Building Web Applications with UML (2nd Edition)

Service-Oriented Architecture : A Field Guide to Integrating XML and Web Services

Definitive XML Schema

UML Distilled: A Brief Guide to the Standard Object Modeling Language, Third Edition

Core J2EE Patterns: Best Practices and Design Strategies, Second Edition

Uml

Modeling XML Applications with UML: Practical e-Business Applications

Format: Paperback
Author: David Carlson
ReleaseDate: 10 April, 2001
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Rating:

An excellent book covering an important niche
As a result many developers creating XML-based applications are doing so with the crudest of tools, and find it very difficult to either exchange ideas with more traditional developers, or to benefit from the strengths of more powerful tools and modelling approaches. Like many web-related technologies XML and its many derivatives have evolved much more quickly than the support from traditional modelling and development tools. This book sets out to address that issue, and it does an excellent job.

At the same time, the book provides a valuable introduction to a range of XML and e-Business technologies for those more familiar with traditional approaches. I found it answered a lot of questions I had about XML which had not been addressed by reading more typical "how to" books, so this book bridges the divide both ways.

The book starts out by setting out its aim - to bridge the XML and UML communities, and provides a high-level overview of both areas. It then focuses in on the key issue of e-Business integration, both as a common challenge and an area which will naturally affect both communities.

In subsequent chapters the author discusses defining a business vocabulary, and shows how an XML vocabulary can be modelled in UML, or generated from it. Having established this basis the author then discusses a number of XML-related standards, including XMI, XPath, XPointer, XLink, XML DTDs and Schemas, and XSLT, in each case using UML models to explain how the pieces fit together.

Finally, the last few chapters present an overall e-Business architecture based around the examples in the rest of the book, bringing all the pieces together in the context of Web Services.

It's the curse of all technical writers and publishers that whatever you write is rapidly out of date, and this book suffers a little from that. Published in 2001 it views several key standards (such as XSD and core Web Service protocols) as "proposals", and frequently omits details from examples because of this uncertainty. A reader would be well advised to supplement it with more up to date reading around the technical details.

That said, this book is well written, easy to read, and covers a niche which is still almost unoccupied. The companion web site backs the book up with some valuable material, including a free downloadable tool for XML modelling, generation and reverse-engineering.

I'd love David to do a second edition, moderately refreshed to present a 2004 view of the various standards and how they fit together. The core of the book wouldn't have to change. Until that book turns up, I'm happy to recommend this one.

A very good overview
The fact that both UML and XML syntaxes are not explained in detail should not induce to consider this issue as an introductory one: a thorough comprehension of all quoted subjects presumes a good knowledge of a structured (possibly object oriented) programming language and some reference to an XML syntax textbook and a UML guide. It is quite a strange book: very interesting, depicting a complete, sometimes accurate, path between UML and XML languages, and trying to show the whole and complex environment that required the development of a language like XML. You do not learn by this book either designing UML or writing XML code, but it represents a survey about the subject that can be interesting both for skilled people and beginners.

Well written and easy to read
More than that, the book serves as a primer to both. David Carlson has produced a book that discusses how to integrate two important technologies: UML and XML. Even if you already know UML or XML, you'll probably learn something new about each. References are supplied for those who want to learn more. For me, I also found that the book planted seeds for new ideas.

The material is presented in a practical way, around a simple business application. This makes the technologies more concrete and easier to understand. Fortunately, the reader is not overwhelmed by endless code listings - though there are enough nuts and bolts to make the concepts understandable.

Key concepts such as vocabularies, schemas, and portals are explained well. The book also touches on related technologies, such as RSS, XSLT, SOAP and UUDI. All in the context of a practical use case. I found the examples useful even if I design community based portals and not e-Business applications.

Hopefully the book will lay down the foundation for standards in schema development.