XML is now an established technology for the description and transportation of data, and has made a major impact on almost every aspect of software development. When Microsoft introduced the .NET Framework, they took advantage of XML wherever they could. No other technology is so tightly bound with .NET as XML, both at the developer level and underlying the whole framework.

This book will therefore serve as both an introductory title and an in-depth reference that will grow with the reader as they begin to create their own Web Services. They will come to understand what Web Services are, where they fit into the 'big picture' and will have many coding examples to choose from within the first five chapters. As they begin to "get serious" about developing enterprise level Web Services, they will be able to refer back to the detailed information about the classes that implement Web Services and come to a deeper understanding of what is happening behind the scenes.

If you're seeking ways to build network-based applications or XML-based web services, Microsoft provides most of the tools you'll need. XML is integrated into the .NET Framework and Visual Studio .NET, but if you want to get a grasp on how .NET and XML actually work together, that's a different story. With .NET & XML, you can get under the hood to see how the .NET Framework implements XML, giving you the skills to write understandable XML-based code that interoperates with code written with other tools, and even other languages..NET & XML starts by introducing XML and the .NET Framework, and then teaches you how to read and write XML before moving on to complex methods for manipulating, navigating, transforming, and constraining it. To demonstrate the power of XML in .NET, author Niel Bornstein builds a simple hardware store inventory system throughout the book. As you move from chapter to chapter, you'll absorb increasingly complex information until you have enough knowledge to successfully program your own XML-based applications. This tutorial also contains a quick reference to the API, plus appendices present additional .NET assemblies that you can use to work with XML, and how to work with the .NET XML configuration file format.One study puts the potential market for new software based on XML at or near $100 billion over the next five years. The .NET Framework gives you a way to become a part of it. But to use XML and .NET effectively, you need to understand how these two technologies work together. This book gives you the insight to take full advantage of the power the two provide.

An accessible and step-by-step approach to using VB.NET and XML enterprise application development XML is a tool for interacting with, describing, and transporting data between machines across networks and across the Internet-perfectly suited for Microsoft's .NET plan to fully integrate the Internet into distributed computing. By using real-world and fully-functional examples, this book quickly brings Visual Basic programmers and developers up to speed on XML for enterprise application development. The authors include an overview of XML and how it works with VB.NET, then explain how to use it to manipulate data in distributed environments. Companion Web site at www.vb-helper.com features the complete working code for all the examples built in the book. Microsoft Technologies .NET Platform: The next big overhaul to Microsoft's technologies that will bring enterprise distributed computing to the next level by fully integrating the Internet into the development platform. This will allow interaction between any machine, on any platform, and on any device. Visual Basic.NET: The update to this popular visual programming language will offer greater Web functionality, more sophisticated object-oriented language features, links to Microsoft's new common runtime, and a new interface. ASP.NET: A programming framework (formerly known as Active Server Pages) for building powerful Web-based enterprise applications; can be programmed using VB.NET or C#. C#: Microsoft's new truly object-oriented programming language that builds on the strengths of C++ and the ease of Visual Basic; promises to give Sun's Java a run for its money.

This work provides a comprehensive overview of how to use XML with ASP.NET to increase application efficiency, using two major case studies. It explores issues such as reading and writing XML, date validation and SQL servers.

XML is everywhere in the Microsoft .NET Framework, from Remoting to Web services and from data access to configuration. Learn about the extensive XML core classes in .NET and find out how to program against its parser in this in-depth guide--written by a popular programming author and consultant on cutting-edge technologies such as Microsoft ASP.NET and Microsoft ADO.NET. You'll find authoritative explanations of technologies such as schemas, transformations, and XPath, plus extensive discussion of data access issues such as synchronization and serialization, the DiffGram format, and the XML extensions in Microsoft SQL Server 2000. Along the way, you'll learn exactly how to get the best performance out of XML in the .NET world. You'll also get answers to common questions such as, "When should I use XML Web services instead of Remoting?" Topics covered include: XML CORE CLASSES IN THE .NET FRAMEWORK The .NET XML parsing model XML readers and writers Validating readers and writers XML Schema XML DATA MANIPULATION The XML DOM in .NET XPath XSLT XML AND DATA ACCESS XML extensions in SQL Server 2000 DataSet serialization The DiffGram format APPLICATION INTEROPERABILITY The XML Serializer .NET Remoting XML Web services XML data islands Configuration files

CD-ROM contains: Code samples used in text.