COAP:COAP-2180/week2

Week 2 COAP 2180

On week two we will look at XML in three ways:

• What is XML (some short demos)
• Editing XML (recall)
• XML styling with CSS

Teaching materials

Tour de XML

• This week: DocX and docbook

Understanding and editing XML

• xml-edit.pdf (slides used to explain how to understand DTDs and how to edit XML)
• XML principles
• Editing XML tutorial

XML with CSS style

• CSS tutorial (reminder and for catching up)
• CSS for XML tutorial
• xml-css.pdf (slides)
• SitePoint CSS Reference. In addition, you also may install the Codeburner for Firefox add-on.

Examples files

• DTD and XML templates example directory
• To retrieve these files, I strongly suggest that you "save link as". If you open a file in a navigator like IE and then save, you may loose information ....
• Also consider taking the ALLFILES.zip archive which should include everything. Before unzipping, create a directory.

Textbook chapters (see also week 1)

If you find that my lecture notes and slides are incomplete, too short or not good enough, reading either one or both texts is mandatory !

• Learning XML, Chapter 5 CSS
• XML in a Nutshell, Chapter 13 CSS

These chapters are available through the world classroom.

For the adventurous

• XML Category (All XML-related articles in this wiki)
• XML (on Wikipedia)

Homework 1/2 - Weeks 1/2

Deadline and submission:

• Monday week 3 (before start of class)
• Use the worldclassroom: https://webster.blackboard.edu/
• Submit the *.xml, the *.dtd and an optional report file (see below)

Task

Edit an XML document with the suggested DTDs below

• Respect the semantics of the elements and the attributes
• Validate your document
• Try to use as many different elements as you can (if appropriate)
• Follow additional directions for each suggested DTD
• Bonus: add longer comments in the DTD or the XML file that explain the XML structure and that express your opinions

Do not worry too much about rendering (display). It is more important that your get the XML editing right, i.e. be able to fill in a dynamic information structure with data. Producing a really good looking CSS will give you a bonus.

You can choose among the DTDs available at http://tecfa.unige.ch/guides/xml/examples/dtd-examples/

• Make sure to get both the *-template.xml and the corresponding *.dtd file. If available, you also should take the *.css.

Some of the DTDs are described in the following table.

DTD (difficulty)	Purpose	file name	Additional directions
Recipe DTD (easy)	Write simple recipes	recipe.dtd	recipe.xml	Use all tags. Write at least one recipe. Make sure that there is enough information to really use it.
Recipe Markup Language (medium)	Write complex recipes	recipeml.dtd	recipeml.xml	As above, but only use appropriate tags. Hint: find the website of its creator
RSS 0.92 (medium)	News syndication (usually machine generated)	rss-0-92.dtd	rss-0-92-template.xml	Use enough tags to display this in an aggregator. Enter at least 4 URLs. Hint: look at a RSS news feed first !
Simple Docbook (hard)	Write "real" articles	sdocbook.dtd	sdocbook-template.xml	Do not use all tags, only the needed ones. Copy/paste from a text you already have.
Instructions (medium)	Write "how-to" instructions	instructions.dtd	instructions.xml	Come up with a good "how-to problem". Only use tags you need..
StepbyStep (medium hard)	Write "how-to" instructions	stepbystep03.dtd	stepbystep03-template.xml	Make up a good "how-to problem". Only use tags you need..
Story grammar (medium)	Write simple fairy tales	story-grammar.dtd	story-grammar-template.xml	Write a nice fairy tale. Doesn’t need to be your own.

Evaluation criteria (roughly)

Work considered as weak:

• Well-formed (but not valid) document using the DTD’s elements

Work considered as minimalistic:

• Valid document that includes very minimal content.

Good work includes:

• Valid document with an interesting content
• Some CSS

Excellent work (A-) includes:

• Inserted useful comments <!-- ... --> in the XML and/or the DTD
• Respect of the DTD's semantics
• Good enough CSS for easy reading

Brilliant work (A) includes either one of:

• A 1 page report that discusses the architecture of the DTD and your opinion of it, e.g. you can describe architecture of the DTD (without going into detailed description of every element !), discuss what you would like to improve, what you liked/disliked, your difficulties, etc. You simply can include this report into the DTD that you resubmit or as word/PDF/HTML file. As you like, presentation doesn't matter.
• Outstanding styling