外文翻译5理解可扩展性标记语言XML讲述.doc

Understanding the Extensible Markup Language (XML) This appendix takes a look at the Extensible Markup Language (XML)—a superb structured document format standard that businesses are using to exchange business data. XML complements EJB nicely as well; in fact, the EJB 1.1 specification uses XML as a document format for deployment descriptors. By reading this appendix, you will learn the following: ■■ Why businesses need XML ■■ The core concepts behind XML programming ■■ How EJB and XML are related (which we’ll expand upon in Appendix D, covering EJB 1.1) XML is an extremely important technology for the Internet, and it is destined to become the de-facto standard for structuring document content. If you already know XML, feel free to skip to the second half of this appendix, where we discuss how XML and EJB are related. Otherwise, read on, and we will explain XML from the ground-up. This appendix explains enough XML for you to begin programming with EJB 1.1. For a full tour of XML, see the book’s accompanying Web site for links to external resources. Business Needs for XML We begin by studying the needs of the business community that make XML such a useful standard. Why is XML important? What business problems does it solve? Why did we need to create XML rather than use existing technology? Those are the questions we will answer in this section. Electronic Commerce The business need for a standard such as XML has arisen with the advent of electronic commerce (also called e-commerce, e-business, or your favorite buzzword). When most people hear the word “electronic commerce”, they usually think of Web storefronts that you can visit to purchase goods electronically. This is called business-to-consumer e-commerce because a business is conducting a transaction with a consumer. Examples of business-to-consumer Web sites are A (), B (), and carO (www.carO). But e-commerce extends beyond simply the business-to-consumer model. For instance, an online aucti