| Except for the first and last chapters, the book is essentially a bottom-up view of the XML-driven, open systems world in which we now find ourselves . Chapter 1 describes the big picture: how XML and the Web have changed our perspective about data so that instead of regarding data as something to be stored in a database and shuttled across networks by object systems locked in a tight transport protocol embrace, data is now free (thanks to XML and its family of standards) to move about the Web and create new synergies based on asynchronous loose coupling. After the next six chapters have described the current state of the technology, Chapter 8 then takes a top-down look at where we have arrived and explores some of the new kinds of interactions to expect in environments made up of traditional client-server networks, even more traditional mainframe applications, and the Web. |