"This volume offers relentlessly pragmatic solutions to help your business applications get the most out of XML, with a breezy style that makes the going easy. Mike has lived this stuff; he has a strong command of the solutions and the philosophy that underlies them." --Eve Maler, XML Standards Architect, Sun Microsystems Businesses running legacy applications that do not support XML can face a tough choice: Either keep their legacy applications or switch to newer, XML-enhanced applications. XML presents both challenges and opportunities for organizations as they struggle with their data. Does this dilemma sound familiar? What if you could enable a legacy application to support XML? You can. In Using XML with Legacy Business Applications, e-commerce expert Michael C. Rawlins outlines usable techniques for solving day-to-day XML-related data exchange problems. Using an easy-to-understand cookbook approach, Rawlins shows you how to build XML support into legacy business applications using Java and C++. The techniques are illustrated by building converters for legacy formats. Converting CSV files, flat files, and X12 EDI to and from XML will never be easier!

Inside you'll find:
*A concise tutorial for learning to read W3C XML schemas
*An introduction to using XSLT to transform between different XML formats
*Simple, pragmatic advice on transporting XML documents securely over the Internet For developers working with either MSXML with Visual C++ or Java and Xerces:
*See Chapter 3 for a step-by-step guide to enabling existing business applications to export XML documents
*See Chapter 2 for a step-by-step guide to enabling existing business applications to import XML documents
*See Chapter 5 for code examples and tips for validating XML documents against schemas
*See Chapter 12 for general tips on building commerce support into an application For end users who need a simple and robust conversion utility:
*See Chapter 7 for converting CSV files to and from XML
*See Chapter 8 for converting flat files to and from XML
*See Chapter 9 for converting X12 EDI to and from XML
*See Chapter 11 for tips on how to use these techniques together for complex format conversions