenberger

Web Developer.Com Guide to Creating Web Channels With Dynamic Html and CDF : With Dynamic HTML, XML, and CDF
by Lee Purcell

Teach Yourself XML in 21 Days
by Simon North, Paul Hermans

An entry-level book

Structuring XML Documents
by David Megginson

This book focuses almost completely on designing and writing DTDs for documents as opposed to databases. (A magazine article is a document; a phonebook is a database.)

The SGML FAQ Book: Understanding the Foundation of HTML and XML
by Steven J. Derose

Practical Guide to SGML/XML Filters
by Norman E. Smith

Mastering XML
by Chuck White, Ann Navarro, Linda Burman

Designing XML Internet Applications
by Michael Leventhal, David Lewis, Matthew Fuchs

SGML Buyer's Guide: A Unique Guide to Determining Your Requirements and Choosing the Right SGML and XML Products and Services
by Charles F. Goldfarb, Steve Pepper, Chet Ensign

The XML and SGML Cookbook
by Rick Jelliffe

This book looks at markup from a design patterns viewpoint. Part 2, "Document Patterns", features patterns for most basic structures. The book also has better than average treatment of internationalization and notations.

Professional Stylesheets for HTML and XML
by Frank Boumphrey

The CSS material is OK, but the XSL material is badly out of date.

XML Black Book
by Will Kelly, Natanya Pitts-Moultis

Just XML
by John Simpson

The XML Companion
by Neil Bradley

Client/Server Data Access With Java and XML
by Dan Chang, Dan Harkey

XML Specification Guide
by Liam Quin, Ian S. Graham

Java Programming for Windows : Using Microsoft AFC, WFC, and XML
by Mark Watson

XML in Plain English
by Sandra E. Eddy

XML Web Kit
by Charles F. Goldfarb, Sean McGrath, John Simpson

Building XML Applications
by Simon St. Laurent, Ethan Cerami

The Latex Web Companion : Integrating TeX, HTML and XML
by Michel Gossens, Sebastian Rahtz

Platinum Edition Using HTML 4, XML and Java 1.2
by Eric Ladd, Jim O'Donnell

Professional XML Applications
by Frank Boumphrey, Olivia di Renzo, Jon Duckett, Joe Graf, Paul Houle

Understanding SGML and XML Tools: Practical Programs for Handling Structured Text
by Peter Flynn

This book mostly discusses XML and SGML software, though the first two chapters explain SGML and XML from the beginning.

XML: The Annotated Specifications
by Robert Ducharme

XML in Action
by William J. Pardi

XML, langage et applications
by Alain Michard

In French, 230 French Francs

XML in IE5 Programmer's Reference
by Alex Homer

The XML Bible
by Elliotte Rusty Harold

Everything (and I mean everything) you need to know to build Web sites using XML. This is a vastly expanded and revised version of my previous book, XML: Extensible Markup Language with up-to-date coverage of XML, XSL, CSS1 and CSS2, DTDs, XHTML, RDF, and a lot more.

XML Design and Implementation
by Paul Spencer

Inside XML DTDs: Scientific and Technical
by Simon St.Laurent

The first half of the book covers fairly generic XML but the examples and later chapters focus on scientific and technical applications like MathML, Chemical Markup Language, Weather Observation Markup Format, BioML, Astronomical Instrument Markup Language, and so forth.

Building Web Sites with XML
by Michael Floyd

XML Elements of Style
by Simon St. Laurent

XML Elements of Style is aimed at developers who already have at least a basic understanding of XML. It covers the XML 1.0 and Namespaces in XML Recommendations in detail - everything from elements and attributes to unparsed entities and notations. Interoperability issues get special highlighting, including details on the interactions between Namespaces and XML and the behavior(s) of non-validating parsers.

Despite the title, this book does not cover CSS or XSL in depth - it covers 'style' used in a more general sense, as best practices. Developers looking for a guide to programming style in SAX or the DOM would probably be better served by other books as well.

Pure XML
by George M. Doss

XML: A Primer, 2nd edition
by Simon St. Laurent

A solid introduction to XML 1.0 though it has very little to say about more recent developments like namespaces and stylesheets.

Data on the Web : From Relations to Semistructured Data and XML
by Serge Abiteboul, Peter Buneman, Dan Suciu

Building Corporate Portals With XML
by Clive Finklestein, Peter G. Aiken

Professional XML
by Jon Duckett, Mark Birbeck, Michael Kay, Stephen F. Mohr, Didier Martin, Steven Livingston

XML Pocket Reference
by Robert Eckstein

Professional Visual Basic 6 XML
by James Britt, Teun Duynstee, Dan Denault, Ash Rofail, John Messing, Kevin Lundy

The XML Handbook - 2nd Edition
by Charles F. Goldfarb, Paul Prescod

XML: A Manager's Guide
by Kevin Dick

Unreleased Books about XML

Practical Guide to XML
by Norman E. Smith

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Copyright 1998-2000 Elliotte Rusty Harold
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Monday, April 17, 2000 9:15:52 AM