This book will serve the needs of several types of readers. First, for the IT manager or system architect, it does a fine job of introducing Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) as a goal for the new millennium, and the strengths of Java and XML (and message systems) to get disparate systems to share data. Then, it delves into an industrial-strength tour of XML and related standards that's aimed at the more advanced reader (relying on the notation of Extended Backus-Naur Form to show off XML, which will be familiar to those with a background in computer science). How EAI architects can model databases and message-oriented middleware (MOM) in XML is discussed. The most innovative material here demonstrates how to map Java objects into XML and, in an advanced chapter, even Java code itself. (A simple Swing program written in XML is one extremely clever example that shows how powerful XML really is.)

An important strategy here is the notion of declarative programming, in which developers model and transform different data sets between systems in XML, instead of writing procedural code. If anything, the techniques and tools can get you thinking about new levels of flexibility when it comes to data and Java used with XML. The last 200 pages include the formal W3C definitions for XML 1.0 (plus the Document Object Model (DOM)). While these sections perhaps will interest the Java/XML guru most, other reference sections on the SAX API and Java-to-XML bindings will prove immediately practical on a daily basis.

Some texts make XML easy and approachable, but few showcase the real powers of XML for data flexibility as well as this one does. Experienced Java developers who really want to master XML certainly will want a look at this intriguing and challenging book, as will knowledgeable system architects who are interested in seeing what Java and XML can offer when it comes to integrating the enterprise. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered:

• Introduction to Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)
• EAI infrastructures (communications, routing, brokering, and business intelligence layers)
• Message routing
• XML basics and parsing
• The Simple API for XML (SAX)
• The W3C Document Object Model (DOM)
• Transforming Java objects into XML
• Modeling databases in XML
• Point- to-point message, publish, and subscribe messaging and XML
• Directory services
• JNDI and XML
• Declarative programming for successful EAI
• Dynamic application
• SAX filters
• Modeling a Java application in XML
• References for the W3C definitions for XML 1.0 and the XML DOM
• SAX interfaces
• Java-to-XML bindings