What's Next? (Java & XML, 2nd Edition)

9.5. What's Next?

Because JAXP is an abstraction layer on top of the APIs already discussed in the earlier chapters, there's no need to go into "Advanced JAXP." Additionally, the JAXP concepts are simple enough to not warrant an additional chapter. With this tour through the various "low-level" Java and XML APIs, you should have all the hammers and wrenches needed for your XML programming.

However, there's certainly more to XML than low-level APIs these days. In addition to vertical applications of XML, there are a number of high-level APIs coming out that build on top of the concepts (and APIs) in the first half of this book to provide more convenience to the developer. These more specific concepts and programming tools are the backbone of the second half of this book. I'll begin the discussion in Chapter 10, "Web Publishing Frameworks" by talking about presentation frameworks, something that provides a lot of eye candy on top of XML. Read on, and we'll all be graphic designers for a chapter or so.