Conclusion

In this chapter, we examined the building blocks of XML and explored the rationale behind XML readers and writers—a new and innovative way to perform basic operations on XML data sources. In the .NET Framework, XML readers introduce a database-like cursor model to navigate through data. The cursor model falls somewhere between the well-known XMLDOM and SAX models. Not as expensive as XMLDOM and more programmer-friendly than SAX, the .NET Framework cursor model presents XML as just another data format you can work on using a familiar approach.

As a developer, you are certainly familiar with I/O operations accomplished on a file or a database. Why should XML data sources be totally different? The node becomes just another atomic element, along with the database row or the byte. Ad hoc methods make it possible for you to move through nodes in a straightforward, effective way.

Readers and writers are not the only tools you can use to create XML-driven .NET applications. Another group of classes work according to the specification of the W3C DOM. XSLT and XPath expressions are a pair of XML-related technologies that are popular with developers and effective for arranging applications. In the .NET Framework, you find made-to-measure classes that make XML-to-XML transformation and query evaluation fast and easy.

All the XML technologies introduced in this chapter will be covered in depth in the chapters that follow, beginning with XML readers in Chapter 2.