Resources For A Beginner

[jacksonaaronc]

Greetings,

I am in need of two things.

First, I need a list of good resources for someone that wishes to learn
XML. If there are any defacto books, URL, etc I would love to know
where to start. I usually do best with a high quality book so if there
are any really great books you can recommend I would appreciate it.

Secondly, I need to find an editor similar to XMLFox for editing some
simple XML files that are used as the base for two Pocket PC quiz
programs I use. I tried XMLFox, but it was giving me strange errors and
freezing. The newest version is not freeware and I need it to be free
at this point.

The first piece of software is called PocketExam and the DTD file can
be found here: http://www.bizon.org/pocketexam/dtd.txt (whatever a DTD
file is) The creator told me about it and while I can understand it to
some degree, I'm not sure what the file is for. I thought it might be
helpful to post in case it would help in suggesting a piece of software
that will accomplish what I need.

The second piece of software is called FlashCard and uses a .XSD file
instead of DTD (I assume these are two different options to accomplish
similar things).

That file is as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<xs:schema id="QUIZ" targetNamespace="http://www.bmanser.com/Quiz.xsd"
xmlns:mstns="http://www.bmanser.com/Quiz.xsd"
xmlns="http://www.bmanser.com/Quiz.xsd"
xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
xmlns:msdata="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xml-msdata"
attributeFormDefault="qualified" elementFormDefault="qualified">
<xs:element name="QUIZ" msdata:IsDataSet="true" msdata:Locale="en-AU"
msdata:EnforceConstraints="False">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:choice maxOccurs="unbounded">
<xs:element name="questions">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="question" type="xs:string" minOccurs="0"
msdata:Ordinal="0" />
<xs:element name="answer" type="xs:string" minOccurs="0"
msdata:Ordinal="1" />
<xs:element name="multiChoice" type="xs:boolean" minOccurs="0"
/>
<xs:element name="choiceList" type="xs:string" minOccurs="0" />
<xs:element name="picture" type="xs:string" minOccurs="0" />
<xs:element name="sound" type="xs:string" minOccurs="0" />
</xs:sequence>
<xs:attribute name="name" form="unqualified" type="xs:string" />
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
</xs:choice>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>

If there is any other informaiton I can provide that would make it
easier to recommend an XML editor that will allow me to create a quiz
from these files without having to actually edit the XML please let me
know and I will gladly post it.

I greatly appreciate any help you can provide in both of these areas!

Aaron Jackson
http://www.thesitterdowners.com

 

[reclusive monkey]

http://www.w3schools.com/ is an excellent place to start. I use HTML
Kit at work to edit xml/xslt but there are much better tools for the
job. I think the one they use for the w3 schools is called XML Spy and
there is a trial/limited version to download;

http://www.altova.com/products_ide.html

If thats not enough, you could have a look on google for a xsd editor.
An .xsd file acts as a description for an .xml document. This is the
same as a schema, with schemas being the newer version. There's a lot
more about this on w3 schools, so you should be able to pick it up from
there. Hope this helps.

 

[jacksonaaronc]

Reclusive Monkey,

Thank you! The w3schools site is really good stuff! Just what I need
for a place to begin. After spending just a couple of minutes there I
have a much clearer understanding of what XML is as opposed to what I
thought it was. Thanks again.

Aaron Jackson

 

[Peter Flynn]

Greetings,

I am in need of two things.

First, I need a list of good resources for someone that wishes to learn
XML. If there are any defacto books, URL, etc I would love to know
where to start. I usually do best with a high quality book so if there
are any really great books you can recommend I would appreciate it.

The XML FAQ is at http://xml.silmaril.ie/

///Peter