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Discussion about XML Certification

 
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Hi,
I passed SCJP with 93% yesterday. My next plan is to learn XML and if there is any certification programme on XML, take it. Could anyone suggest me any "very very" good book to start with. I also would like to know, if there is a site with XML specifications like JLS.
Rajesh
 
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Hi Rajesh,
See Ajith's post http://www.javaranch.com/ubb/Forum31/HTML/000367.html for info on certification and study recommendations.
Hope that helps.
------------------
Jane Griscti
Sun Certified Programmer for the Java� 2 Platform
 
Rajesh Radh
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Thank you Jane. It did help.
Rajesh
 
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To add to what Jane said.
I also was looking for a good book on XML but did not find any I really like. XML itself is easy; surrounding technologies make it difficult.
You can read about everything on �core� XML, DTD, Namespaces - they are pretty simple and how well they are explained is, IMHO, not very important. But XSLT language may be confusing. The best resource I have seen is:
Professional Visual Basic 6 XML
Chapter 4: Doing XPath and XSLT with Style!
For more resources take a look at our �XML links� page.
Rajesh, you see now how desperately we all want to help you?

[This message has been edited by Mapraputa Is (edited March 19, 2001).]
 
Rajesh Radh
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Hi Rita,
Are you XML certified already? If yes, good. If not, I am also there. Do you have any idea how many months preparation is required? (I am an average guy, so I need to add at least +2 months to it )
Yes, I see how desperately you all trying to help me. Thank you all . From you site, I know that your are Margarita. When was it changed to Mapraputa?
thanks,
Rajesh
[This message has been edited by Rajesh Radh (edited March 20, 2001).]
[This message has been edited by Rajesh Radh (edited March 20, 2001).]
 
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Hi Rajesh!

Are you XML certified already?


Ooooh, at last my hard work on trying to sound impressive is paid off! No, I am not certified. Thinking about it, but it looks like a lot of work... Ajith said it took him two months of preparations, but you are right, for us, average guys&gals, it will take at least twice as long . Do you want to start an XML study group? Jane, are you with us, I mean, are you certification collector too?

When was it changed to Mapraputa?


Well, actually, what happened that Mapraputa was changed to Margarita, after she came to USA. Mapraputa is Margarita written in Russian letters. I was kind of upset to have my offcial papers with two variants of my middle name spelling and three (3) variants of my last name spelling, so I decided to use 100% genuine Russian spelling until US goverment figures out how to call me .
 
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Hi,
I am Brainbench certified in XML. Is there any other certification in the market?
Learning XML is easy, its the other issues like DTD, Schemas and XSL, XLink, XPointer that willtake up the time.
The web-based tutorial at http://www.w3schools.com is very good.
As far as the books go, pick up a beginning book by Sams(typically 24 hrs/21 days) and move on to Professional XML Programming by Wrox.
All the best.

------------------
Hope this helps. Correct me if I am wrong.
Cheers ,
Kapil
 
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Just a word of caution - Actual exam is quite different than the Brainbench exam. I too am Brainbench certified - I used it as a practice exam before going to IBM certification.
If you have any specific question related to the certification itself, I'll be glad to help you out. Just stand up and ask
Good luck,

------------------
Ajith Kallambella M.
Sun Certified Programmer for the Java�2 Platform.
IBM Certified Developer - XML and Related Technologies, V1.
 
Rajesh Radh
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Hi Rita,
Yes! it's a great idea to have one, a study group. But I am very new to Java Ranch. I have no idea what you meant by creating a study group . What will we be doing? Other than exchanging doubts and discussing them, do you have any plan so that we could get maximum out of this study group. I am targeting something like 4 months from now before appearing the test. Does that sounds reasonable? I also want our proposed group to be useful for others even after we are done with our test. Please write to me.
I don't know if I told you or not. I have been working on CICS/DB2/Cobol stuff for the last 10 years(India/EDS Ltd. in London/now 3 years in US). The certification has boosted my morale to go to OO. Everything looks good. But, I have been posted to Java Development in my company, which is effective from next Monday. My director, after seeing my results, thinks that I have a good grip on entire Java subject, which is not true. I need to get a good grip on Swing and JDBC before next Monday. I am going out to Borders/B&N to buy Java Swing by O'Reilly. Do you think, this is a good one? Do you have any other suggestion. I will wait for your reply for another couple of hours. If I don't get one, I will go and buy this one.
Please don't forget to mention on "study group" .
thanks,
 
Rajesh Radh
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Ajith & Kapil,
Thank you so much. I will be asking you doubts. It's very pre-mature now. I don't know much about XML. I am planning to buy a book from SAMS to start with, like Kapil suggested.
Thanks again.

[This message has been edited by Rajesh Radh (edited March 21, 2001).]
 
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Let�s answer in reversed order. First, I have no idea about Java Swing, I do not have any industry Java experience either, so do not expect any good advice from me!
I need to get a good grip on Swing and JDBC before next Monday.
What can I say? That's the life...
I have no idea what you meant by creating a study group.
Ha-ha-ha! Rajesh, I have no idea what I meant either! I have often seen people�s posts in SCJP forum: �Study group in XXX city� or smth like this and always wonder: what the heck they are doing in their study groups? Well, I decided that the the most important part of the business is to proclaim that the study group exists, then we will see... Seriously, yes, exchanging doubts and discussing them will be probably the main activity. I know that Roseanne Zhang has a very good study group for Java Developer certification, I will ask her to give a speech on what are the main benefits of study groups.
Right now I have the following ideas:
1) during our preparations we should keep track on what resources (books and sites) were most useful; which topics are easy and which are most difficult. This way we can outline the most effective learning path. Ajith already paved the way and made our job easier
2) we can compose learning notes and exchange them. I found quite a few useful sites, but they all are not complete. I would like to compose something close to Velmurugan notes for SCJP exam. We could then publish them for community benefits, but I am not sure about copyright issues.
3) we can write mock exams. It is difficult to create a good mock, but I think we can make it of acceptable quality. Even not the best mocks for SCJP exam are still useful. Ajith said there is only one �mock� for IBM 140, authored by IBM itself . It gives good idea about exam, but it doesn�t test topics exhaustively. We could help each other here.

[This message has been edited by Mapraputa Is (edited March 21, 2001).]
 
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To Ajith:

If you have any specific question related to the certification itself, I'll be glad to help you out. Just stand up and ask


Well, Ajith, you are not going to send us real exam question, are you? So what are you useful for?
Ha-ha-ha! Kidding.
There is one question.
In your classic text: �How to prepare, take and pass IBM-140 exam� you said: �The books XML Bible and Inside XML do not teach much on XML design, applying XML to a specific domain, testing and implementation etc. There are many questions specific on how XML technology can be applied to different industrial domains like, financial institutions, e-bussiness, b2b, legacy systems etc. You need to perhaps refer to some other books.�
Is there any specificity in applying XML solutions to financial institutions or e-bussiness, for example? My understanding that the line of demarcation doesn�t go along industrial domains; there are certain classes of tasks, like static publishing or dynamic publishing (sorry for sloppy terminology), which can occur in any domain and our mission is to figure them out of information provided in a question? Knowledge about in which domain the task happened to occur can give a clue, but doesn�t 100% determine a design solution. Please, correct me if I am wrong.

[This message has been edited by Mapraputa Is (edited March 21, 2001).]
 
Ajith Kallambella
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Fortunately, you are not required to be familiar with idiosyncrasies of various application domains. The questions related to information modelling usually will begin with a long but quite descriptive (and clear) problem statement. This will be followed by one or many questions that test your ability to apply the XML technology to arrive at an optimal solution.
For example ( this is not a real question - I just made it up )
Problem :
North American Real Estate Associates, a realtor agency would like to convert their inventory listings into XML format. Until now, they used a commercial application to retrive the information from the database and render it to their clients in the HTML format.
Apart from being able to supply the inventory information to various different clients( web, handheld, wireless devices etc, ), the new XML-based system should also allow numerous real-estate agents across the country to send their local inventory listings to a central application. The new listings and/or update of existing listings will arrive by email as an XML document. A processing application is required to be designed that will analyze the incoming XML documents once everyday and will bring up to date the master database.

Question 1 : Which of the following components is LEAST likely to be included in the design?
(Select the best answer. )

  • An XML parser that processes incoming emails.
  • A web agent that allows field agents query information online.
  • An application to email inventory listings to various agents in XML format.
  • An XSL stylesheet for rendering information on to wireless devices.


  • Question 2 : The company would like to be able to print the listings and give hardcopies to their clients. Implementing the printing functionality is MOST likely to require:

      (Select the best answer. )
    • Changes to the XML parsing process.
    • A change to the XML rendering process and/or XSL stylesheets.
    • An enhancement to the DTD for inventory listings.
    • Adjustments to the XPath expressions that retrieve specific listings from the XML documents.


    • Question 3 : Which of the following is MOST likely to be implied by this architecture?
      (Select the best answer. )

      • Validating the incoming XML document(s) using a DTD and a valiating parser.
      • Using static transformations instead of on-the-fly output generation for rendering the XML documents.
      • Using a SQL modeller to query different parts of the XML document.
      • Using SAX parser API for performance reasons for parsing the incoming documents.

      • Question 4 : Which of the following should NOT be relied upon to locate information of interest when querying the inventory listing XML documents?

        • The element type of an element.
        • An attribute value specified on an element start tag.
        • A processing instruction contained by the element of interest.
        • Comments on the element declaration for the element of interest.


        • Question 5 : Which of the following statements is TRUE with respect to the task of validating the incoming XML document ?
          (Select the best answer. )

          • No validation needs to be done since the incoming emails are from trusted partners.
          • A validating parser is necessary to ensure that incoming documents are well-formed.
          • Validating parsers should be used for testing only and and should not be used in production for performance reasons.
          • Using mixed content modelling for DTDs facilitates maximum flexibility since DTDs can be changed without affecting the validity of existing XML documens.


          • Question 6 : Which of the following is the BEST approach for storing the listing information ?
            (Select the best answer. )

            • Separate XML documents should be used one for each inventory listing.
            • All inventory listings should be combined into a large single XML document.
            • Storing the information in a relational database and being able to generate XML documents on the fly allows maximum flexibility.
            • How to store the information really depends on the parser used by the application.

            • Hope this gives you an idea.
              PS : I will post the answers tomorrow!
              ------------------
              Ajith Kallambella M.
              Sun Certified Programmer for the Java�2 Platform.
              IBM Certified Developer - XML and Related Technologies, V1.
              [This message has been edited by Ajith Kallambella (edited March 27, 2001).]
 
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Ajith, you are a treasure. Period.
 
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I feel that design questions are the hardest part of the test, because
1) it makes me think, which is not typical activity for me
2) without significant partical experience meeting requirements is not so straithforward;
3) I am always afraid they imply knowledge of US specific business procedures, I do not have
4) English, English, English...
Thanks for training!!!
Let me try.
Problem :
North American Real Estate Associates, a realtor agency would like to convert their inventory listings into XML format. Until now, they used a commercial application to retrive the information from the database and render it to their clients in the HTML format.
Apart from being able to supply the inventory information to various different clients( web, handheld, wireless devices etc, ), the new XML-based system should also allow numerous real-estate agents across the country to send their local inventory listings to a central application. The new listings and/or update of existing listings will arrive by email as an XML document. A processing application is required to be designed that will analyze the incoming XML documents once everyday and will bring up to date the master database.
Question 1 : Which of the following components is LEAST likely to be included in the design?
(Select the best answer. )
1. An XML parser that processes incoming emails.
2. A web agent that allows field agents query information online.
3. An application to email inventory listings to various agents in XML format.
4. An XSL stylesheet for rendering information on to wireless devices.
Proposed answer: 3
1,2,4 were mentioned in requrements, but nothing was said about E-mailing XML documents TO agents. And what agents would do with raw XML files?
Question 2 : The company would like to be able to print the listings and give hardcopies to their clients. Implementing the printing functionality is MOST likely to require:
(Select the best answer. )
1. Changes to the XML parsing process.
2. A change to the XML rendering process and/or XSL stylesheets.
3. An they enhancement to the DTD for inventory listings.
4. Adjustments to the XPath expressions that retrieve specific listings from the XML documents.
Proposed answer: 2
1: parsing process simply loads XML document in memory, why change it?
2: that makes sense, printing is a subclass of rendering. They could have an XSL stylesheets with �color� information for HTML output and substitute it for boldness for black-and-white printers, for example.
3: They want to print an existing XML structure, so why change DTD?
4: requirements did not say that printed version will have another set of data => no need to change XPath expressions
Question 3 : Which of the following is MOST likely to be implied by this architecture?
(Select the best answer. )
1. Validating the incoming XML document(s) using a DTD and a valiating parser.
2. Using static transformations instead of on-the-fly output generation for rendering the XML documents.
3. Using a SQL modeller to query different parts of the XML document.
4. Using SAX parser API for performance reasons for parsing the incoming documents.
Proposed answer: 1
1: Looks most appealing. Of course, it is unlikely that agents write XML documents �by hand�, they probably use some software for it that produce correct output, but what if some agents forgot to make upgrade and uses outdated format?
2:Could be. But requirements stated that a database is used to store XML documents, and it is updated nobody-knows-how-often. On-the-fly output generation may be a reasonable solution. Or they could produce a static output file after each update... Probably depends on how often updates are actually made...
Anyway, it is a controversial feature.
3: have no idea what a SQL modeller is. �Pure SQL� itself was not designed to query hierarchical data and even if �a SQL modeller� is SQL extension to deal with XML documents, what parts of XML document they will query? Input files sent by E-mail? Doesn�t make sense.
4: SAX is a good choice �for extracting specific information from potentially large XML sources� Hopefully application will be designed in such a way, that agents will NOT send tonns of useless XML nodes via E-mail
Question 4 : Which of the following should NOT be relied upon to locate information of interest when querying the inventory listing XML documents?
1. The element type of an element.
2. An attribute value specified on an element start tag.
3. A processing instruction contained by the element of interest.
4. Comments on the element declaration for the element of interest.
Proposed answer: 4
Never heart about quering information based on comments. Comments are irresponsible folk.
Question 5 : Which of the following statements is TRUE with respect to the task of validating the incoming XML document ?
(Select the best answer. )
1. No validation needs to be done since the incoming emails are from trusted partners.
2. A validating parser is necessary to ensure that incoming documents are well-formed.
3. Validating parsers should be used for testing only and and should not be used in production for performance reasons.
4. Using mixed content modelling for DTDs facilitates maximum flexibility since DTDs can be changed without affecting the validity of existing XML documens.
Proposed answer: 3
1: never trust anybody!
2: A validating parser is necessary to ensure that incoming documents is valid, not just well-formed.
3. Sounds good
4. That�s make sense also, but question was about the task of validating, not about maintenance and extensibility.
Question 6 : Which of the following is the BEST approach for storing the listing information ?
(Select the best answer. )
1. Separate XML documents should be used one for each inventory listing.
2. All inventory listings should be combined into a large single XML document.
3. Storing the information in a relational database and being able to generate XML documents on the fly allows maximum flexibility.
4. How to store the information really depends on the parser used by the application.
Proposed answer: 3.
1,2: As an old realtion database lover I couldn't make another choice, but
a relational database!
4: Parser doesn't store XML files and as far as I can imagine, it can accept input XML in amy form, either as a static file, or as output of other program, database in our case.
Uuuuuf... I used all my exam time! < panic face/>
 
Rajesh Radh
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Hi All!
I took a dayoff from javaranch. I was going through Java Swing by Robert Eckstein (O'Reilly). My confidence is boosting up. I can do it from Monday!
Ajith, like Rita said, you are a treasure. There is no doubt! but I have decided not to go thru the questions that you posted at least for this week! That might distract me from what I am doing now, "Learning Swing". (Because as I said earlier, I need to start working on swing from next Monday ). I will start XML from next week. No doubt!
But I have a question. Though, the book "Java Swing by Robert Eckstein" is a good one, it was published in 1998. The author himself states that some of the terminologies and class names might be different from what is being used now. Because he wrote this when Swing was evolving and Sun was keep on changing the names then. My job is going to API docs for further checking. Do you know any latest books by O'Reilly or any other good book? I got time (10 days) to return and get a new one from B&N.
Thank you All for helping me.
Rajesh

 
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Rajesh,
In case you are interested, follow the link given below and you could find Mathew Robinson's Swing book which is available online for free.
http://manning.spindoczine.com/sbe/
P.S I know this is not the right forum for discussion on Swing, but since you asked it here, replied in this forum.
Thanks,
-hm
 
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Hema,
Thanks for the info. I will see that I am posting only XML related queries in this Thread. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
Rajesh
 
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Rajesh,
Next week is OK, we do not need to hurry. And Ajith has not posted answers yet anyway
 
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Sorry folks - my busy schedule is keeping me from posting the answers. I would like to give descriptive answers and believe me, I'm working on it. Sorry for the delay.
If I don't do it by end of tomorrow, you can call 1-800-FRAUD

------------------
Ajith Kallambella M.
Sun Certified Programmer for the Java�2 Platform.
IBM Certified Developer - XML and Related Technologies, V1.
 
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Who changed the name of this thread? Ajith, probably... I was going to ask to do it and forgot. Thanks whoever it was!
 
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Yup I changed the title!
 
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Okay, here are the answers -
Question 1 : Which of the following components is LEAST likely to be included in the design?
Answer : An application to email inventory listings to various agents in XML format.
Read the requirements. Agents send-in the XML documents. When they query for the listings they need the information to be neatly rendered, not sent back as raw XML documents. All the other options are required components.

Question 2 : The company would like to be able to print the listings and give hardcopies to their clients. Implementing the printing functionality is MOST likely to require:
Answer : A change to the XML rendering process and/or XSL stylesheets.
Parsing or DTD definition has nothing to do with the rendering process. XPath expressions help you precisely identify parts of XML document, however they don't affect the rendering process either.
Question 3 : Which of the following is MOST likely to be implied by this architecture?
Answer : Validating the incoming XML document(s) using a DTD and a valiating parser.
This is one of the fundamental concepts. A validating parser needs either a Schema or a DTD reference.
Now lets consider other answers given and see why they are wrong, or may not be quite appropriate as the first one.
Using static transformations instead of on-the-fly output generation for rendering the XML documents.
Static transformations, though quite helpful for generating quicker response, may not be the best solution here. Since the agents are expected to be continuously sending in new/updated listings, hardly any information in our system can be considered static. Since the problem definition does not state the amount of document management involved, it is better( and wise ) not to assume anything.
Using a SQL modeller to query different parts of the XML document.
This answer was given just to confuse you
Well, SQL modeller can be used to finetune SQL queries for relational databases. However it has nothing to do with XML!
Using SAX parser API for performance reasons for parsing the incoming documents.
This answer will most likely be your second guess. The statement is partially true - SAX parser API offers better performance than DOM parsing. However we don't know anything about the amount of incoming XML documents. Remember - you cannot and should not assume anything more than what is given in the problem statement. Eventhough a choice of parser should be made depending on the size of data and the need of flexibility while parsing, the statement here cannot be generalized. Hence it is not the right answer.
Question 4 : Which of the following should NOT be relied upon to locate information of interest when querying the inventory listing XML documents?
Answers :
A processing instruction contained by the element of interest.
Comments on the element declaration for the element of interest.
This question has TWO correct answers.
Processing instructions are for XML applications that process the data and do not ( should not!! ) describe the data contained in the XML itself.
And you know why Comments should not be relied upon - they can lie!
Remember to read the questions with caution. Wherever it does not say Select the best answer, there may be more than one right answer. You will have to choose all the correct answers in order to get the credit.

Question 5 : Which of the following statements is TRUE with respect to the task of validating the incoming XML document ?
Answer : Using mixed content modelling for DTDs facilitates maximum flexibility since DTDs can be changed without affecting the validity of existing XML documens.
Since this is a tricky question, lets examine the other options.
No validation needs to be done since the incoming emails are from trusted partners.
Though true, this approach is too restrictive. What if the trusted partner sends you a malformed XML document? Can happen in real life right??
A validating parser is necessary to ensure that incoming documents are well-formed.
You don't need a validating parser to check well-formedness. Validating parser( parsers with Validating feature turned on ) check for structural compliance of the XML document with respect to the Schema/DTD. Any parser( even non-validating ) should be able to check for well-formedness and that is a requirement!! Remember a malformed XML document is not an XML document. A well-formed XML document is not necessarily valid. A valid document implies well-formedness.

Validating parsers should be used for testing only and and should not be used in production for performance reasons.
No! No! No!
If you need validation, you should come to terms with performance issues. Often the cost of not validating and dealing with incongruous information surpasses the benefits of performance gains. More over, what is the use of testing with validation and turning off in production?? My boss would fire me if I did that

Using mixed content modelling for DTDs facilitates maximum flexibility since DTDs can be changed without affecting the validity of existing XML documens.
A mixed content model allows you to define an either-or pattern for elements.
For instance, if the original DTD has the definition -

assuming Residential and Commercial are other elements defined in the DTD, you can safely add another type to the mixed content model say, VacantLot.



By doing so, you will not be affecting the validity of existing XML documents. I hope you understand why

Question 6 : Which of the following is the BEST approach for storing the listing information ?
Answer :
Storing the information in a relational database and being able to generate XML documents on the fly allows maximum flexibility.
The emphasis here is for flexibility. Though storing XML files/data in relational DB is not something you are required to do, this approach easily accomadates changes in volume of data that might occur in future.
The other two options -
Separate XML documents should be used one for each inventory listing.
and
All inventory listings should be combined into a large single XML document.
sound too restrictive( note the should be clause). They may or may not be the best solution.
Also the option that says
How to store the information really depends on the parser used by the application. is simply ridiculous.

Hope I have given convincing answers. I just came back from a busy work day and I hope my fatigue has not affected my technical acumen. If you would like to contest any of my opinions, feel free!!. I only request you to bring up one issue at a time so that we can keep the discussions clean and focussed.
Cheers!
[This message has been edited by Ajith Kallambella (edited March 27, 2001).]
 
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I just started browsing your certification postings and
to me it looks like there is a long way to go. Also, I seem
to be getting back some of the SCJP exam days to my memory....
puh!........
- satya
 
Rajesh Radh
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Rita,
Did you hear from Roseanne Zhang on study groups?
Does Roseanne use JavaRanch's thread to communicate among members of the study group or some other ways? Thread's can run into pages easily and tracking information becomes a headache . Do you have any other idea for better communication among group members?
I could not start "learning XML" yet. I am "required" to learn Rational Rose for my project within a short period . But that's life!
I have allocated 3 hours per day for XML from tomorrow. Otherwise I will be keep on postponing it.
Thanks,
Rajesh
[This message has been edited by Rajesh Radh (edited March 29, 2001).]
 
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Thanks Ajith and Rajesh for starting such a wonderful discussion
about XML, I have cleared my Sun certification with 96%
and since then i was thinking to learn XML.
Since last week i am just taking the book of XML (wrox publication)with me everday from office to home and then agin back...
although its a good book but i wanted to start XML from the very basics ,So i decided to stay back in my office today and have a good start
Since last 3 hours i am going through various sirtes related to XML.
atlast i decided to check JAVARANCH which has great role in getting my certification with good score.
I was not knowing that there is a forum for XML also in
javaranch and a certification too exists for it.
Ajith Please suugest how much preparation is required for getting certification in XML
Thanks
Anurudh
 
Ajith Kallambella
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Checkout my XML Cert post - http://www.javaranch.com/ubb/Forum31/HTML/000367.html That should answer many of your queries.
Cheers!
------------------
Ajith Kallambella M.
Sun Certified Programmer for the Java�2 Platform.
IBM Certified Developer - XML and Related Technologies, V1.
 
Mapraputa Is
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Sorry for delay in posting my questions, I know Ajith was eager to answer them I decided to wait until giveaway's fever dissipates.
all my doubts are about question 5.

Validating parsers should be used for testing only and and should not be used in production for performance reasons.

I misunderstand either what �testing� means here or was the question asked with respect to the project described above or in more general sense.
Clarification needed!
Requirements said:
�A processing application is required to be designed that will analyze the incoming XML documents once everyday and will bring up to date the master database. �
From this I concluded that validating and production are two different tasks. In my understanding incoming XMLs are collected and then once a day validated and put in a database. Then they can be retrieved and rendered many times. Why is good idea to repeat validating every time production occurs?.

Using mixed content modelling for DTDs facilitates maximum flexibility since DTDs can be changed without affecting the validity of existing XML documens.

I felt this is right but has less significance than the previous option.
Testing and producton happen every day, but there was no evidence that DTDs can be ever changed. Of course, we should assume that they may be changed, but requirements did not said it explicitely. Since I had to select the best answer, I prefered 3rd over 4th , although both are right in certain circumstances.
One more question, Ajith, what do you mean by �mixed content model�?
From what I read: if only childs are presented like in your example:

- it�s element content. Mixed content is when both character data and elements are alowed, like in this declaration:

#PCDATA is what indicates mixed content model.
Maybe you used �mixed content� in less strict sense...

[This message has been edited by Mapraputa Is (edited March 30, 2001).]
 
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To Rajesh:
Did you hear from Roseanne Zhang on study groups?
Yes, this what she said: �I guess a study group need: 1) a or several leader(s) 2) a common interest on certain topic(s) 3) a mailing list 4) Time to meet or online only�
1) As we are such a small group we probably do not need a formal leader. We can substitute a formal leader with our genuine enthusiasm .
2) no problem
3) a mailing list. Again, right now it seems redundant. Of course in the future, when our group will become huge... Ok, ok, back to the earth...
4) actual meeetings are hard to arrange due to significant distance but online meetings already happen here. I think we can misuse this forum for our proprietary goals, to attract others. You see � we already attracted anurudh gupta, although I am not sure why we need him (is he �he�?) with his 96% if our own SCJP IQ is only 93,5%. Kidding!
Does Roseanne use JavaRanch's thread to communicate among members of the study group or some other ways?
No, she has her own site: Dallas SCJD Study Group.
 
Ajith Kallambella
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I misunderstand either what �testing� means here or was the question asked with respect to the project described above or in more general sense.
Clarification needed


"Testing" and "Production" were used here in the context of a typical project development lifecycle. Analysis, Design, Implementation, etc are other phases in SDLC(Software Development Life Cycle ). "Production" happens when the real application goesonline - aka final product release. So it is not an event ( as production occuring ) rather, it is a stage in the SDLC.


.... but there was no evidence that DTDs can be ever changed


Yes, this was never stated in the requirements explicitly. But as a designer, you should remember to design for the future. Rigidity, Fragility, Immobility are the qualities of bad design.


Maybe you used �mixed content� in less strict sense...


Yes, you are right. But if you think about it, the "content" cannot not always be PCDATA. Elements are content too.

Bottom line - Eventhough the requirements stateted in the problem definition is what you should use to answer the questions that follow it, do not preclude questions about general principles of application design that uses XML, information modelling etc. just because they are not a part of the problem definition.
Cheers!

------------------
Ajith Kallambella M.
Sun Certified Programmer for the Java�2 Platform.
IBM Certified Developer - XML and Related Technologies, V1.
 
Madhav Lakkapragada
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just resurrecting this thread also, incase anyone is
interested in the discussion.
regds.
- satya
 
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