beginning xml with dom and ajax
Sas Jacobs writes in the Introduction that she wanted this book to be a one-stop shop to learn how to build XML web applications. I think she reached her goal.
Besides being a mouthful, Beginning XML with DOM and Ajax is crammed with just about every XML topic you can think of from both the client and server side. The topics on the client side cover all the usual suspects such as XSLT and DOM. There're also a few odd client side topics covered as well -- such as mixing CSS and XML and using XML with Flash. The server side section of the book is noticeably shorter than the client side. It's really just one chapter doing a quick overview of ASP and PHP related XML tools. At the very end, there are two case studies -- one for ASP and one for PHP -- in which a full XML-based web application is built. These two studies are really great and definitely build on the server side chapter.
All of these topics are covered in a book just over 400 pages long. Now this might be the only time you hear me say this, but I think this book is a little short for all the topics it covers. Don't get me wrong, the coverage is excellent, the examples are numerous, and the case studies are detailed; however, reading this book was a bit like eating incredibly rich chocolate -- even small portions were more than enough to handle.
I think this book is going to be my standard recommendation for people new to XML. You can't beat the amount of coverage found here -- but, unfortunately, it might take a bit longer to digest than to read it. I give it an 8/10.
