The book begins with an overview of XML and its uses, and goes on to explain how to parse XML using SAX 2 (the Simple API for XML). Next there is coverage of how XML is validated using DTDs (Document Type Definitions) and XML Schema, and transformed using XSL (Extensible Stylesheet Language). Brief coverage of Sun's Java API for XML is followed by a detailed look at JDOM (Java Document Object Model), a new API devised by the author in association with O'Reilly, the publisher.

The last part of the book is more advanced, and covers applications of XML and Java. There are chapters on Web-publishing frameworks, XML RPC (Remote Procedure Calls), using XML to read and write configuration data and generating XML with Java. There is also a short business-to-business example. Appendices provide an API reference to the various specifications discussed in the book.

The strengths of Java and XML include the author's deep knowledge of his subject and a writing style that is both clear and enthusiastic. If you happen to know a lot about Java and not much about XML, this is the ideal title. Those who already have a good grasp of XML basics may be frustrated by the amount of introductory material. --Tim Anderson