XML is one of today's most important technologies--it is supported natively by many databases, and technologies, and there are few alternatives when you're faced with the need for a powerful data medium transferable across any application and platform. And since XML files are compact and text-based, it is the perfect data medium for delivering data on to the Internet.

XML has been around for many years, and there have been a few best-selling Java/XML drill down books in the past, so what makes this book different? Well, a lot of the competitors out there are large tomes, and...