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XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language and is a new Internet standard from the W3C that provides a way of defining the structure of data content, separate from any layout controls. It allows you to define your own tags with their own specific meaning. An example XML document might look like this:

<?xml version="1.0"?><BOOKLIST><BOOK><TITLE>XML IE5</TITLE><AUTHOR><FIRST_NAME>Alex</FIRST_NAME><LAST_NAME>Homer</LAST_NAME></AUTHOR><PUBLISHER>Wrox</PUBLISHER><ISBN>1-861001-57-6</ISBN></BOOK></BOOKLIST>

This book is intended as an introduction to XML, both generally and how it is supported in Internet Explorer 5. Document Type Definitions and XML Schemas are covered, explaining how XML documents are structured and linked together, before going on to discuss the XML Document Object Model and the ways in which it can be manipulated to provide dynamic client-side content and interactivity.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and the eXtensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) are also introduced, which provide a means of controlling how the data in XML documents is presented to the user in the browser.

The final third of the book is given over to appendices, which contain thorough reference material on the Document Object Model and XSL, etc. Throughout the book hands-on code examples are given, along with links to the publisher's website where updates and further source code examples are available for download.

The book works well as both an introduction to XML for the newcomer as well as a reference book they will turn to again and again. Highly recommended.