XML in Office 2003: Information Sharing with Desktop XML

Summary

• Co-authors are the world-renowned inventor of markup languages and a developer of the W3C XML Schema specification
• Detailed coverage of Office 2003 Professional XML features, plus all the XML knowledge you need to use them
• Learn to edit your XML document with Word, analyze its data with Excel, store it with Access, and publish it to the Web with FrontPage®
• Build dynamic custom XML forms with the remarkable new InfoPath™ 2003—structured data collection with word processing flexibility

From the Foreword by Jean Paoli, Microsoft XML Architect and co-editor of the W3C XML specification:

“XML enabled the transfer of information from server to server and server to client, even in cross-platform environments. But the desktop, where documents are created and analyzed by millions of information workers, could not easily participate. Business-critical information was locked inside data storage systems or individual documents, forcing companies to adopt inefficient and duplicative business processes.

“This is a book on re-inventing the way millions of people write and interact with documents. It succeeds in communicating the novel underlying vision of Office 2003 XML while focusing on task-oriented, hands-on skills for using the product.”

Desktop XML affects every Office 2003 Professional Edition user!

It transforms millions of desktop computers from mere word processors into rich clients for Web services, editing front-ends for XML content management systems, and portals for XML-based application integration.

And this book shows you how to benefit from it. You’ll learn exactly what XML can do for you, and you’ll master its key concepts, all in the context of the Office products you already know and use.

With 200 tested and working code and markup examples and over 150 screenshots and illustrations from the actual shipped product (not betas), you’ll see step by step how:

• Office users can share documents more easily, without error-prone rework, re-keying, or cut-and-paste.
• Office data from your documents can be captured for enterprise databases.
• Office documents can be kept up-to-date with live data from Web Services and enterprise data stores.
• Office solutions can overcome traditional limitations by using XML and Smart Documents.

BONUS XML SKILLS SECTION! All the XML expertise you’ll need, adapted for Office 2003 users from the best-selling Charles F. Goldfarb’s XML Handbook, Fifth Edition: the XML language, XML Schema, XPath, XSLT, Web services … and more!

CD-ROM INCLUDED: Provides a fully functional 60-day trial version of Microsoft InfoPath 2003. 

Table of Contents

Preface: What Do You Give the Software That Has Everything?

Who is This Book for? How Much XML? About the Products. How to Use This Book. Acknowledgments.

Foreword by Jean Paoli, Microsoft Office XML Architect.

I. INTRODUCING DESKTOP XML.

1. Desktop XML: The Reason Why.

Introductory Discussion. Office before XML. Office Documents as Information Assets. Enterprise Data Integration. Next Stop: the Web. What Next?

2. XML Concepts for Office Users.

Introductory Discussion. Formatting Markup. Generalized Markup. Elements and the Logical Structure. Well-formedness and Validity. XML and the World Wide Web. Namespaces. Other XML Constructs. More on XML.

3. XML in Office.

Introductory Discussion. Information Capture and Reuse. End-user Data Connection. Data-driven Application Enhancement.

II. WORKING WITH XML IN OFFICE.

4. Creating and Editing XML Documents.

Word Power User Task. Creating and Using Schemas. Opening a Document. Validation. The XML Structure Task Pane. Working with Attributes. Saving a Document. Combining Documents.

5. Rendering and Presenting XML Documents.

Word Power User Task. Word Markup Language (WordML). Mixing WordML with other vocabularies. Creating WordML with stylesheets.

6. Using External XML Data in Documents.

Word Script Developer Task. External XML Documents. SOAP Web Services.

7. Using XML data in spreadsheets.

Excel Power User Task. Why Use XML with Excel? The Worldwide Widget Expense Report. Worksheets, Maps and Schemas. Importing and Exporting XML Data. Mapping from an Existing XML Document. Data Analysis. More Complex XML Documents. XMLSS: The Excel XML Vocabulary.

8. Using Web Services with Spreadsheets.

Excel Script Developer Task. Analyzing Stock Quotes with a REST Web Service. Currency Conversion with a SOAP Web Service. Other Approaches. The Excel Object Model.

9. Designing and Using Forms.

InfoPath Power User Task. Forms on Steroids. Using a Form. Designing a Form.

10. Using Scripts with Forms.

InfoPath Script Developer Task. Why Use Scripts? A Simple Sample Script. Script Files and Forms. Events. Launching Script Editor. The InfoPath Object Model. Using Scripts for Validation. Calculations. Inserting XML Nodes. Additional Features.

11. Using Secondary Data Sources with Forms.

InfoPath Script Developer Task. Defining a Secondary Data Source. Secondary XML Documents. Databases. SOAP Web Services.

12. Access Databases and XML.

Office Power User Task. Why use XML with Access? Our Example Database. Exporting Access tables. Exporting Other objects. Applying a Transform on Export. Importing XML Data.

13. Publishing XML to the Web with FrontPage.

Office Power User Task. Why use FrontPage with XML? Web design by Example. Set Up the Website. Choose a Data Source. Create a Data View. Organize the Viewed Data. Format the View.

14. Developing Office XML applications.

Office Script Developer Task. Smart Documents. Smart Tags. The Research Pane. XML Expansion Packs and Manifests.

III. XML TUTORIALS.

15. The XML Language.

Friendly Tutorial. Syntactic Details. Prolog vs Instance. The Document Instance. The Prolog. Entities: Breaking Up Is Easy to Do. Character References. Suppressing Markup Recognition. Comments. Processing Instructions. Office Support for the XML Language. Summary.

16. Namespaces.

Friendly Tutorial. The Namespaces Solution.

17. XPath Primer.

Friendly Tutorial. Location Paths. Addressing Multiple Objects. Children and Descendants. Attributes. Predicates. The XPath Data Model.

18. XSL Transformations (XSLT).

Friendly Tutorial. Transforming vs Rendering. XSLT Stylesheets. Using HTML with XSLT. Rules, Patterns and Templates. Creating a Stylesheet. Top-level Instructions. Variables and Parameters. Parameters. Extending XSLT. Referencing XSLT Stylesheets.

19. Web Services Introduction.

Introductory Discussion. Communication Protocols. Amazon.com. Google. Service Discovery. Web Services for the REST of Us! Security.

20. XML Jargon Demystifier™

Introductory Discussion. Structured vs Unstructured. Tag vs Element. Content. Document Type, DTD, and Markup Declarations. Schema and Schema Definition. Document, XML Document, and Instance. What's the Meta? Documents and Data. And in Conclusion.

21. Datatypes.

Friendly Tutorial. Built-in Datatypes. Defining User-derived Datatypes. Constraining Facets. Conclusion.

22. XML Schema (XSDL).

Tad Tougher Tutorial. A Simple Sample Schema. Elements and Types. Structure of a Schema Definition. Declaring Schema Conformance. Schema Inclusion. Additional Capabilities. Conclusion.

23. Web Services Technologies.

Tad Tougher Tutorial. Web Services Description Language. UDDI. Implementation. Conclusion.

24. XML Path Language (XPath).

Tad Tougher Tutorial. The XPath Data Model. Location Paths. ID Function. Conclusion.

Index.